The Master: Remember [Open]

[The Master]

Thump, thump, thump, thump… the sound raged through his mind. Thump, thump, thump, thump… a never ending beat. Thump, thump, thump, thump… no end and no beginning. Thump, thump, thump, thump… this is what he heard every day, every hour, every second of his life. Thump, thump, thump, thump… but who’s life? There was something that he could not quit remember. It was something important, of that he was sure. Thump, thump, thump, thump… it wouldn’t stop and it made his mind scream in pain. Thump, thump, thump, thump… it was hard to think… to concentrate on what he was trying to remember.

It was an old, broken and unattractively old relic he held within his hands. Something from his father perhaps? He couldn’t remember, but then again he could barely remember his father. One of his students had asked him about it today and something about it nagged at him. He had never thought about it before. But now he could see it. Its odd etched designs engraved into a metallic surface. Something whispered from the dark. It was calling, and the drumming grew louder. It hurt, that endless noise in his head; so much more than before.

He sat there, the professor, professor of science at the university. A glass of scotch in one hand and the old watch in the other, he looked down at it, fingers absently tracing those designs as he sat in his office. It was pitch outside. Long had the students been gone from this place; but here he sat in silent contemplation. But the silence was misleading. The drumming was always with him and now, voices whispered.

Music thumped from somewhere outside his office window, a group of students rushed passed. Probably up to no good in the dead of night. Laughter rang in his ears, the laughter of students outside and a much darker and sinister voice from within his very own head. It disturbed him and caused him a small amount of fear. He was sure that he was finding himself falling within the dark endless realms of insanity. Slipping away into a dark, twisted, and forbidden place within his very own mind.

He studied that watch, it didn’t work. Of that detail he was sure. But how did he know? What was missing? Draining his glass he slipped it away into the dark recesses of a deep desk drawer and walking from the room and outside into the night air. It helped to clear his head, but just a little.

Thump, thump, thump, thump… what is it? What was in his head? That sound. He stood there in the night listening and then he walked; his fingers still tracing those symbols. He stopped, passersby gave him odd looks, but he was use to odd looks. He was also use to people telling him he looked like one of the past Prime Ministers. It was a running joke with many of his students. He stopped again and he looked down and lifted the watch to his face. So clearly he could see it and something whispered to him. Fingers found the clasp that held the device closed and then… click…

Golden light poured out from the small enclosure, consuming him within its glow. He let out a scream and a howl of pain. Clamping his hands to his head and falling to his knees. Thump, thump, thump, thump… it was unbearable. Long ago memories rushed over him and screams issued from him relentlessly. He didn’t want to remember. He didn’t want to hear the accursed drums. He grew angry, rage coursed through him. If he was forced to listen to these drums then everyone would. The plain was s simple, so genius. Everyone would hear them, and then he would not be alone.

He lay there on the pavement panting and practically clawing at his head. Passersby give him a wide berth. Finally he stood upon trembling legs, howling and screaming in manic fury; his eyes gone mad and a look of utter deranged insanity upon his face.

[The Ghost]

The room filled with desk and chairs only lights was coming from those attached to the celling and the light from the computer. It wasn't the first time, the man sitting behind the desk was here this late nor would it be his last. The papers were all graded, the classes to be taught tomorrow were already laid out. So what was keeping him here? After going to the bar and having a couple of beers, he found himself back in the room in an attempt to avoid the lonely hotel room for a while. A place where the voices and the dreams haunted him.

The life a coward played through his head when he slept. A man who fought so bravely in a war than when he seen that the war could not be won, he killed his family because he couldn't take them with him. They refused to leave still believing the war could be won and unable to see them die at the hands of monsters, he killed them then ran as hard and fast as he could. In many was it felt like he was that man and that wasn't something he could live with. No, he was a soldier and teacher. A soldier who had been benched until they could figure out what was going on medically with him and the fact he couldn't recall much of his past. When he needed to pay the bills, the teaching job came along. It seemed almost natural as being a solider but there seemed like a part of him that was still missing and felt like it was trying to call out to him.

David reached down and pulled out one of the drawers and took out the old leather bound book and flipped through the pages in which drawings and writing was scattered across. It was the story of that coward he couldn't get off his mind or out of his dreams. He sat there wondering if there was anything to make him stand up and fight again or if he was really that broken. David picked up a pen and wrote down something on a blank page, some of what he remembered from a dream last night, one that had waking up in a cold sweat. The man standing by and watching as a group of people died around him, too scared to do anything and instead he just ran again. It wasn't something he knew he could stand to do, if he had been there he would have done whatever it took or died trying.

