Hope That Someone Gets My (The Deca)

[Rob "the Meddler" Goodfellow]

Jelpax held up a small black device, it looked like a blackberry, "Actually Magnus. I think they're both The Master." He checked his screen again, "Their not linked by time, but it appears that there's an odd flux in the blonde one's regeneration energy, like it's near a magnet of the same polarity." He shrugged, "We're looking at the same Time Lord, but, not the same Time Lord."

Vansell looked startled. "How is that possible? I've only heard of one thing like it. The case of Maxil and The Doctor."

"Or myself and the Could've-Been King," added the Meddler. He was bored already. They'd been in the same room for all of ten minutes now, and the sniping and factionalization were already starting. Another twenty minutes, and somebody would try to kill somebody. Probably the Doctor.

"The Hordes?" the Doctor asked, trying like he always had to maintain some sort of order. "As in, the Paladin Hordes?"

"I assume so, yes," the Meddler said, spinning the cube on one corner.

"I always thought them to be a myth, like the creation story humanity has come up with to explain their existence. Just a story to tell children to keep them in line."

"You missed them, then." It was Drax that spoke up, not bothering to stop staring at the Rani's chest as he did. "When the Cruciform fell. The High Council turned them loose on the Dalek Emperor. I decided on falling back to the Panopticon at that point, but you shoulda seen 'em, Thete. A thousand Validium skeletons, with this kinda mincing walk."

He paused, expression distant with the 'thousand year stare' of a Time Lord accessing his memories. "Bloody Daleks slagged half of 'em, before they made it across the Square of the Circle."

"I had to avoid them myself," the Meddler agreed. "When I made for the Halls of Eileythia."

"Oh, yeah..." Drax said, perking up. "I'd forgotten 'bout you and the Specialist. What happened with that?"

"She was dead when I got there."

"Oh." Drax's face fell. "Uhm... Sorry."

Around them, the bickering about the Masters - a title that probably should never need to be pluralized - continued. The Doctor made a second, valiant attempt to restore order.

"For now, let's all just operate on the understanding that The Master and The Master are the same, but separate."

"Yeah, sure," agreed Drax cheerfully. "Why the hell not?"

"Particularly since there's at least one more Master still running around," added the Meddler.

"Seriously?"

"Yes," the Meddler stated. "My wife saw him, in the court of her father."

"Wife? You got married?" Drax leaned forward. "Good on you, mate."

"We all have hypercubes here," the Doctor continued, raising his voice, "each one containing a message and the coordinates to come here."

Drax jumped a little. "Yeah. Got mine right here, don't I?"

"Obviously," the Doctor continued, trying to ignore Drax, "someone who knows who we are and that we are connected..."

"And alive," added the Meddler.

"...they wanted us to gather. I think though, it might have been more than just a warning of Hordes. Listen to mine."

The Doctor released his message, The Toymaker holds us. When the hypercube stopped, The Doctor continued, "I think we all recognize that voice. That's Rallon,"

Drax was on his feet now. "Hell yeah, that's Rallon. But he's dead, ain't he?"

"The question is, how did he break free long enough to contact us? And how do we help him and Millennia."

The Meddler stared at the Doctor's cube for a long moment. "If any of us could do it, it would be Rallon," he finally said. "He took to the noetic sciences the way the War Chief took to strategy and tactics, or the Rani to biosciences."

He thought for another moment. "Let me see that cube," he said, holding out his hand. "Maybe I can figure out where it came from."

[Koschei]

With the grace and ease of a politician, he began to circle the room. "Our beautiful and lethal Rani," he said with a shallow bow. "And I would ask for your hand that I might kiss it, except that I know the sort of things you might coat your knuckles with."

“Yes”, she uttered, scornfully. “By your saliva, Master”.

With a fluid motion he stepped close, invading the Rani's personal space. "Ushas," he murmured, "Please. Not in front of the children..."

Then, with a mocking smile, he stepped back and returned to his "introductions".

---

"Copy? Me?" he asked as he held his hands towards himself. "Now what would give you that idea. After all, I'm the one with the Laser Screwdriver," he said as he held up the little tool and waved it in his hand.

The Master sneered at the other version of himself. "Really? You want to play 'mine's bigger than yours' to determine which of us is a copy?"

"And now that I think about it, going back over some old files in my own personal TARDIS...I do recall having made at least one copy of myself. Obviously I did too well of a job," he said studying the man. "Even my own genius seems to get the better of me, I suppose."

The Master shrugged, the gesture speaking volumes of unconcern. "Suit yourself. Given the number of times we've cheated death, the question of which of us is the original is, I believe, moot."

He turned to the Doctor and clapped his hands. "So Doctor! Would you care to elaborate as to why we are all here? Because personally, I was just about to alter Earth's history again using a few brainwashed renegade Daleks, so if we could hurry this up, I would like to get back to playtime with the lesser species of the universe."

