One Moment in Time: Chapter 5

ONE MOMENT IN TIME

Chapter Five

She was in pitch black darkness, lying on a narrow metal cot. Her arms were secured behind her head, heavy manacles encircling her wrists and chained to the wall. She was wearing only a thin, inadequate shift and she was cold. Her stomach rumbled, as though she had not eaten for days.

A small part of her, sane, adult and rational, recognised that this was a nightmare, the same one which had plagued her over and over for more than half her life. With a feeling of dread, she waited for it to play itself out yet again, painful and unstoppable.

The rest of her remained the stubborn, wilful, terrified near-child she had been back then, determined not to give in, no matter what.

The cell door swung open, as it always did, the bright light blinding her. Two guards entered, released her manacle chain from the wall, and marched her out of the cell, down the corridor to the Punishment Room.

Councillor Rohan was waiting for her, as he always was. A younger Rohan, this one, than she and the Master had recently encountered, his eyes lit with feverish, lustful anticipation, his fleshy lips avid, his pudgy hands trembling with glee, already flexing the brutal whip.

"Ah, Lady Tejana," he purred smoothly. "Ready for the next phase of your re-education program?"

Tejana remained silent as the guards secured her wrists above her head. She never gave Rohan the satisfaction of words, it was the one defiance still left to her and she clung to it like a lifeline. For a second, one of the guards caught her eye and she read sorrow and sympathy there. But none would dare to go against the ruling of the High Council of Gallifrey, even such a ruling as this.

"Leave us!" Rohan ordered and reluctantly the guards complied.

"So....Lady Tejana..." he drawled. "Have you changed your mind regarding the nature of your punishment?"

Tejana tensed in revulsion as he reached out his hand, as he always did in her nightmare, and trailed it down her cheek, past the slender column of her neck, sliding like a slug under the bodice of her shift to lewdly fondle her breast. With a supreme effort of will, she kept her face impassive, eyes staring blankly at the opposite wall. Rohan smiled lasciviously and ran his other hand slowly up her thigh under her short skirt and forced it between her legs into her most private place. Tejana could feel his fat fingers moving and prayed that she would die, horror twisting her soul. But outwardly, she gave no sign.

"Nothing to say?" he asked cruelly, eventually tiring of the fun. "Soon you will beg me. If not today, then maybe tomorrow, yes? Or the day after that. We have all the time in the world."

And then he moved behind her and began to swing the whip. Over and over, the lash savaged her back, already badly lacerated from previous punishments. Ten lashes were meticulously meted out, each one counted aloud by her triumphant torturer. The pain was unbelievable, the wounds burning like acid, the blood staining her garment and dripping to the floor below. But she would not cry out, would not, WOULD NOT – Doctor, where are you? Doctor, help me, I can't, I can't....Doctor, PLEASE!!!!

Someone was shaking her hard, so hard her teeth nearly rattled in her head.

"Ana, wake up! Ana!"

Temporarily disoriented by the dream, it took her a minute to realise she was still in The Matrix and it was the Master who was shaking her.

"All right, already! I'm awake!"

Fiery orange light was beginning to creep over the horizon, indicating that dawn was very close. In the amber haze, she saw that the Master was standing in front of her, his fists clenched at his sides, his expression dark with complete fury.

"What the HELL was that?"

Confused, she snapped back, "A nightmare, what do you think?"

"No, that was no nightmare, that was a memory. That really happened!" he retorted, barely keeping his rage in check. "That filthy little pervert was touching you!"

Tejana's head shot up in complete horror as she finally understood what he was saying. He knew! Somehow the Master knew what she had dreamed. How was it possible? Then she remembered opening her mind to search for the Doctor just before falling asleep. She had felt the Master's mind beside her – somehow she must have linked with him. Dreaming such a powerful nightmare so close to another Time Lord's mind in the Heart of the Matrix....oh gods, if she had been dream-sharing with the Master, he must have seen everything she saw, felt everything she felt! That terrible time was the most closely guarded secret in her life. Not even the Doctor knew of it. And now the awful, shameful, degrading events had been laid bare, to none other than her father's oldest enemy. Her humiliation was so intense she dropped her face to her knees, unable to speak.

The Master swore violently. "What happened? You were hardly more than a child!"

"There are no children on Gallifrey, you should know that better than most," she managed to respond bitterly. "You know the story already, anyway. I stole a Time Ring and escaped from the Academy to travel with the second Doctor. But the Time Lords caught up with us, put the Doctor on trial for interfering with the affairs of the Universe. He had enemies in the High Council who wanted to see him condemned to death, but the sentence was commuted and he was exiled to Earth instead. Which left me alone, defenceless and vulnerable on Gallifrey. My family was disgraced, our friends had betrayed us, like you, or were too scared to help me. Those same enemies on the High Council arranged for me to be 're-educated' and gave me to Councillor Rohan to administer the corporal punishment. The rest of it was just his own added little twist!"

"He didn't....?" the Master began.

"No!" she cut in, before he could complete the question. "He offered me that as an alternative to the beatings, wanted me to beg for it, but I never would! I never would."

"And you never told the Doctor?"

"What good would it have done?" she demanded painfully. "It wouldn't have changed anything."

She was completely heart-sick that she had unwittingly given the Doctor's greatest enemy the perfect ammunition to hurt him. And the Master would find a way to use it where it hurt the most, that was his particular talent. The only thing she didn't understand was why he seemed so angry. Was it pity? The Master had experienced a lousy childhood on Gallifrey too – was he feeling sorry for her? Pride stiffened her spine – he was the last person in the Universe she wanted pity from!

"Why do you even care?" she accused. "It's not like you're an innocent when it comes to torturing people. What about what you did to Jack on The Valiant?"

