DW Fic: Data Compression
Fandom: DOCTOR WHO
Title: Data Compression
Series: A Good Old Normal, Human Life
Word Count: 3431
Rating: PG-13
Summary: The Master and John take a detour from saving their universes to pay Donna and Wilf a visit. The Master may have a little brainwave regarding Donna's condition and John isn't really feeling the 'share and share alike' philosophy.
Pairings: TenII/(Alt)Master
Character/s: The (Human) Doctor, Harold Saxon/Master, Wilf, Donna
A/N: This fic is part of a series but can be read stand alone.
Most screen caps from the sonic biro site and the power of google-fu
This fic is also posted over at AO3 if you prefer
“What are you doing?” the Master asked as he watched John scurry around the controls of the Tardis. They’d just blinked into existence in the parallel universe or rather John’s universe, when he had span in to action. “Aren’t we supposed to be saving the universe and all that?” he asked when the Tardis’ engines fired up again.
“Just a slight detour,” John murmured in response. The Master walked up to where John stood at the console and stopped just behind him. He watched his breath rustle the hairs on the back of John’s neck for a moment before he stepped even closer and looked over John’s shoulder. “Chiswick?”
They stopped with a jolt; the Master just caught himself hands braced against the console either side of John.
“We won’t be long,” John said, irritatingly unfazed by the Master’s proximity.
“Isn’t this where your friend lives, Diana? Dora?”
“Donna,” John huffed.
“Right,” the Master replied with a smirk. John turned his head round to look at the Master with impatience. The Master bit back a smile and glanced round the Tardis with an interested air.
“Well?” John said eventually.
The Master turned back to him deliberately slowly. “Oh, sorry. Am I in your way?” He took a step back and waved his arm for John to move. John rolled his eyes and began toward the door, the Master followed him leisurely.
He watched as John threw the Tardis door opened and took a slight step back as the rain fell inside the Tardis doorway. Determined set to his shoulders, John turned up his collar and stepped outside. The Master rolled his eyes and rooted around for a moment under the central console. With a hum of triumph he pulled out a large black umbrella and made his way to the door.
The Master carefully stretched his arm and the umbrella out in to the rain and opened it up before he stepped out underneath it and pulled the door shut behind him.
***
Wilf gaped at them, to be fair John did look rather ridiculous soaked to skin with rain as he was. Ridiculous and, other things.
“Hello Wilfred, how are you?” John asked with a ridiculous grin, the Master could just tell even though John was standing in front him.
“Worried I might be losing my marbles! You’re supposed to be dead!” he exclaimed.
“I am?” John asked. “Well be that as it may...” he trailed off. Wilf stared at him wide-eyed. The Master sighed and finally lifted the umbrella over John’s head and smiled disarmingly at Wilf.
“Perhaps we could come inside and he can explain it all to you,” he said and rested a hand on John’s soggy shoulder.
“You!” Wilf said angrily upon glancing at the Master’s face. He seemed torn between taking a step back in retreat or forward to attack.
“You know him?” John asked.
“He shouldn’t?” the Master asked with disinterest as he glanced down at his fingernails.
“I suppose since I left something could have...” he trailed off. “You’re dead here though,” he said after a pause.
The Master stepped forward and pressed his should against John’s. “Perhaps we can come inside and explain?” he repeated.
“I-”
“He’s harmless Wilf, I promise,” John said with a smile. The Master snorted but otherwise remained quiet.
“I s’pose you’d better come in then,” Wilf said and finally let them inside the house.
***
The Master headed straight for the kettle when Wilf led them to the kitchen, Wilf and John sat down at the dining table. The Master rooted around the cupboards for a mug and tea whilst Wilf explained to John what the Doctor had done to Donna’s memories.
“Typical,” he tutted when Wilf finished and felt John’s glare hot on his back. He shared his victorious grin with the kettle.
“Did the Doctor explain exactly what happened when Donna got all that information downloaded into her head?” John asked.
“Meta-something,” Wilf responded as the Master found a spoon and dropped it into his mug with a clatter of metal against china.
“Meta-crisis, and the information in her mind wasn’t the only side effect,” the Doctor continued. “I was the other.”
The Master finally turned round, having added milk and water to his mug and removed the tea bag. He leant against the counter and blew on the tea as he observed Wilf’s reaction.
“You?”
“Yep, a human time lord. A little bit of Donna and the Doctor mixed together,” he smiled again. He smiled at Wilf far too much the Master decided; he needed to reserve some of those smiles for himself. After all he’d already cornered the market on annoyed glances, he had to move on to something else.
“So you’re not him then? He really did die?” Wilf asked a note of disappointment in his voice.
“I don’t know, he might’ve regenerated,” John replied.
“Oh he did, but he said it felt like dying.”
“That can be true I suppose, I’ve never really thought of it like that before. I don’t really need to think about it now either,” he looked down at the table top.
Sensing it was time to stop the pity party, the Master set his tea down on the table. “Are we done then?”
“No!” John objected. “How’s Donna?” he asked. “How do you know the Master?” he added. The Master listened with disinterest about the stories of Donna Noble’s rather mundane existence and paid slightly more attention to the tales of his alternate’s exploits.
“Huh,” John commented when Wilf finished.
“What?” the Master found himself asking with curiosity.
“At least he was,” he paused. “At least you were there near the end.”
“He was mad!” The Master objected.
“In this Universe, the Master was always mad. It didn’t mean I felt any differently, it was just more difficult. I always thought of him as my friend; and you aren’t so different, not really.”
The Master didn’t know what to object to first; the fact that he was apparently easier to deal with than his alternate (despite his best efforts thus far to drive John up the wall) or that he was apparently startlingly similar to a man who had been driven mad by the constant noise of drumming inside his skull.
Wilf beat him to it.
“You said he isn’t evil!”
“He’s helping to save both our universes. So he’s not evil, not really. Just a little power hungry and self absorbed,” he added with a pointed look at the Master’s mug of tea.
“I can be evil if I want,” the Master responded indignantly, and took an extra large sip of tea before he set the mug down on the table and slid into a seat next to John.
“And apparently you can’t live without me in any universe, evil, insane or otherwise,” he commented and ran his foot up John’s leg. John twitched but didn’t response. “Anyway,” the Master continued, landing a hand on John’s thigh. “You’re the one who sidetracked us on our very important universe saving mission to come and visit your best friend,” he sneered a little and glared at a photo of Donna sitting on a shelf over Wilf’s shoulder. “Who’s self absorbed now?”
John couldn’t seem to put an appropriate response into words and settled upon glaring at the Master. He grinned in response and gave John’s thigh a last squeeze before letting go to take another sip of tea.
“You can’t see Donna!” Wilf objected.
“We know, her mind would burn. I just wanted-”
“Actually,” the Master interrupted. “I’ve had an idea about that.”
“What kind of idea?” John asked with a frown.
“Basically you’ve got a data storage problem right? And hardware that’s not quite up to scratch. You need to wipe her memories and make her completely human again,” he continued. “Although it might be useful if she could remember who she is, so we want to erase specific memories and retain others. We just happen to have a device that can do just that on my Tardis, don’t we John?”
“The chameleon arch,” John smiled in response. “It’s designed for timelords though.”
“We can scan her; modify it as we need to.”
“But they’re designed to create false memories, new memories.”
“Mine obviously wasn’t, we can study it and figure out how to make it work for your friend.”
“You’d do that for her?” Wilf asked quietly, like he couldn’t quite believe that the Master would help out a complete stranger. He was right.
“No,” the Master answered. “I’d do it for him though.” John’s grin was blinding.
***
continued in Part 2 here