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Fic: Mrs Saxon's Diary. Part 5/?
Here you go - I hope you enjoy. Have I mentioned recently how much I adore The Master? If not, then this ought to confirm it yet again. :) (Hopefully you'll be able to see the story through all the meta...)
Setting: Around 15 months pre-'Sound of Drums'
Spoilers: End of S3.
Pairing: Lucy/Harry.
Rating: PG-13.
Previous parts here.
Mrs Saxon's Diary. Part 5
I can’t describe - or explain - what I saw in Utopia. Not yet anyway. That part is all too raw and terrible. But in an attempt to formulate how it affected me, I will instead put down a story I heard many years ago. It is probably not true, but its significance suddenly struck me.
It centered around a medical student at a hospital. One day a man was brought in, horribly mangled. The student was one of those who helped mend him, which took a very long time. But finally, after a year or so, the man was fit and healthy again - everything healed. It was a miracle of medicine. But - when he walked out of the hospital he was run over by a bus and killed in an instant. So the medical student decided that being a doctor was pointless, and instead became a Polar explorer.
Humankind is that man... we fuss over everything, trying to fix things, clinging to life - but why? What is the point? I have seen how it ends.
~~~
When we returned to the TARDIS I couldn’t speak. The Master pulled me close and just held me silently. After a long moment he pulled away, and carefully lifted my face to look at me.
“I’m going to save them,” he said and I could only stare at him, wide-eyed.
“How?” I breathed, and he smiled - that bright, self-assured smile of his.
“I’ll tell you - but not here.” He thought for a moment. “Listen, there’s a wardrobe through there... go find yourself a pretty summer frock of some kind, and I’ll take us somewhere nice.”
He then gave me rather complicated directions, but I only got lost twice and soon enough was back in the main control room. I found it empty, the door open - and when I went outside I realised that we were on the most stunning beach I’d ever seen.
“Where are we?” I asked, and Harry looked up from the blanket where he was sitting next to a full hamper. “The Caribbean,” he replied. “Come - have a drink and something to eat.”
Utterly thrown I sat down next to him, and he poured me a glass of champagne.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” he asked, a wave of his hand encompassing the perfect white sand of the beach, the deep blue of the sea and the palm trees swaying above us.
“Yes,” I whispered; the darkness, terror and despair I had so recently seen still clinging to me, like a nightmare. Except it had been real.
Then he raised his glass, and looked at me - that same look in his eyes as the very first night I had met him.
“To the end of the world!” he said, smiling, and I just stared, astonished.
He laughed and shook his head. “The end of this world, dear Lucy. That’s how I will save them. I’ll bring them here.”
“Here?” I asked, looking around at the idyll surrounding us. I could feel the soft breeze through my hair, the sand beneath my feet, the sun warming my skin... and yet nothing felt real.
Gently he sifted some sand between his fingers, watching as it blew away.
“Let me tell you a story about a Doctor,” he said, and I nodded.
The story was long, but I could listen to him all day. And finding out about his past - his long, long life before I met him - was terrifying and awe-inspiring.
“You see Lucy, he needs a lesson. He and his little pet humans that he is forever trying to ‘save’. I will save them too, save them far more thoroughly than he ever has, even as I wipe them out.”
I shuddered in the warmth, both at what his words implied, and at the other, worse, fate. As his words sunk in, I couldn’t help asking: “But why - why do you want to save them? The people of Utopia? What makes them so special?”
He holds humankind in such contempt, mostly, being so very far above us, and I couldn’t understand it. Was it just because he could? Because they would help him take over the world?
“Because they’re mine,” he replied, a strange light in his eyes. “I spent... a lifetime helping them - humbly, and pointlessly, aiding them to reach Utopia, never receiving a single moment’s recognition for my talents. They didn’t understand how gifted I was... even I didn’t. But they will now. My name will be on their lips, and I will be their Master, their Saviour.”
“But... you will destroy the world?”
