The Master Plan

[Deleted]

"It's over Doctor. I have become one, with all of me!" shouted the voice of a man in his 40's or 50's with a goatee and greying black hair. "Using the Eye of Time, I have become a god, more powerful than even the Eternals themselves!"

"You can't! You can't do it! Don't you realize what you've done!?" The Man looked like no one the viewer would recognize. Yet just judging by the conversation he's having with the other man, this must be a Doctor who has yet to have occured.

"Of course I have. I have made myself the most powerful being in all of space and time! I finally shall rule the universe, unchallenged! Not even the Daleks, the Cybermen, or even you can stop me now!"

"EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!" Numerous Daleks began to hover into the area the Doctor and this other Man now occupied. Following them were of course, the Cybermen, along with other beings.

The powerful man simply held up a hand, and a powerful psychic blast flew out of his hand and obliterated. All of them, from a wide variety of species. Sontarans, Daleks, Cybermen, Time Lords, Draconians, Earthlings, Krotons, Weeping Angels, Autons, Axons, Silurians, Sea Devils, Vampires (Grand and normal), you name it.

This...curent Doctor, whatever life he was on, pulled out his Sonic Screwdriver to try and destroy the machine behind him. It exploded in his hand.

"Not even your sonic screwdriver will save you this time Doctor. I. Have. WON!"

The images fade.

For the past several nights, the Master has been having this odd dream. It was bothering him, even in his day dreams. This dream would not leave his thoughts. It was even more persistant than the drums. The drums the drums the never-ending drums...

Was this just like the drums? Was someone trying to contact him? With each dream, he had recieved a better image of the machine the Doctor was trying to stop. With every glimpse of that machine, he received memories of another person working on that machine. Sometimes that person would change. Sometimes it was the Master. Sometimes it was one of his past lives. To be more precise, it showed his past lives more often than it showed the other faces he didn't recognize. But he remembered he had never worked on such a machine in his past lives.

But as he gained a better understanding of the device, he soon realized it was a Paradox machine. After that knowledge, he began to see that this paradox machine was connected to the Eye of Time. The Eye of Time...Such a powerful anomaly in the universe. The very remains of the big bang itself.

After that, the dream became clearer and clearer. Details would continue to fill themselves in.

Such as the current location of the Eye.

It took the Master some time, but after several months of this dream, he found a pocket within space and time. A dimensional rift, which he had the Eye of Time now stored, hooked up to a special station of some sort.

After working on this project for so long by himself, it was now time to call in some back-up. Using this special station, he sent out a signal. One he purposely made sure only a select group of people would recieve, and follow back to this point in time and space.

He was calling forth the other Masters. All of his past incarnations who still had TARDISes that he would be able to summon. He knew he couldnt reach all of them, but it would reach those he needed it to.

And thanks to his new Paradox machine he worked on during all this time, they would all be able to meet here, without any reprocussions.

[Koschei]

The control room of the TARDIS was a great sphere, seemingly built of hexagonal black marble tiles set with glowing white roundels. The time rotor, a mighty pillar of achromatic flame, reached from apex to nadir, piercing the hexagonal control panel at the very center of the room. Flooring seemed to sprout from the base of the control panel, and a spider's web of walkways and catwalks connected the console to various doorways and subsidiary control mechanisms.

Standing before the navigational controls, the Master drummed his fingers - deliberatly avoiding the four count 'tap-tap-tap-tap' rhythm - and brooded. There was a part of him that was deeply offended, even enraged, that someone would summon him. Even one of his past or future or alternate selves.

But the coordinates sent in the call? They were far too fascinating to ignore. And so, trapped by his own curiousity, he'd set the coordinates and taken flight. And then time had passed. More time than he'd expected. But the rematerialization sequence was beginning now.

With a final check of the coordinates, and a review of the outside conditions, he swept down the main staircase and through the door.

"I have come," he announced. "Pray that you have not wasted my time."

[Deleted]

As the Ebony skinned Master exited his TARDIS, there were other TARDISes (TARDISi? MTARDIS for Multiple Times And Relative Dimensions In Spaces?) in the circular area.

A figure in a ragedy black hood had slowly exited one of them, in the shape of a grandfather clock. He was hunched over, and was having trouble approaching the ebony skinned Time Lord he saw exit from one of the other TARDISes.

