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

I'm gonna assume they're still in Wiltshire or thereabouts?

[syncopath]

By the time he stops long enough to be found, he's made his way to the Savernake Forest, leaving a haphazard trail of death in his wake. Bones, mostly, still smoking from recent artron activity, but occasionally scraps of clothing or drops of blood here and there. He kills indiscriminately-- men, women, children, dogs. Rats and birds. Whatever crosses his path and lingers stupidly long enough. He obviously hasn't made much of an effort to chase anything down. That's one thing in his favor, at least: he isn't being particularly malicious. Not yet.

Time Lords don't usually need the amount of regular sleep humans do. But the changes to his body, and having been half-starved for so long, have taken their toll on his endurance. Currently he's curled up at the base of a gnarled, ancient oak tree, napping fitfully.

[a-lost-wolf.livejournal.com]

"He's stopped moving," Rose said as they approached the Master's location. Once they were fairly close, they parked the van and the team climbed out moving as quietly as possible, their weapons drawn, headed toward the blinking red dot.

[syncopath]

He's never slept all that well, not since the drums started in his head. When he does they invade his dreams, twisting them until they're almost exclusively nightmares. And it's only gotten worse over time. It keeps him on edge... but it also keeps him alive, sometimes.

This would be one of those times.

The sharp pop of one twig snapping, then several more. Leaves crunching. The sound of a car door clicking shut, far too close for comfort. The Master jolts awake, crouching low to the ground and listening carefully. Footsteps, in his forest. Coming closer. The stink of humanity, nearly overpowered by the smell of petrol.

He doesn't think; he jumps, excess life force propelling him high up into the forest cover. He settles onto a sturdy branch and peers down into the darkness, staying still and silent.

[a-lost-wolf.livejournal.com]

Rose and her team get closer and closer to the blinking red dot...

Cole frowns as they approach a tree, and shows the tracking device to Rose. "I don't get it. This is where the chip signal is coming from. We should be right on top of him."

Rose bites her lip... then slowly looks up into the dark branches above them. "Or beneath him..."

[syncopath]

As if in response, there's a sharp crackling from above... and then a bolt of electricity shoots out of the tree toward the team, like lightning gone horribly wrong.

[a-lost-wolf.livejournal.com]

There's no time to do anything but scream.

The woman who the bolt strikes nearest to falls writhing to the ground, and the medic goes to her side. Rose glares up into the branches and shouts out.

"All right! You're the one with the power here! That's what you want, isn't it? To be the Master? I'm the one you want! Leave the others alone!"

[syncopath]

A dark chuckle erupts from the dark mass of leaves and branches, echoing in the dark. He could be anywhere in that tree.

"Why would I settle for you when you've brought me so much more to eat? Torchwood Catering, right on schedule."

[a-lost-wolf.livejournal.com]

"Because you want to see the Doctor, just as much as I do! And if you harm anyone else, you'll die here, in this universe, having never seen him again."

[syncopath]

A strange pause, and then "Oh? Is that a promise? All that talk, Rose Tyler. But I'm still winning."

There's another blue flash, but this time there's no bolt of energy-- just the tiniest of gasps. Short, sharp, pained.

[a-lost-wolf.livejournal.com]

Rose scoured the branches, but all she could see was darkness.

"You can't keep on like this, can you?" she called out. "Come down, and we'll go find the Doctor together."

[syncopath]

The Master snorts, derisively. She must think he's especially thick. "And then what? You hand me over? You and your team make good on your promise to destroy me? I don't think so."

[a-lost-wolf.livejournal.com]

"Or we could just stay here until you starve to death... or fall out of the tree."

[syncopath]

"Or..." The tree glows faintly as the sound of crackling electricity fills the air.

"I pick off the rest of you, one by one. Starting with... mmm, how about the medic?"

[a-lost-wolf.livejournal.com]

All the agents trained their weapons upward.

"Go ahead," Rose countered. "We'll get you eventually."

[syncopath]

"D'you think?" the Master muses idly, before a second stab of lightning strikes down, aiming in the direction of the medic and the unconscious woman he's tending. He did give fair warning.

[a-lost-wolf.livejournal.com]

The medic screams, as the rest of the agents open fire toward the source of the beam.

[syncopath]

And the Master leaps high into the air, landing in another nearby tree with a crash and firing another bolt.

[a-lost-wolf.livejournal.com]

This one went wide, and Rose and the two other agents still up kept firing. Rose was hoping to knock him out of the tree, injured but alive, but she would settle for killing him if need be to protect her team.

[syncopath]

He's laughing, darting from tree to tree, knowing the humans below are far too slow to ever hit him with their inferior and unimaginative weapons. But something else is happening, something he hasn't paused long enough to realize yet: all of this flitting around and and firing blast after blast has been taking a tremendous toll on his life force.

The Master lands in another tangle of branches, and stumbles, flashing to bone again. He abruptly stops laughing, his face one of bewilderment as he clings to a tree branch just in time to keep from falling.

[a-lost-wolf.livejournal.com]

Rose gasps a little bit when she sees that flash to bone, but it's the only reaction she has time for. The team give the Master no rest, determined to continue their fire until their chambers are empty.

[syncopath]

A bullet manages to wing him as he recovers, grazing his shoulder. The Master growls in indignation, retreating further into the tree and trying to think. He's hampered, slowed down and outgunned, even with the knowledge that the idiots below are probably shooting blind. He needs to eat and replenish his energy stores. And he doubts he'll get very far going for one of Torchwood's flunkies.

The Master leaps again, aiming for escape into one of the trees beyond the clearing... and that's when the artron energy propelling him finally sputters out. He misses by a good few meters, crashing through the leaf cover and landing with a dull thud.

[a-lost-wolf.livejournal.com]

Rose and the other two run to the downed Master, and Rose pulls a syringe from her pocket.

"Tyler," growls one of the others, "we should just shoot him."

"No," Rose says, shaking her head as she plunges the needle into the Master's neck and injects the sedative. "I want answers."

[syncopath]

The Master is little more than a shuddering heap on the forest floor, little sparks of blue running over his body as if he were a faulty circuit. He doesn't respond to the crowd of people around him, nor the suggestion to kill him, but the shuddering slows and eventually ceases once Rose sedates him. The Master goes limp, the eerie blue light still washing over him from time to time.

Time passes...

[a-lost-wolf.livejournal.com]

They return to base, and by the time the aster awakens, he's shackled to one of three stone walls of a cell. The fourth wall is glass, through which he can see a weary Rose Tyler, sitting on the floor, leaning against the glass.

[syncopath]

He's running through a forest again-- but an entirely different one this time. Even without the smells and sounds, so familiar that it aches, the silver foliage tells him that it's Gallifrey. It's home.

Never mind that most of that silver is quite literally catching fire now, no longer simply a trick of the setting suns. In the air, the acrid stink of war, the stench of decay. In his head, the echo of shrill voices-- some Dalek, some Time Lord. Some species he's never even heard of. All trying to escape and lay claim to Time itself.

The drums (they never went away, not even after the link was severed) suddenly peak, spiking through his conscious mind, and he screams, stumbles. They're coming to find him. They're coming to find him and he can't hide.

"No!--"

The Master wakes with a start, rattling the shackles against the stone floor. When he catches sight of Rose Tyler through the glass, he closes his eyes and lets out a long breath, in some combination of relief and annoyance.