After a while, he closed the book and stood up. He was tired and needed to try and at least get a few hours of sleep before he would be back here again in the morning , teaching another class. As he walked he came to a man that was laying on the ground acting strange. David's hazel eyes looked around at the crowd who seemed to be avoiding him. After the man stood up and screamed, David took a step closer. Everything in his body was telling him to run but he couldn't do that or would. "You okay sir?" He asked carefully. His hand tighten up around the strap of his bookbag.

From the vest he wore over the white dress shirt and the slacks, he had that whole modern teacher look even though he looked rather young. His short hair spiked up a little. David was a tall slender man but still well toned for someone of his size. He stood there wondering what was going on with this man, wondering if he was on some kind of drug or drank too much. But he was still worried something wrong even though every fiber of his being was telling him to run, to leave this alone.

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[The Master]

Thump, thump, thump, thump… he was not alone. Thump, thump, thump, thump… a voice broke through that defining drumming. “Oh, yes,” The Master said with a manic fiery gleam in his eyes. “I am more than fine, I am REBORN!” He laughed like one of the insane, for that was what he was. Insane with the revelation of whom and what he was. All unknown holes in his life had been restored and the impersonated persona of being a professor had all but vanished within moments of opening the watch.

The watch! His eyes traveled the ground and found it lying there discarded. Its inner workings glimmered in the light of a nearby lamppost. Hands that were once clawing at his very face and hair now dropped to his side. He bent down and scooped it up almost lovingly. It was a relic of his once thriving and powerful society. But, it was all gone now. Destroyed through themselves, with the help of The Doctor. The Doctor! A memory stirred; one that was almost forgotten. He had saved The Doctor and this human infested planet at the expense of his life force. He had been seeking vengeance and maybe a small amount of redemption, but mostly it was revenge.

His own people had done this to him. They destroyed the mind of an innocent and defenseless eight year old. Anger seeped once again through his very soul. All destroyed now he knew, but to be shown the truth. That a life time of pain and suffering had been administered cold heartedly by his own infuriated him and made him want to cause them pain all over again. To strangle the very lie out of their people with his very hands. To feel the blood of the Gallifreyan Lord that had done this, flow through his fingers in its fluttering end of life.

Someone would pay for his anger…

He closed the fob watch with a click and stowed it within the depths of his suit, the signs of insanity dimming and then winking out from his eyes. It was replaced with a cool intelligence and a calculating smile. The man looked as if he were afraid of someone stealing his book bag and The Master had to suppress a laugh at the thought. As if the recent episode had not happened at all The Master spoke, “I am well. Just dropped my… watch. Thought I lost it for a moment there. Priceless family heirloom and all that.”

[The Ghost]

David stood there watching and listening to the guy the more he seen and heard, the more he thought this guy was either insane, on drugs or both. The manic look in the guy's eyes caused him to take a step back. "Alright then... Well that's good and all." David said before swallowing hard. It was like he seen and ran into this before and he couldn't place his finger on it.. It was just another one of those moments that was lost or he wasn't sure if it was true or not. His eyes looked around slowly, everyone was gone just leaving the two of them in the lot.

His eyes followedt he man as he picked up the watch... a watch that look just like his watch. His hand reached down and touched it and stumbled back as the strong vision of his home planet came into his mind. How he was in battle, fighting against the Dalek's... the memory of looking into the Untempered Schism.. how it scared him and how he ran away. The voices in his head from each vision taking over blocking everything else out. David had removed the watch from his pocket as the visions ended. His eyes looking down at the silver engraved watch before looking back at the other man and his watch.

The man had just closed his watch and he wondered if the matching watches meant anything or it was just they had just shopped at the same store. The man's voice broke through his thoughts and he just gave a nod of his head. If that watch was a pricelss family heirloom, then were they from the same family. David tucked the watch back into his pocket suddenly having the urge to do so as if he needed to keep it safe. "Yeah... I have a watch that is a family heirloom too. Priceless things tend to make us all a little mad when we loose them." He said, hoping the other man didn't notice his matching watch.

"May I ask what those symbols mean? I seen them around before.. And seen a watch around like that before too." A hand came up to rub at the back of his neck slowly and nervously. However, he couldn't bring himself to run like his own body still wanted to do. David didn't want to be a coward like the man in his dreams.

