taxonomites Fourth Wall Event

[allthatlife]

Martha had seen a lot of arrivals since being brought to Taxon - and almost as many departures - but, in the past, they'd always been spaced out. What were the hamsters trying to achieve this time? Was this some kind of special treat or were they just causing trouble? Again

Comments

Here's a totally random Master to fourth-wall at you! :D

[ofdrumsthesound]

Martha Martha Martha Jones. It . . . hasn't been nearly long enough.

The best kind! :P

[allthatlife]

"I could say the same to you, Saxon."

She refused, point blank, to use his other name. It was a title that he didn't deserve, despite everything he'd done to try and earn it.

Folding her arms over her chest, Martha regarded the image on the screen with distaste and distrust. Somehow, she managed to conceal the prickle of fear that ran up her spine at the sound of his all too familiar voice. It had haunted her nightmares for a year. Occasionally, it still did.

"What do you want?"

[ofdrumsthesound]

I'm bored as Hell and you're someone to talk to. Even if we hate each other.

. . . so, you like my new hair?

[allthatlife]

If that was the case, it was probably a good job that he was talking to her. She could imagine the sort of thing he'd do when he was bored all too well. Keeping him distracted might actually save a few lives.

"I don't think blonde suits you."

[ofdrumsthesound]

*Yeah, probably.*

Yeah, I know. But it won't change back, now. Side effect of the latest ressurrection.

[allthatlife]

"That explains why you didn't regenerate," she said, her voice soft but still furious. She was a doctor and she didn't wish death on anyone, but the Master? The Master complicated things. "You knew you'd be able to come back."

It made sense. Someone as inherently selfish as the Master wouldn't throw away his life like that. What was the point of beating the Doctor if he couldn't see his reaction, after all?

[ofdrumsthesound]

Not for certain. I knew it was likely, but it was worth the risk.

If only because the drums went quiet for a little while.

[allthatlife]

Only someone like the Master - someone who treated life and death, whether it was his own or someone else's - as a game - would have made a gamble like that. Martha shook her head in disgust.

"So they're back now?"

She couldn't pity him, despite what she'd heard and what she'd pieced together about the drums. Pitying him would be dangerous, because he certainly wouldn't hesitate to use it against her if she gave him the opening.

She couldn’t pity him, but she was curious.

[ofdrumsthesound]

Oh yes. Louder than ever.

If you could only hear them for a minute you would excuse everything I've done and more, Martha. If you had to listen for a day, your human mind would shatter and you'd join me gladly.

[allthatlife]

"No, I wouldn't."

She managed to answer calmly, without snapping at him or recoiling in disgust at the suggestion. She spoke firmly and confidently, but not sharply. She spoke truthfully.

"They don't change what you've done. They don't excuse it. You passed up the chance to get help." Martha knew, without a doubt, that the Doctor would have done everything in his power to help his former friend, if he'd been given the chance. "That makes you responsible for what you've done."

[ofdrumsthesound]

I don't know what I'd be without them.

[allthatlife]

"You can be whoever you want to be."

Was he listening to her? Was the Master actually listening to her? It seemed like an impossible idea, though she hoped - for the Doctor's sake, if nothing else - that he was being serious.

[ofdrumsthesound]

Not who, Martha, what.

Without the drums the silence would make me scream. I can't imagine silence anymore, and it scares me.

I can understand things when I hear the drums, because hearing the drums is being alive. Without them I might well die of shock, or lapse completely into catatonia.

[allthatlife]

"Neither do I."

It was difficult - if not impossible - to tell where the child who had stared into the vortex ended and the drums started.

"But the Doctor would help, no matter how difficult it was."

A pause. Was he being honest? Because if he was, there was only one option that she could take, as a doctor and a human being and as a friend of the Doctor.

"So would I."

[ofdrumsthesound]

. . . thank you, Martha. But I'm afraid I'm too far gone.

Sorry.

For your kindness, though, I won't hurt you if I can help it.

[allthatlife]

She could - should, perhaps? - have said that she didn't believe that, but the words refused to form. She'd seen what he'd done to her planet. She'd walked across the wastelands and watched humanity clinging desperately to life against impossible odds. How could anyone come back from causing something like that? She knew what the Doctor wanted for the Master. But whether or not the Master deserved it was something else entirely.

His words sent a shiver down her spine before she could up with a proper answer.

“Thanks, but I don’t exactly find that reassuring.”