"I've never tortured children!" the Master said through gritted teeth. "And as for your handsome Captain Jack, I'd kill him another eight hundred times over if I got the chance!"

"He's not my Captain Jack!" she returned, anger overcoming her shame.

"And just so you know, I've never needed to force a woman either!" he snarled. "So don't you ever compare me to that piece of filth, Rohan!"

Tejana remembered the scores of women who had queued up to sleep with him during the Year That Never Was, willingly offering themselves to him despite the cruel devastation he had inflicted on their planet, competing and striving to catch his attention. She also remembered how he had maliciously flaunted each new conquest before his human wife, Lucy Saxon, delighting in the hurt he had caused.

"If I had known the truth, back on Gallifrey, I'd have painted the room with that whore-son's blood before we left!" he finished savagely.

With that, he turned his back on her and began to angrily kick dust over the smoking remains of their fire.

The Master as protector, she thought wearily as she folded up the blankets, that was a new one.
Neither of them spoke again as they quickly ate and then recommenced their long trek. The Master strode ahead, leaving her to trail along in his wake. It was a miserable day. Once the double sun rose into the orange Gallifreyan sky, the heat began to intensify, beating down on their backs, but also rising from the arid, parched ground. Soon it felt like travelling in an oven. Heat-demons seemed to writhe and dance obscenely on the horizon, only to disappear once a direct gaze fell upon them.

Tejana took off her jacket and top, stripping down to the thin camisole she wore beneath. Soon the thin material was dripping with sweat. The brilliant light hurt her unprotected eyes and a nasty headache pounded in her brain.

The Master said not one word to her the whole day, always keeping slightly ahead, an intentional distance between them. She knew she should have felt relieved, but oddly it just made her feel lonely. Somehow she had gotten used to their constant bickering and missed it. She imagined how terrible it would be to be stuck in this god-forsaken place all alone. The Master wasn't the ideal companion, but he was certainly better than nothing.

He had taken off his hoodie and his red undershirt and tied them around his waist. Even from a distance, Tejana could see the perspiration gleaming on his naked skin. It worried her. The heat was bad enough for her, but for someone with his elevated skin temperature it must be close to unbearable. But he didn't stop or slow down, and even if he had, there was nothing she could have done to help him.

At last the shadows lengthened into late afternoon and the double sun sank low again towards the northern horizon. The heat haze seemed to lift off the ground and a blessedly cool breeze began to blow. Tejana held her long heavy plait of hair in one hand and allowed the cool air to refresh the back of her neck with a sigh of pleasure.

The relief was not to last, however. The evening cool soon developed into creeping cold and from there into bone-deep chill. Tejana huddled once more into her jacket, realising that this night was going to be an icy repeat of the one before. Silently she cursed Rassilon. Legend said that he had retreated to physically dwell in The Matrix, his own creation, after he had been deposed as Lord President of Gallifrey millennia ago. But who would want to live here, in this blasted wilderness? Why couldn't he have created a beautiful garden or a lovely countryside? The Master was right, Rassilon was a tosser.

Up ahead, the other Time Lord had finally halted and for the first time all day, turned to look for her. Serve him right if I'd fallen into a bog, she thought with childish irritation, not that he'd probably care.

As it turned out, he had found a sheltered place to camp for the night. There were even some shallow indentations in a wall of rock, almost big enough to be small caves, which would provide some shelter against the inhospitable weather. Even as they got a fire going in the mouth of the largest cave, the temperature dropped to an alarming degree and it began to snow.

The Master sat with his back to the wall and pulled out some more of the nutrition tablets. He looked awful, this thin face drawn and strained. Given their previous discussion, Tejana didn't know what to say to him, so she said nothing.

"So....how is old Captain Jack?" he asked suddenly, his voice hoarse but as mocking as ever. "You two shacked up together yet or what?"

"Jack's fine," she lied. "And it's none of your business."

He raised his eyebrows. "That sounds like a no. So what were you doing with him on a sordid little planet like Zog while the Doctor was regenerating?"

Tejana glared at him, thinking that maybe his silence was preferable after all. "I've been working with Torchwood since we left The Valiant, if you must know."

The Master nodded, but didn't pursue the subject. "Come here. Let's get some sleep."

She hesitated briefly once more, but the memory of last night's warmth was much too enticing. After all, it isn't as if I have anything to hide anymore, she thought ruefully. So she nestled in next to him and pulled up the blankets. She watched the snow falling in the firelight and listened to his even breathing and before long she drifted off to sleep.

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She was in pitch black darkness, lying on a narrow metal cot. Her arms were secured behind her head, heavy manacles encircling her wrists and chained to the wall. She was wearing only a thin, inadequate shift and she was cold. Her stomach rumbled, as though she had not eaten for days.

She felt a dull sense of resignation. It was the nightmare again, doomed to repeat itself over and over and over again, exactly the same every time, never changing. And always, she had to live it again until the very end.

But this time something was different. She was not alone in the dark, she could sense another presence. Alarmed, she tried to sit up. Outside, she could hear the marching feet of the guards as they drew closer, coming to take her to Rohan.

"It's all right," said a calm, soothing, almost hypnotic voice out of the darkness. "I'm here with you. You're safe now. They can't get past me. Nothing can get past me. Sleep now....sleep..."

Tejana felt all her fear slip away at the sound of the voice. She lay back, feeling watched over and protected. Best of all, she no longer felt alone.

The pounding of the guards feet had faded and instead, in the air surrounding her, she could hear the faint echo of a drum beat. One, two, three, four...one, two, three, four...one, two, three, four...to the sound of the comforting rhythm, she fell back into an untroubled sleep.

The Master felt the peaceful unconsciousness take her and gave a small smile of satisfaction. He removed his fingers from her temple, settled her more comfortably against his chest and closed his eyes.