"A new body," he whispered as the figure's head examined the ebony Master from head to toe, his decaying hands held up, and reaching out to touch the figure. He definitely had the right body. A very impressive and very strong and youthful body at that. It looked like he was very close to stealing that body. The sound of this one's voice seemed to be very weak though, and seemed to have a small trouble talking. Almost as if one was trying to talk from under a mask. And almost as if two different voices were trying to speak at once. A pair of large eyeballs, having lost their eyelids from long ago, and despite having no way to show any other facial expression than the one he has now, one could feel his hunger, his desire, to truly live yet again.

"Calm yourself my decaying friend, you will get your new body soon enough, just not from this chap," came another voice. The man looked to be in his possible late forties, wearing the same black formal wear he always wore. His black hair combed back, Traken black nobility robes, gloves, as well as a goatee. Despite his earlier statement, he still gave a small chuckle. The hooded figure stepped away from the ebony skinned Master and looked towards the chuckling individual as he continued to speak. "However, I can see why you'd wish to jump to another body now. Tell me my dark skinned fellow, what Model Number Tissue Compression Eliminator do you use? I don't believe you are one of my past lives."

"Perhaps he is a future life to you, if I am to assume we are all the same Time Lord," came a voice older than the others. Just like the Traken bodied Master, this one was also dressed in black, as well as kept his greying hair combed back and a neatly trimmed but very thick goatee of his own. He was probably in his 50's judging by his physical appearance if compared to an Earth Human's. He resisted the urge to let his face show repulse at his...decaying form.

"A masterful observation, as to be expected from yours truly." This voice, unlike the others, seemed to have an American accent. His eyes looked like those of a serpent's though, his hair combed back and possibly gelled. And of course, he was wearing the black and red Gallifreyan robes with the golden embroidery, and the jewels on his fingers. He held his arms out and posed before his other selves. "What do you think of your future boys? Looks rather bright doesn't it?~"

"I'm now frightened to know just what I went through to have such...interesting variations of myself," came another voice in the room. This one was held by the first, the original Master before he ever began his regeneration cycle. He was looking at his other selves in the room with both shock and awe. However he wasn't sure himself if he should feel proud or disgusted by some of what he was seeing. "And did I really still have that robe all those years later? Curious. I thought I gave it to the Doctor."

And on the other end of the room, sitting on a long flight of stairs upwards, was the one who summoned them all. The blond sat there silently with a childish grin on his face as he watched his other selves interact with one another. He withheld from responding to his ebony self just yet. He was by far too amused watching this in front of him. He was holding his laser screwdriver in his right hand while his left arm was resting on his leg. He was dressed far too casually compared to the other selves. A red shirt, black sweat pants and a hoodie, as well as white tennishoes.

"Wasting time. That's a good one," he said laughing. Rather than a ceiling above them, there was what looked to be an odd mixture of different colors, the natural appearance of the dimensional space that he had gathered them all to meet in. At the top of the stairs, there was a large machine, at the top of which there were what looked like metallic talons wrapped around a white orb. A stream of energy was spewing from that orb out towards the sky, forming the dimensional space they were all able to meet in outside the normal laws of space and time. In some ways, it made almost the perfect hidden lair from the rest of the universe. He'll give the others a chance to play meet and greet with one another before he moved onto business.

[Koschei]

The Master looked over his past selves. There was the body he'd been Loomed in. There he was, where he'd re-encountered the Doctor on that mudspeck world he always cared about so much. And there he was, all but dead from burning through his regenerative cycle, kept alive by hate and will.

"A new body," his corpse-past whispered, reaching out to touch him, hunger for life filling his weak voice.

The Master, filled with a sudden loathing for the dying fool he'd been, stepped back.

"Calm yourself my decaying friend, you will get your new body soon enough, just not from this chap." The new voice held the tones and timber of the late Councelor Tremas, and the speech patterns of the Master.

"But never soon enough, as we may both testify to," the Master answered.

The Tremas-Master chuckled. "However, I can see why you'd wish to jump to another body now. Tell me my dark skinned fellow, what Model Number Tissue Compression Eliminator do you use? I don't believe you are one of my past lives."

"I am not, I assure you," the Master said, sketching a shallow bow. "I am your future." His eyes flicked towards the raised dais-like machinery, and the blonde and all-too-familiar figure seated there. The clothing - a hooded sweashirt and black sweatpants - were a far cry from what he'd worn when he'd worn the name "Saxon".

"Or, perhaps, it would be more accurate to say that I am one possiblility for your future."

His other past selves talked among themselves, attempting to settle a pecking order. The Master - an old Master, at the peak of his powers - felt no need to join in. Not with the reminders of his callow youth, at least.