Now effectively standing behind his duplicate, the Master rolled his eyes. "Just promise me that you won't persuade them of your divinity through the medium of a potted plant."

The sniping and bickering continued, until the Doctor played his message. The Toymaker holds us, in the voice of Rallon.

The Meddler started. Drax surged to his feet. And the Master?

He lifted an eyebrow.

[Deleted]

The Master shook his head as the other Deca's began discussing the possibility of there being more than one Master who were not different regenerations. It wasn't the first time he's had to deal with this before. After all, one alternate universe, where the Doctor ruled the Republic of Great Britain, his alternate universe counterpart, still going by the name "Koschei", was a prisoner constantly tortured by that alternate universe Doctor. He killed him as an act of mercy.

Unlike Vansell though, to the Master, the last time all ten Members of the Deca were together was before the Time War. Before they even decided to go their seperate ways and do with the universe and all of time as they each saw fit. He had heard of Rallon and Millennia were both captured by the Celestial Toymaker. The Master himself had stolen one of the ToyMaker's old toys in a scheme of his during his years in Tremas's body. A scheme that involved capturing the first through seventh incarnations of the Doctor. Not like he could've done anything to free them at the time.

"Now it makes sense," he muttered to himself, thinking back to the message he received himself, with the image of the Toymaker in the hypercube he recieved.

The truth was, his role in the Time War was obscure to all the other members. He did have to explain to the 10th incarnation of the Doctor how he survived the Time War, how he escaped, how he was revived yet again, his assignment in the time war.

And why he left.

It was his job to protect the Cruciform. It was his failure that allowed the Dalek Emperor to gain control of it. "The Cruciform," he growled.

He listened on to the details of the Time War. So even the Paladin Hordes couldn't stop the Daleks.

And yet he still went back to the Time Wars.

He smirked back to his other self. He didn't need to reply to any of his remarks. He knew he was the original, the true Master.

He gained a sickening snear to his face. Oh if only these fools new, he thought, that of all of them, he took on Rassilon on the last day of the Time Wars. He defeated the greatest time lord in all of history, and still managed to escape the destruction of Gallifrey and the rest of the Time Lords.

"In his toyroom," The Master said to himself. "I'm pretty sure that's an obvious dead giveaway of where we must go, is it not?"

[Deleted]

The Rani quirked a brow as the Doctor questioned her escape from the Tetraps. She let out a high pitched giggle and twirled a strand of hair around her index finger. “A magician never reveals her secrets”. She displayed a perfect set of white teeth, and made a gnashing noise with them. Grinning a little, the Rani tilted her head as the others started to speak.

The Hordes will Rise Again. The Rani let those words circle in that well oiled mind of hers. Yes it was true what the Doctor said, about the Hordes being nothing more than a fairy tale. She recalled her long lost mother muttering something about it at the dinner table before the Rani disappeared to gather exotic supplies from the city. She didn't bother to dwell on the Hordes again as the Doctor revealed his Hypercube message, and the Rani raised a brow. The last time she had heard that voice was during the Deca course itself – she and Vansell had just about finished their course along with Rallon – when he suddenly disappeared; something about the Celestial Toymaker.

It was pure brilliance the Rani had admired for quite some time; turning certain species into marionettes. Even she could not work out how he had done it, but given the opportunity, there could be a chance for her intelligence to be broadened to the point of discovering a 'cure'. She kept the idea to herself for now, no doubt she'd have a perfect opportunity to 'play' with the Toymaker soon.

Then in the long run, she could defeat him and use his ideas as her own... a smile broadened.


Her smile suddenly turned into pursed lips when she felt eyes on her chest; and she used her own eyes to follow the glare to Drax. “I could always give you a set of your own to stare at”, she hissed, and then blinked. “missed them? So it's clear, they do exist, and not even the Doctor knew about it”. She chuckled again. “And of course the High Council had some sort of say in it...” Eyes flickered to Vansell. Again, she heard her name mentioned by the Meddler and she straightened a little. “I did tutor Rallon at some point...” She added with another quirk of her brow. “...during our courses; I didn't mind having a minion; actually”.

The Rani was tempted to head back into her TARDIS to fetch her own hypercube. The message replayed in her mind, it was the reason why she chose to follow it. Surely it didn't mean that she was supposed to ally herself with the Deca once again?

Once the Master... well, the pretty one spoke, the Rani smirked. “Koschei, it amuses me that we are still one on the same wavelength. Children indeed...”

[Deleted]

Everyone was blabbing on and on now. He'd gotten the answers he was looking for, well, the closest thing to an answer at least, no one really knew what the deal with the two Masters was, but they'd found that nothing bad would happen with the two in the same room at the same time, good enough for him.

Now they were discussing the messages in the cubes, seemed they were about the old stories of the Paladins, and then about the Toymaker, in Rallon's voice. The War Chief hadn't been sure that he'd believed the story The Doctor had, that Millennia had become a marrionette and Rallon's body had been possessed by the Toymaker.