[The Master]

Thump, thump, thump, thump… Cold, calculating thoughts raced through his mind as he tried to remember what had happened within the last year? Two years? A century? Several lifetimes? It was coming back to him. Gallifrey had been coming back into the universe, but was coming back here. At the exact place that the earth sat in the whole of creation. And everything is their fault! Renewed anger slowly crept back into his veins. It would be an anger that would stay with him for the rest of his days.

The Master felt the stranger’s eyes upon him as he had picked up the watch… his watch… the fob watch… His eyes glanced over to the stranger and something drew his attention. It took every effort to not acknowledge that he had seen the familiar item. The watch was twin to his own. A rush of jubilation raced through him. Could it be that yet another survived?

“Yes…” he said speaking in quiet, even tones, that reflected a thoughtfulness that had been lacking. “To lose ones ancestral identity, to lose whatever small remembrance of whom and what you are, where you have come from can make us mad.” The Master retrieved his watch from his pocket so that it once again glittered in the glowing radiance from the nearby lamp light. “They are ancestral symbols of a once noble and powerful people. They are all but lost now, scattered to the wind like grains of sand. Only one or two lines remain. It is a precious gift to have seen such a relic and they should be taken care of with a certain amount of reverence and respect.”

A mad glint glimmered from his eyes, “Hidden away. Memories forgotten and the voices, those call out to us. It can be a maddening thing. The only way it ends is to accept it and use the birthright you have been given. Someday you will be ready and soon, for it becomes clearer does it not?" He did not know who the man was, but he was positive that he knew what he was.

[The Ghost]

Unlike the Master, there was never any thumping in his mind.... just the guilt of what he had done. The Ghost was a Time Lord broken by the war and then the guilt of what he had done. When he tried to change that, tried more than just a man running from everything he became a wanted man.

Trying to hide from an alien race who wanted to run test on him, wanted the power of his mind and his TARDIS. So in order to blind in and try to get a fresh start, he gave it all up. Became a human and lost everything he was and could have been. bDavid had been living as a human for the last two years. The first year, he had been in the military until he was hurt in the line of duty. But his memories were sketchy and there were things he couldn't remember.

Then there were the dreams and the fears they brought... he couldn't explain or understand them. When the man before him spoke of identities, he gave a nod of his head. "These days, image and who you are tend to be rather important and can get you along way." David knew he was a good looking guy and that had got him a few things mostly comments. But the thing was, he wasn't sure who he was. "I know what it feels like to not know who are... and I can see how that would make someone mad"

David watched as the other man removed the watch and how it glowed.. For some reason, it really drew his attention. As the man went to talk on, everything he said seemed and felt familar to him. His hand held the watch within his pant's pocket as he thought about what the other man had said. He wondered what would happen if he were to open his watch. "So what happens to the person outside the watch... who they are will be trapped?" This all scared him. David didn't want to die or anything like that. He didn't want to be the man he saw in the watch. His eyes glanced to the other man for a moment before looking around slowly.

If he could get more information about that man's watch and if his was the same watch then maybe he would start getting some answers to his questions and find out what was going on with him. Maybe the nightmares...dreams whatever they were would stop. But he didn't want to lose who he was, sure he might not be perfect but he liked this life and who he was.

[The Master]

The thumping within his own mind drummed its endless drumming. Louder and louder it became, as if it were beating out the song of his own heart. But it was he remembered suddenly. That is exactly what it was that it was doing. He needed noise to help drowned out its constant droning, if just for a moment.

He suddenly screamed again and clutched at his own head. Drowning out the drumming within his own mind. But it wasn’t to last. If only there was a way to end it. If only he had discovered the key to unlocking the mysteries of how this had been done… then maybe, just maybe it would end.

“Losing one’s identity is not the only way to make someone mad,” he said in a voice full of pained anger. Then suddenly he struck out with a deranged look upon his face. He grabbed at the man once again dropping his watch upon the ground. Putting his hands against the man’s temples, “Can you hear it? Shh… shhh… listen… the drumming, the endless drumming….” His eyes were glazed over in a vacant sort of blind furry, insanity, and frustration. With every ounce of his will, he hoped that the man would hear it.

Someone has to heart it. Someone… The Doctor had heard it, he remembered. But someone else must, anyone. Someone, of whom he had not been fighting against for hundreds of years, someone who would not recoil in horror at what lay beneath the surface of his mind. He now knew what was in his mind. But with that knowledge, came neither relief nor little comfort. He would hear it forever… or until the end.