Instead, he strode across the open room, looking up at the dais and the burning white orb spewing achromatic energies. "My Lord Master," he said, sketching a shallow bow. "I assume you have gathered us here?"

[Deleted]

Almost unnoticed by the assembled Masters, a final capsule materialized.

It was not a TARDIS. That much was clear, simply from seeing the outside, even without the senses of a Time Lord. Dimensionally transcendent after a fashion, it was still a mere machine. Nothing more than a crude copy of the technologies of Gallifrey without the semi-living materials that made up even the most primitive TARDIS.

The door swung open, and an elderly man dressed in Edwardian clothing emerged. The clothing was loose, two or even three sizes too large, and writhed as if he wore serpents close to his body. The right side of his face was curiously immobile, as if he had suffered a stroke, and the eye in that side of his head did not blink. He clanked, softly and muffled, but he clanked as he walked.

It was clear, to the senses of the assembled Masters, that this was no Gallifreyan. It was a human body, inhabited by the intelligence of a Time Lord.

"Gentlemen," the stranger murmured, voice dripping sarcasm and laced with a soft electronic reverb. "I crave your pardon, for not having arrived promptly. I am, I fear, forced to rely upon somewhat less than efficient transportation."

He glanced over each of the gathered Masters in turn. "You, I was," he said, indicating the 'younger' Masters with the sweep of a hand. "So I will assume this is none of your doing, or I would remember it."

Then he peered at the blonde Master seated on the dais, and the black Master standing at the base. "You," he said, pointing at the blond Master as he advanced forward, softly whirring and clanking with each step. "I have the vaguest of memories of being you." He stopped, then, to consider the black Master. "I have no memories of you, though. But you don't sit on the throne..."

He stopped, leaning on a bronze cane with a handle that was a skull inside a cogwheel, and looked up at the blonde Master. "So, you clearly assume you are in charge. I assume you are not wasting my time?"

[Deleted]

"And yet such a...strong future indeed," the decaying Master said as he walked closer, ever staring at the Dark Skinned Master as if he would jump inside him and steal his body at any micro second. He turned to the Tremas Master then. "Of course, no offense is meant towards you. You're a future that seems...very fit for the appearance of his age."

"And a very powerful one too," Tremas Master replied to him, giving the corpse Master a gentle pat on the shoulder, doing his best not to fracture a possibly already weakened bone by accident. "Look at me as long as you please to. This will be the body you will soon obtain. Your efforts will not be in vain my dear self, do not worry about that."

He turned back to the dark skinned Master and offered one of his gloved hands, still wearing his confident smile. "Well then, here's to...my future then."

The two youngest Masters in the room faced each other, then looked at the overly and extravagently dressed Bruce Master.

"I was quite curious how I'd be able to pull off a goatee-less life again," the second youngest said. "I see I must've traded it in exchange for...a new set of eyes and a very...demanding outfit shall we say."

"You could say that," Bruce Master began. "It took me quite a few bodies before I learned of a way to...well I suppose you could say I falsely recreated this one. Not a very easy process. But it was worth it. For all I know, this body may just be another temporary measure. I'm still not even sure of half the side effects I or this body may have."

"Fascinating," the youngest said to himself as he examined the others in the room. "Such a very...fascinating future I must have."

The eldest in the...shall we say, area, at the time simply grinned towards his Ebony skinned copy and replied to him. He enjoyed the way he addressed him far too much, as it only fed his already bloated ego.

"You'd be correct in your assumpton," he said calmly, pointing his laser screwdriver to him and then waved it to the rest of the area, using it as if it was a pointer. "Otherwise we'd all have memories of our multiple visits here."

His grin disappeared though when he noticed an unfamiliar machine enter this domain he created with his new machine. A version of him he wasn't expecting. The other Masters had turned to look at this new arrival as well. Older, and by far...Primitive technology. It almost seemed like he was a machine. A cyborg perhaps? Was there any chance a bit of Dalek or Cyberman technology was being used to sustain him?

Still, his grin returned when this version of himself turned out to have memories of being...well him. And his ebony skinned Rival would not get a chance to sit on the throne? Perhaps he means to reaffirm what he knew to be true. That he, himself, is still the original Master.

"What is it with that wasting time comment. You're the second version to have asked that of me in less than a few minutes," he began. "But yes, your assumptions are correct. In short, I'm the one that summoned us all here, let alone created the very place we are meeting now."

"This is a major breach within the laws of Time and Cause and Effect!" the youngest shouted. "Do you have any idea how much danger you're putting yourself in by bringing us all together?!"