“Shame, isn’t it? It is so very pretty.” He let his eyes travel over the beauty around us, face melancholy, but then shrugged.
“Still - in 500 years time this beach will be gone, and a giant plastics factory take up the entire coastline. Humans are excellent at destroying what they have, really I’ll just give them a helping hand. Nothing lasts, Lucy, nothing. But I will change that. My Empire will continue to the end of time itself. Will you help me? Will you be by my side? My dear Lucy-”
He stopped, tilted his head and just looked, like he could see inside my soul, “-will you marry me?”
It was a heart stopping moment. For the tiniest moment I hesitated, as my thoughts were going in circles in my head: The terrors I had seen, the terror he would unleash - and yet I knew.
How often have I wondered these last few months about his motives as concerns me? Was I just a distraction? A test subject? Something to keep boredom away? He could have any woman in the world, what did he want with me? And now I know. He has chosen me - me out of 6 billion people - to be by his side. To be his partner, his wife... So how could I not choose him too?
“Yes,” I answered. “Of course I will.”
And his kiss tasted of Champagne and eternity.
Part 6
A/N: The story about the medical student is true. It's the story of Peter Freuchen, whose books I read years ago. It sprung to my mind when I wrote this, as particularly appropriate.
Setting: Around 15 months pre-'Sound of Drums'
Spoilers: End of S3.
Pairing: Lucy/Harry.
Rating: PG-13.
Previous parts here.
Mrs Saxon's Diary. Part 5
I can’t describe - or explain - what I saw in Utopia. Not yet anyway. That part is all too raw and terrible. But in an attempt to formulate how it affected me, I will instead put down a story I heard many years ago. It is probably not true, but its significance suddenly struck me.
It centered around a medical student at a hospital. One day a man was brought in, horribly mangled. The student was one of those who helped mend him, which took a very long time. But finally, after a year or so, the man was fit and healthy again - everything healed. It was a miracle of medicine. But - when he walked out of the hospital he was run over by a bus and killed in an instant. So the medical student decided that being a doctor was pointless, and instead became a Polar explorer.
Humankind is that man... we fuss over everything, trying to fix things, clinging to life - but why? What is the point? I have seen how it ends.
When we returned to the TARDIS I couldn’t speak. The Master pulled me close and just held me silently. After a long moment he pulled away, and carefully lifted my face to look at me.
“I’m going to save them,” he said and I could only stare at him, wide-eyed.
“How?” I breathed, and he smiled - that bright, self-assured smile of his.
“I’ll tell you - but not here.” He thought for a moment. “Listen, there’s a wardrobe through there... go find yourself a pretty summer frock of some kind, and I’ll take us somewhere nice.”
He then gave me rather complicated directions, but I only got lost twice and soon enough was back in the main control room. I found it empty, the door open - and when I went outside I realised that we were on the most stunning beach I’d ever seen.
“Where are we?” I asked, and Harry looked up from the blanket where he was sitting next to a full hamper. “The Caribbean,” he replied. “Come - have a drink and something to eat.”
Utterly thrown I sat down next to him, and he poured me a glass of champagne.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” he asked, a wave of his hand encompassing the perfect white sand of the beach, the deep blue of the sea and the palm trees swaying above us.
“Yes,” I whispered; the darkness, terror and despair I had so recently seen still clinging to me, like a nightmare. Except it had been real.
Then he raised his glass, and looked at me - that same look in his eyes as the very first night I had met him.
“To the end of the world!” he said, smiling, and I just stared, astonished.
He laughed and shook his head. “The end of this world, dear Lucy. That’s how I will save them. I’ll bring them here.”
“Here?” I asked, looking around at the idyll surrounding us. I could feel the soft breeze through my hair, the sand beneath my feet, the sun warming my skin... and yet nothing felt real.
Gently he sifted some sand between his fingers, watching as it blew away.
“Let me tell you a story about a Doctor,” he said, and I nodded.
The story was long, but I could listen to him all day. And finding out about his past - his long, long life before I met him - was terrifying and awe-inspiring.