The watch! The watch eased this suffering. It dulled its intensity to that of a dull and distant echo. But now, now, its full misery was unleashed upon his unprotected mind. “Can you hear it? This is what our people did to me…” Then a thought occurred to him. “Don’t open the watch, if there is any doubt within your mind, don’t do it…” He stood there his hands still holding to the mans temples. His eyes looking searchingly and almost imploringly within the mans eyes.

[The Ghost]

David stood there watching the other man, not sure what was going on. All he knew was that he couldn't bring himself to run even though ever fiber of him was telling himto that. It seemed like this man was very trouble. He had thrown out the idea that this man was drunk or high on something, he just seemed like he was truly bothered by something. Then the scream that came and he took a step back watching as the other man grabbed his head. David swallowed hard, wondering if there was something he could do to help. How save was it here for him? He wasn't sure of those answer nor did he really want to. All he knew was that he found somewhat connected to this other man, like they had known each other at some point in time.

"Yes but it is one of many things..." David knew the dreams drove him made and not knowing why he was seeing them. Why the man was such coward and always ran from things. Well besides that one battle but he didn't see the result of that, everything just eneded there. Then his head was grabbed, his own watch falling out of his pocket. His blue gray eyes growing wide and showing fear when his head was grabbed. His whole body tenesed up and then he locked eyes with the other man. His heart was racing and he wanted to beg to be let go then he was shushed before he could even speak. His breathing was rapid but then everything started to fade away when he heard the drumming that seemed to go on. He swallowed hard and tried to nod his head, unable to find his voice.

If this drumming was hunting this man, he could see why the man was trouble and clearly mad. He wasn't sure how this man could put up with it.. But it was like the fear he always felt lurking in the back of his mind and heart. The fear that kept him from getting close to anyone, the fear that made him feel like croward no matter how hard he tried. When the other man spoke again, his eyes looked up and it was as if he was lost in the drumming. He wished it would end and the man would remove his hands. He didn't like being held like this, he wanted to be left alone but he had a feeling that wouldn't happen.

"Our people? I can hear it.. its never ending..." His eyes looked down at the watches on the ground, he could tell his watch apart from the other man's. David looked back at the other man. "My dreams... they are of man who is running, afraid of what he had done, what he had seen.. All he does is run then when he stood up for himself.. I don't know what happened. I don't want to be coward anymore." The fear had returned to his eyes, among the pain and loss he had in them. He swallowed hard, trying to hold back his emotions.

[The Master]

He wanted to howl in pain, in frustration, and even a little bit in victory. Thump, thump, thump, thump… he was no longer alone. Thump, thump, thump, thump… others could hear the tireless drumming within his mind. All he had to do was let them listen, to make them listen. Thump, thump, thump, thump… it pounded and played its never ending beat.

“Keep running! It is better that way. Don’t let the horrors of the past catch up with you. Let it stay forgotten. You will be happier for your ignorance. To know the truth, the truth, the truth, the TRUTH!!!” He said in time with the drums within his mind. The Master’s voice once again rising and growing louder, more deranged and unstable with each breath he took.

He dropped his hands away from the man and scooped up both watches and maniacal gleam in his eyes. He pocketed his own watch and held out the other to the man. “Or open it and find out the truth about yourself. Both the good and the ugly are hidden within. But remember, you hid these memories from yourself. You did… so maybe whatever you want to forget it best left forgotten,” he said. His voice falling once again into a calm even tone.

He looked up to the sky and said to the star speckled heavens above. “You bloody did this to me, you bastard,” his voice was still calm. His voice becoming too calm, its tones turning from madness to venom. “If I could kill them I would, kill the lot. They betrayed me, they betrayed everyone. They deserved what they got.” The Master’s eyes turned once again to The Ghost.

“They got death, they got destruction, they got the end of their lives a s they know it. Forever trapped within a small bubble of time. Shut off from the universes and all of life around them. Never truly dead, never truly alive. Forever trapped, forever, damned.”

[The Ghost]

That endless drumming was haunting his mind unable to shake it no matter how hard he tried. It was starting to drive him nuts, he wanted to scream... do anything to break it lose from his mind. The four drum beats... thump, thump, thump, thump over and over again. If he was the same as this man, came from the same place as this guy, why would their kind do this to him.. Then he mind remember one night in his dreams.. "I seen why they did to me.. in the dreams.. nightmares. I was taken from my family and forced to fight in the war after they killed my family... They tortured me... left me to die fighting..." He said with a quiet, lost voice that seemed empty of everything. Then he could understand why their kind (if they were the same and he wasn't human) would do this.