"Rules are simply guidelines," Bruce Master said as he focused his snake-like eyes on the blond. "Guidelines which can be broken and remolded to suit the needs of others."

The second youngest patted the shoulder of the youngest. "Fear not dear me. I, You, We, He, They are not so foolish enough to do such a wreckless action without a way to ensure we all still survive. The fact our other selves are here means we will simply have an earlier chance to rule the Galaxy!"

"A very astute point dear Master," Tremas Master said to the younger selves. "But there is still the matter of how we will do so, as none of us have any memory of this scheme, and only one of us seems to be holding all the cards in this delicate scheme. You could say that one version of us is the Head Master of our possible institution of Masters here before us."

"And yet he knows he cannot complete this scheme without us," the decaying walking corpse said simply. "Which means he will share his power, as well as the rewards of completing this scheme, or it will die here and now."

"Before I can even begin, I believe we have two more guests that will be dining with us at the Captain's table this evening," Saxon said as he pointed back to the area the other TARDISes and the elderly Master's machine were all parked. "One I can say for sure will be here. The other, I can only gaurantee a possible 50% chance he will arrive here."

Soon enough, one new TARDIS materialized. Out from the door came a very...differently dressed Master. He wore black pants and boots, yes, but the rest of his outfit and appearance seemed slightly different. He was wearing a blue tunic with white sleeves on them. For those that remembered being him, this was his life before he was captured and put on trial at Skaro. He was very youthful looking ( trialx.com/curetalk/wp-content/blogs.dir/7/files/2011/04/gcelebrities/Gordon_Tipple-1.jpg ) compared to the other Master's present, and gave a bow to the others present.

"Gentlemen," he said in a very proper, if not almost...polite tone of voice. "I do hope I am not too late for our meeting." He looked to his past lives, then to the others present, and sensed the Time Lord psychic energy eminating from each of them. A very familiar energy. He closed his eyes and inhaled a deep breath through his nose before exhaling, and opening his eyes wide as he looked at them all.

"Four of you I recognize to be my past selves. The others, if you will allow me to assume correctly, are all my future incarnations. My my, so many different selves. I'm amazed I even get to live long enough to have such long rich fullfilling lives." If there was any sarcasm, any mockery, any malice in his voice, it was impossible to tell. If anything, he may very well could have been giving each of his future selves a complement. But do not be fooled, for despite his mannerisms, he is still The Master. "Will you allow me to join the rest of you?"

"Why certainly my dear fellow, come. You may stand next to me," Tremas Master said as he offered the space next to him for the new arrival to take. So this is my next regeneration. I must say, he is a rather charming youthful looking fellow, he thought.

"That's one," Saxon said to himself. Now will the other come?

Soon however there came the sound of the last TARDIS he was expecting. Saxon stood up and stared at the TARDIS. It had damage on the outside of it, as if it arrived from a great battle.

His past selves may not know what caused such damage, but Saxon knew. He knew so well, that he had made sure the message that went to this particular Master was different from the others. He needed to do something extra to coax this one into appearing before them. That particular TARDIS was used to escape the many horrors of The Last Great Time War.

When the doors opened, a great deal of steam and smoke poured out. A small hand grabbed at the edge of the doorway into the TARDIS. Standing there, in a tattered ragedy outfit that was in worse condition than the robes the decaying Master wore, was a child. A young boy, with blond hair.

"T...They won't...find me here...will they?" the boy asked timidly.

Saxon shook his head. "No my dear Master. The Time Lords will not find you here. The Last Great Time War has no power within this sanctuary."

There stood the Saxon Master's previous incarnation. The one who in many decades time would become the great Professor Yana, and help lead a small band of surviving humans to Utopia.

"Come now, Master." Saxon began. "Join us. Join the rest of your incarnations!"

The other Masters, at the sight of the young boy were dumbfounded. Even more so as he slowly struggled to stand up straight, and walk towards the rest of the group, deeply breathing. To think, one day they'd get a body as young as HIS currently was!

"Well, this is rather...an unexpected turn of events," the pre-corpse Master commented.

[Koschei]

"My Lord Master," the Master said, sketching a shallow bow. "I assume you have gathered us here?"

It was clear that the mild flattery pleased the man on the throne. That had always been a weakness of his, after all. Flattery.

"You'd be correct in your assumpton," he said calmly, pointing his laser screwdriver to him and then waved it to the rest of the area, using it as if it was a pointer. "Otherwise we'd all have memories of our multiple visits here."