“You see Lucy, he needs a lesson. He and his little pet humans that he is forever trying to ‘save’. I will save them too, save them far more thoroughly than he ever has, even as I wipe them out.”
I shuddered in the warmth, both at what his words implied, and at the other, worse, fate. As his words sunk in, I couldn’t help asking: “But why - why do you want to save them? The people of Utopia? What makes them so special?”
He holds humankind in such contempt, mostly, being so very far above us, and I couldn’t understand it. Was it just because he could? Because they would help him take over the world?
“Because they’re mine,” he replied, a strange light in his eyes. “I spent... a lifetime helping them - humbly, and pointlessly, aiding them to reach Utopia, never receiving a single moment’s recognition for my talents. They didn’t understand how gifted I was... even I didn’t. But they will now. My name will be on their lips, and I will be their Master, their Saviour.”
“But... you will destroy the world?”
“Shame, isn’t it? It is so very pretty.” He let his eyes travel over the beauty around us, face melancholy, but then shrugged.
“Still - in 500 years time this beach will be gone, and a giant plastics factory take up the entire coastline. Humans are excellent at destroying what they have, really I’ll just give them a helping hand. Nothing lasts, Lucy, nothing. But I will change that. My Empire will continue to the end of time itself. Will you help me? Will you be by my side? My dear Lucy-”
He stopped, tilted his head and just looked, like he could see inside my soul, “-will you marry me?”
It was a heart stopping moment. For the tiniest moment I hesitated, as my thoughts were going in circles in my head: The terrors I had seen, the terror he would unleash - and yet I knew.
How often have I wondered these last few months about his motives as concerns me? Was I just a distraction? A test subject? Something to keep boredom away? He could have any woman in the world, what did he want with me? And now I know. He has chosen me - me out of 6 billion people - to be by his side. To be his partner, his wife... So how could I not choose him too?
“Yes,” I answered. “Of course I will.”
And his kiss tasted of Champagne and eternity.
Part 6
A/N: The story about the medical student is true. It's the story of Peter Freuchen, whose books I read years ago. It sprung to my mind when I wrote this, as particularly appropriate.
no subject
OMG a new reader! *fawns* Thank you lots and lots for your kind words - Lucy is such an opaque character that it's hard to work out what's going on in her head. And yet at the same time that's a wonderful challenge to explore. I'm very pleased that you think my take works!
I like that she has chosen the Master freely, it makes for a much better story.
Oh yes. And I think we see that very clearly on screen - the question then of course becomes 'why?'
I also think that it was important to him that she be his companion and not a minion.
After all this time, he's finally learned something from the Doctor - that love (however twisted) is the best way of ensuring loyalty.
Of course, being the Master, he does it by showing her the end of the universe knowing that it would break her.
I *adore* all the mirroring between the Master and the Doctor - especially when it comes to Rose/Lucy.
Great last line.
Thanks! :)
no subject
Yes, the mirroring adds so much depth to the end of the season. And though Rose comes to mind most easily, one thing I love about the Doctor is how he inspires most everyone he meets (even those he's an ass to like Mickey). The Master may have learned how to use love, but I don't think he'll ever really understand it.
no subject
In which case, welcome and it's lovely to see you! :)
And though Rose comes to mind most easily, one thing I love about the Doctor is how he inspires most everyone he meets (even those he's an ass to like Mickey).
*nods a lot* He makes people better, makes them care (there is of course Rose's speech in 'Parting of the Ways' that beautifully sums this up). Jack being another prime example.
The Master may have learned how to use love, but I don't think he'll ever really understand it.
He uses love as a weapon, to hurt or control (he's very Angelus-like in that sense), but I think you're right - he can't grasp what it really means. Oh! I know what it reminds me of:
HAMILTON: Why do you keep fighting? You signed away your Shanshu. There's nothing in it for you anymore.
ANGEL: People who don't care about anything will never understand the people who do.
HAMILTON: Yeah, but we won't care.
:)