There was a slight nod of his head to the order of keep running. That it was the best thing to do and not to let the horrors catch up to him. "They haunt my dreams... I can't escape from them. Everytime I close my eyes I see flashes of things that I can't explain... I feel the pain from the dreams..." He swallowed hard. Wondering if there was such a thing of happiness and ignorance when it came to all of this. Could they really escape a past such as theirs with out it catching up to them at some point. It seemed this other man who he still didn't know his name had kept failing at that part. David's eyes winced a little when the other man started to speak about the truth and growing more unstable as he spoke.

When the man dropped his hands David back up a little and looked around slowly before looking at both of the watches the other was holding. He swallowed hard when he seen the maniacal look in the other man's eyes. David reached out slowly and carefully took the watch and glanced down at it. Thinking about what was being said to him. "Maybe so... maybe its too risky to open this watch and learn what I been seeing in flashes... Or maybe there was something I was hidding from that is after me... whatever the reason, I'm not sure about it." He looekd up at the other male for a moment or two before he tucked the watch into his pocket.

"Don't you get lonely... if there are not that many of us left? Wouldn't you want to be with someone like you?" David said after thinking about everything that had been shared with him this night. Glad the other man had seemed to grow calm for now but unsure of what would set him off again. His eyes followed the other male's eyes up to the sky the one place where he always felt peaceful and at place. No matter what was going on, he could look up at the sky and feel the peacefulness of it. Always wondering if what he seen in the dreams could really happen.. Now he was left with some of the truth and wasn't sure what to make of it all yet.

David didn't say anything as the other man spoke to the skys and talked about killing. He didn't say anything to the other man's words because there had been moments in those flashes where he felt the betrayal and pain those in his dreams caused. His eyes met the other's eyes and looked into them for a moment. "Isn't that worse than death it's self? Being stuck forever, unable to live the lives they want to or used to? You kill them and it all ends, they cannot suffer anymore." He said, trying make some reason out what the other male was saying and to show him that there were worse things then death.

[The Master]

The Master started to pace. His eyes darting this way and that. A fevered look of the insane within the depths of his eyes. He was deranged, unhinged, and dangerous. He felt murderous and he knew that it would bode poorly for the poor sod that got in his way. “Nothing that those people, those… the Lord President. It was probably all his doing.”

The Master stopped abruptly and stared at David. “That is what he does. He destroys whoever he needs to to get what he wants from them. He is capable… was capable of anything and everything.” He said in anger. The anger was not directed at David but the Time Lord that had destroyed him, destroyed his sanity, his dreams, his life.

He was caught in an endless cycle of rage, regret, and madness. Rage at the injustice, regret at some of the wrongs he committed because of his instability, and madness that in the end it didn’t matter. Everything was done, everything was as it was and nothing could change it. Not even…

“No, not even time itself.” He muttered to himself vaguely. He watched expectantly as the man took his watch from his outstretched hand. The Master stared at David with a look of incredulity on his face as well, “Do I really seem the kind of bloke you would want to be with? Although…” He shook his head. An idea played with his imagination. It was an idea that he would just assume kill himself before revealing to another living soul.

“I am The…” He stopped. “ I need no one.” He said. “Only one of them truly deserves death and if it is ever within my power I will go after him with every resource at my command.” The Lord President would suffer and then finally, if it was ever within the Masters power again, he would die. He had come close last time. The energy that surged through his veins had almost killed him and Rassilon It would have been something he could had died for. But no, the time lock had saved Rassilon pitiful excuse of a life and rule. The Master had found an escape route before he could become trapped with them for all time.

But the way had not been easy and it had been full of hardships. Hardships, that had been slowly destroying him until he had locked himself away within the Fob Watch.

The Master calmed again and a calculating look transformed his face. “The chose is yours, but do not take it lightly. You wouldn’t want to end up like this.” He said indicating himself. “This is what you could become if you chose incorrectly.”

He stared down at the twin rings upon his hands. Within seconds he could be gone. He could find somewhere safe from all of his troubles and worries. He could live out the rest of his days with a small amount of peace to be had. “I can’t stay here now, someone will find me… someone will try and kill me. Not safe.”