"Perhaps," the Master allowed. "Blinovitch's law of temporal conservation says otherwise, but he was human." A pause. "A clever human, no doubt. But still bound by History." He glanced at the orb, and at the vista beyond. "On the other hand, even granting Blinovitch his due, it appears we are outside of conventional eleven-dimensional space-time..?"

But it was clear that the Master on the throne was no longer paying attention to him. Instead, he was staring at another new arrival. A greying, crippled human with the mind of...

The Master chuckled, once, as the new Master dismissed his younger selves and walked stiffly towards the dais. "You," he said, pointing at the blond Master as he advanced forward, softly whirring and clanking with each step. "I have the vaguest of memories of being you." He stopped, then, to consider the black Master. "I have no memories of you, though. But you don't sit on the throne..."

The Master eyed the greying, crippled Master. "No, I suppose I don't. But we have met..."

"Yes," the crippled Master agreed. "Cardiff. The Specialist's little attempt at crowning herself Queen of a new Gallifrey."

And then the younger Masters began bickering about whether or not all of this was safe, and the enthroned Master made a production out of introducing two more Masters. One, the man he'd been when the Daleks executed him. And the other...

The other was a young, young man. Practically a child. "T...They won't...find me here...will they?" the boy asked timidly.

"No," the Master said. Except in your nightmares, he thought. And they will find you there...

Then, finally, he turned back to the Master on the throne. "And so, may I assume we are all here? Why have you gathered us?"

[Deleted]

"Get on with it!" agreed the corpse Master. "Sadly unlike you, not all of us have as much time as the rest of us."

The other Masters were all in agreement that Saxon Master hurried it up and explained why they were all here. Why he had gathered them all. What could he possibly need almost all of his other selves for that he couldn't accomplish on his own. What they couldn't even accomplish on their own without the self appointed leader.

He got off the steps and stood before all of them, examining each one of them slowly.

"This isn't all of us. But it will do, for now." He held out his arms as he stood straight and tall. "Rather than tell you all, I will show you all."

He closed his eyes as his head looked up to the sky. He used his telepathic powers to show each and every other Master present the clearest version of the dream he could present to them all. His past selves immitated the same gesture of closing their eyes and tilting their heads upward as they received the dream. Well, minus the corpse Master of course, but his head still had tilted upward, and he saw the dream play out in his mind just as clearly as it did for the other Masters present.

The mysterious figure who looked to be in his Mid 40's and 50's. The Doctor yet to come. The destruction of an entire army of species and races from all over the universe, just from the mildest gesture of the figure's hand. The Eye of Time in a very similar, if not more complete looking Paradox Machine on the dias. The destruction of the Sonic Screwdriver. All hope for the Doctor and his allies lost. Victory was at hand. No, Victory had been achieved!

Achieved by a figure, who broke all the laws of time and became a rival power to that of the Eternals of the Universe. A being made up of dozens, if not hundreds, thousands, millions, billions of himself!

The name of the being could now be heard clearly in this dream in the other Master's minds. His name, was the Grand Master.

The Masters all opened their eyes when the dream was done.

"So our goal is clear," the Skaro Master said. "We are going to unite in one grand effort to finally defeat the Doctor, yes?"

"Assuming he is even on the current life we saw in the dream," the pre-corpse Master commented.

"A new body at last!" the corpse one yelled excitedly.

"Yes," Tremas Master agreed with him, quoting the very thing he said when he possessed Tremas using the Source of Traken. "A new body, at last."

"And yet not all of us are here," Bruce Master observed. "Nor is the machine that will give us such power complete."

"Gentlemen!" The Saxon Master shouted above them all. "You now know why I have summoned you here. You now know the purpose of why we are here. What say you? Are you all willing to rule the Universe?! Do you wish to finally see all of our efforts acheive our goal?! Do you wish to finally see the Doctor defeated?! Do you finally wish to see yourself as a true GOD among insects!?"

[Koschei]

"Gentlemen!" The Saxon Master shouted above them all. "You now know why I have summoned you here. You now know the purpose of why we are here. What say you? Are you all willing to rule the Universe?! Do you wish to finally see all of our efforts acheive our goal?! Do you wish to finally see the Doctor defeated?! Do you finally wish to see yourself as a true GOD among insects!?"

The 'ebony' Master hesitated. What did he want? The question brought a single, soft laugh. He'd been asking himself that same question for forty years now. Ever since the drums had fallen silent.

Ever since he'd met Kamalimakanakua.

Around him, the other Masters affirmed their agreement. It was what they'd always wanted, wasn't it? Power. The universe itself as a kingdom. The ultimate defeat of the Doctor.

..or you could just try starting over. A hundred years passes like the blink of an eye for your kind...

He smiled.

"I'm in."

[Deleted]

"Gentlemen!" The Saxon Master shouted above them all. "You now know why I have summoned you here. You now know the purpose of why we are here. What say you? Are you all willing to rule the Universe?! Do you wish to finally see all of our efforts acheive our goal?! Do you wish to finally see the Doctor defeated?! Do you finally wish to see yourself as a true GOD among insects!?"

The cyborg half-turned, watching the other Masters as they gave their assent. And why wouldn't they? All of them would become the man on the throne, someday. By assuring success now, they secured their own futures.

He clenched his fist, listening to the whirring of the servomechanisms in the augmetic limb. Listening to the soft thrumming of the artificial heart that worked away in his chest.

Supporting this Master would guarantee him nothing.

Except power.

He glanced back at the blonde Master on the throne. "Tell me more."

[Deleted]

"As you may have already deduced, based on the dream I shared with all of you, the machine behind me is incomplete," he said as he pointed his thumb behind him at the very machine that caused this very pocket dimension in time and space to exist for them all to meet and interact. "There are certain components we still need. Power supplies, special conducting wires, materials..."

He held his arms out to all the Masters in the room. "We are going to bring here not just our other regenerations, or any other being whose mind we all share. We are going to bring forth the very Grand Master himself! Into our universe! Why settle for one universe when we can rule them all as a GOD!?"

The Corpse Master, and the Bruce Master both pumped their fists into the air at that statement. The timid child-like Master was slowly regaining his confidence. Pre-Corpse and Tremas Master's were each holding their signature cocky grins. The first Master, his eyes were widening at the prospect of already ruling the Universe at such a young age. The Pre-Bruce Master still held the same controlled look on his face he held earlier.

"Now. To ensure that the Doctor doesn't stop us...We're going to gather those components in teams," the Saxon Master continued. "Preferably teams of three. Any objections?"

There were almost none. The other Masters all seemed to find the logic in his reasoning sound.

"Well then," began the Polite Master. "May I go ahead and take two incarnations to form my team, Master?"

Saxon turned his head to the pre-trial one. He nodded his head towards him. "Go on then." He was at least pleased to see another one of himself taking the innitiative.

The Polite Master turned and pointed his finger to the Corpse Master. "You. And..." he turned and pointed his finger towards the Ebony Master. "You."

He held his hands in front of himself. "Well gentlemen. Would you both care to accompany me into my TARDIS?"

The Polite Master's TARDIS was in the shape of a black Limosuine.

The Saxon Master looked to the others. "Any one else wish to make a team?"

The child Master stepped forward. His eyes...they held a renewed energy in them. "You!" He pointed towards the first incarnation. "And you!" He was now pointing towards the cyborg Master. "We will...gain raw materials."

"Which leaves...You three." Saxon was pointing at the final untaken Masters in the room. Bruce Master, Tremas Master, and Pre-Corpse Master. A dangerous group to any who faced them.

"Now, dear Masters. Are we ready to begin?" Saxon Master shouted to them all. "Are we ready to become Master of not just what, but EVERYTHING, AND EVERYONE!?"

[Koschei]

The "Master-mind", as the Master had half-jokingly dubbed the Master on the throne, proposed dividing the assembled Masters into teams. He had no personal objections.

"Well then," began the Polite Master. "May I go ahead and take two incarnations to form my team, Master?"

Saxon turned his head to the pre-trial one. He nodded his head towards him. "Go on then."

The Polite Master turned and pointed his finger to the Corpse Master. "You. And..." he turned and pointed his finger towards the Ebony Master. "You."

A shrug. "Very well. I see no reason why we should not depart now."

He held his hands in front of himself. "Well gentlemen. Would you both care to accompany me into my TARDIS?"

The Master eyed the glossy black stretch Lincoln Towncar, and smiled - just a little - at the memory. That had been a good Incarnation. Well, right until Skaro...

"Of course."

"Now, dear Masters. Are we ready to begin?" Saxon Master shouted to them all. "Are we ready to become Master of not just what, but EVERYTHING, AND EVERYONE!?"

As the Masters around him roared their approval, he quirked his lips in an ironic smile. "Yes. Quite."

---

It was oddly like coming home, entering his younger self's TARDIS. The same TARDIS, more or less, that he'd fled Gallifrey in when the Cruciform fell. She was younger, certainly, but otherwise unchanged.

"Ah, lovely," he murmured, running his fingertips over the console. Then he turned back to his younger selves. "You are her current Master," he said, offering the Polite Master a small bow. "Would you do the honors?"

[Deleted]

The blonde Master, the one that dared to sit on a throne, as if he were better than the rest, raved for a moment about becoming a god. And the Master's hands fisted around the bronze haft of his Omnessian axe, servos in his right hand whining as they strained to make a dent in the hardened metal.

"Enough of this self-serving..." he growled, the electronic burr in his voice becoming more pronounced, but the blonde was already finished and planning.

"Now. To ensure that the Doctor doesn't stop us...We're going to gather those components in teams," the Saxon Master continued. "Preferably teams of three. Any objections?"

"No," the Master bit out. "But let him try to stop us..." The mechadendrites writhed like pythons beneath his clothes, and he slowly clenched his fist as he raised it level with his eyes. "No games, not this time. I will crack his skull open, and grind his brain under my boot."

The fop he'd been, before the Daleks failed to kill him chose his burn wreckage of a past incarnation - the one that first learned to harness hate - and the black-skinned Master. The one he didn't recognize.

That Master... bothered him. He didn't see the madness in him, or the lust for power, that the others possessed. Granted he was crippled by being forced to try and think with this repulsive mass of colloid and computers that made up his brain, but that dark-skinned Master... He seemed almost as weak as his first Incarnation had been. The one that claimed only to kill for reasons, and had even attempted to share with the Doctor.

Both of them bore watching.

The child Master stepped forward. His eyes...they held a renewed energy in them. "You!" He pointed towards the first incarnation. "And you!" He was now pointing towards the cyborg Master. "We will...gain raw materials."

Only half his face could twist into something approximating a smile - he'd had enough cosmetic work to hide the gunmetal carapace that comprised the right half of his face, but hadn't cared enough to restore mobility to the flesh that covered it. As he strode forward, the stronger augmetic leg causing his weaker flesh leg to limp slightly, he glanced at his first Incarnation. "Raw materials, yes," he agreed. "Within a year, we can strip the resources from a thousand worlds, and bank the terror of our slaves as fuel."

His first Incarnation lifted an eyebrow at that, his expression somewhere between alarm and disgust. The Master merely chuckled, a sound like a growl.

"Now, dear Masters. Are we ready to begin?" Saxon Master shouted to them all. "Are we ready to become Master of not just what, but EVERYTHING, AND EVERYONE!?"

"En archē ēn ho Kýrios," murmured the Master as his past lives called back their agreement, "kai ho Kýrios ēn pros ton Theón, kai Theós ēn ho Kýrios."

[Deleted]

Saxon Master was pleased. This...Odd cybernetic elder form of him was darker than he was expecting him to be. He liked that. And the other Master...this...back-up or whatever his origins were...He was also on board with this and getting along well with his other incarnations as far as Saxon Master could tell.

"Oh, before I forget gentlemen," Saxon Master added lifting up a hand. "Despite what the dream showed us, have fun. The Doctor is a free-for-all-to-kill."

A few of the Master's seemed to get a small boost in energy from that statement. Especially the Corpse Master. Now the three Master teams were dispersing to three of the TARDISes in the area.

The Corpse-Skaro-Ebony team were taking Skaro's Limosine TARDIS. The YanaChild was leading the First Master and Cyborg to his damaged TARDIS from fleeing the Time War. Bruce, Tremas, and UNIT Master were going towards Bruce's TARDIS now.

Which left Saxon Master alone to continue making adjustments to the Paradox machine, or possibly to meet with any of the other incarnations that weren't able to make it as early as the rest of these were.

---

The Polite Master had opened the door to his TARDIS and allowed his two partners to have entered before him. He followed after the both of them and closed the door behind him.

The Ebony Master seemed to be enjoying the trip down memory lane, from what Polite Master could gather. Corpse Master meanwhile seemed to be examining the TARDIS with a sense of...envy, perhaps.

But he'd be right in that assumption. She was, after all, a very new model in terms of a Battle TARDIS.

"Ah, lovely," Ebony murmured, running his fingertips over the console. Then he turned back to his younger selves. "You are her current Master," he said, offering the Polite Master a small bow. "Would you do the honors?"

"Most certainly, my Master," the Polite Master said as he walked towards the console and set the coordinates. Flipping the dematerialization switch, she hummed to life and dematerialized quicker than even the Doctor's TARDIS had ever been known to. "While Goth's old TARDIS has served me well over the years, I found the need to acquire this girl, simply to examine the most recent Time Missiles developed for Battle TARDISes like her."

The Corpse walked over closer to them and spoke in a raspy voice. "I do not exactly...approve of this interior theme."

The interior, if anything, had walls that looked like large stone bricks, almost like that of a medival castle. There were flags and banners hanging on a few of the main support pillars. The catwalk from the main entrance to the platform that held the console, as well as the other catwalks leading away from the console, were wooden bridges over a moat that seemed to surround the platform the console rested on.

"You don't think so? I find it to be very regal," the Polite Master responded to him. "But onto business gentlemen. As I'm sure you saw in the vision that our host has shown us, one of the main components we need is a special focusing lens. I know of a planet near the boundaries of our universe and E-Space or N-Space that happens to hold a unique set of crystals only found on that planet that may help us. I propose the three of us go to retrieve these crystals to make the lense required. Are there any objections?"

---

The inside of Yana-Child's TARDIS was a mess. There were wires, broken beams and pipes, cluttered tools and spare parts everywhere. Yet still, there was enough space cleared on the main catwalk from the entrance to approach the console.

Unlike the interior of the Polite Master's, this TARDIS had red dimly glowing horizontal lights that lined up the portions of the walls not covered by the support beams and railings.

The first Master looked around in shock at the damage that had occured.

"Take a picture, it will last longer," Child-Yana grumbled before he sat down in the pilot's chair in front of the console. He shut the doors to the TARDIS with the pull of a lever. The console looked to be the least damaged part of the console room right now. The only thing odd or out of place about it was the gold fog watch sitting on the top of it.

"Either of you two have a request for a planet or what materials we gather?" the Yana-Child asked coldly and strictly.

The first Master was still examining and taking in all the damage that the TARDIS had obtained. He looked back to the other two, somewhat at a mild loss of words of what was around them.

"Dwarf Star Alloy is one possibility. Or Dalekanium," the first incarnation suggested. He turned his attention to the Cyborg Master. "Unless you know of a better material to benefit us?"

---

UNIT Master, Tremas Master, and Bruce Master meanwhile were already on the verge of formulating plans of their own inside the TARDIS that used to belong to the former Chancellor Goth. The possibilities of using various recursive Time Traps or Time Loops to distract the Doctor while they also gathered key materials for the machine they were united to create. These plans even included hostages. The Doctor's old companions most likely.

(OOC: If there's anything you'd like to correct me about in this post First, please do so)

[Koschei]

"Ah, lovely," the Master murmured, running his fingertips over the console. Then he turned back to his younger selves. "You are her current Master," he said, offering the Polite Master a small bow. "Would you do the honors?"

"Most certainly, my Master," the Polite Master said as he walked towards the console and set the coordinates. Flipping the dematerialization switch, she hummed to life and dematerialized quicker than even the Doctor's TARDIS had ever been known to. "While Goth's old TARDIS has served me well over the years, I found the need to acquire this girl, simply to examine the most recent Time Missiles developed for Battle TARDISes like her."

The Corpse walked over closer to them and spoke in a raspy voice. "I do not exactly...approve of this interior theme."

"You don't think so? I find it to be very regal," the Polite Master responded to him.

The Master looked around. "You wouldn't, of course," the Master said. "Our encounter with darling little Arkytior served, as I well remember, to sour you on anything that wasn't... utilitarian."

He gestured at the castle-like interior of the console, and smiled. "But, I assure you, your sense of aesthetics will recover. When you obtain your new body." A pause, as he eyed the decomposing wreckage of his original body with some distaste. "Eventually."

"But onto business gentlemen. As I'm sure you saw in the vision that our host has shown us, one of the main components we need is a special focusing lens."

The Ebony Master nodded. "Yes. And, I suspect, a concentus loupe will be insufficient to focus the energies released."

The Corpse Master cackled in disgust. "Of course not. If it would, we would have no need to seek one."

"I know of a planet near the boundaries of our universe and E-Space or N-Space that happens to hold a unique set of crystals only found on that planet that may help us. I propose the three of us go to retrieve these crystals to make the lense required. Are there any objections?"

The Ebony Master considered that. "Ah, yes. I remember the world, now that you call it to mind."

"I do not," snarled the Corpse Master.

"It comes later," the Ebony Master smiled. "After we begin exploring the CVE networks. After Logopolis."

The Corpse Master glared at him for a moment. "I grow weary of your superior airs," he snapped.

"I find myself strangely unconcerned." He turned back to the Polite Master. "I have no objections, and I assume you have already set the coordinates? When do we arrive?"

(OOC:
I went ahead and filled in some of Corpse's dialogue. Let me know if you see any edits you'd like me to make.)