Now, after everything he'd seen, everything he'd done out there, it seemed plausible. The question on his mind now was, what could they do about it. He ignored the bickering between The Rani and The Master at first, instead keeping his thoughts private. Until they started throwing the word children.

"Watch it," Chief warned, "We all didn't graduate as quickly as you had, but we're all as talented in our own specific fields. I've got the feeling that this is going to be one of those missions where we're all going to use our specific skill sets to work together."
-----

Jelpax cleared his throat before interrupting The War Chief, "That's if we decide to do something, and even think of what we can do at all." He seemed hesitant at first before saying, "Should we vote? About whether we act, or go our separate ways again?"

[Deleted]

Vansell hadn't the time to deal with their old grudges and squabbles, he hadn't cared about them when they were children in the Academy either. No, all Vansell had ever cared about in those days were graduating and getting his orders. Of course, he'd eventually worked himself up to being the one who handed the orders out, but that wasn't the point.

Now, they were receiving a distress call from their old friends, the two who'd been left behind so very long ago. As far as Vansell was concerned, now that there were only a dozen, maybe two dozen Time Lords left in their Universe, maybe it was time to consider working together again.

Right on time, Jelpax made the suggestion for a vote. Vansell cut in, "I don't think it's a question. We should. They were our friends, we need to help them, however we can."

[Deleted]

The Hordes were a major concern for The Doctor. If they really were real, they were incredibly dangerous. That meant though, that whoever sent these cubes, and The Doctor was hoping that it was really Rallon, he'd have more information.

The War Chief, Jelpax and Vansell were trying to call to order the situation of their old friends, The Doctor had to agree with Vansell, especially since he'd been with the two when their accidents and subsequent captures had happened.

"I, owe them both my very best efforts." The Doctor started, "We should all work together and free them. We were all friends when it was the ten of us. Perhaps, in a way, when they were gone, there had been serious cracks in our abilities to trust each other."

He wasn't saying it out loud, but The Doctor would like nothing more than to have the remaining Time Lords, his friends of old specifically, working together, to whatever extent the others were willing, "But, it should be all or none of us. No room for doubting each other. All eight, er, nine, eight and a half, of us, need to trust each other for this to work."

[Rob "the Meddler" Goodfellow]

Jelpax cleared his throat before interrupting The War Chief, "That's if we decide to do something, and even think of what we can do at all." He seemed hesitant at first before saying, "Should we vote? About whether we act, or go our separate ways again?"

"Vote?" Drax's voice was shrill with outrage. "Vote? You weasily little button-mashing-"

Vansell cut in, "I don't think it's a question. We should. They were our friends, we need to help them, however we can."

"That's what I'm talking about!"

"I, owe them both my very best efforts." The Doctor started, "We should all work together and free them. We were all friends when it was the ten of us. Perhaps, in a way, when they were gone, there had been serious cracks in our abilities to trust each other."

Drax pumped his fist in agreement, then spat on the floor in Jelpax's direction. "Vote," he sneered. "Rallon's alive and you wanna vote on whether we do something."

"It's a reasonable suggestion," the Meddler said, interrupting Drax's ranting.

"WHAT?"

"We have a long history of not getting along. Much longer than our history as 'the Deca' of Gallifrey's nightmares."

"So what?" Drax demanded.

"But, it should be all or none of us," the Doctor continued, "No room for doubting each other. All eight, er, nine, eight and a half, of us, need to trust each other for this to work."

"That's the trick, isn't it?" said the Meddler, a faint smile on his face. "But... I'm in. For Milennia, if for no other reason."

Drax started to speak, then stopped and looked seriously at the rest of his "colleagues". He sighed. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm in," he finally said, not managing to look at Jelpax as he did.

[Koschei]

With a fluid motion he stepped close, invading the Rani's personal space. "Ushas," he murmured, "Please. Not in front of the children..."

The Rani smirked. “Koschei, it amuses me that we are still one on the same wavelength. Children indeed...”

The Master lifted an eyebrow, then inclined his head with an attitude that could have been mockery or respect. "I knew there were reasons I used to like you," he said with a smile. "Perhaps, when this is done, we can attempt to reacquaint ourselves..?"

"Watch it," Chief warned, "We all didn't graduate as quickly as you had, but we're all as talented in our own specific fields. I've got the feeling that this is going to be one of those missions where we're all going to use our specific skill sets to work together."

He turned to face the heavily-muscled Time Lord. "Our dangerous and cunning War Chief." A clap on the shoulder. "Silver medalist in the annual 'coming back from the dead' competition." Another smile. "I have no doubt you are correct in your assessement, and I assure you I would not belittle your talents. I can think of no man I would rather have standing between myself and the enemy."

And with that, he continued his introductiosn.

---

"In his toyroom," The Master said to himself. "I'm pretty sure that's an obvious dead giveaway of where we must go, is it not?"

"Clearly," agreed the Master. "The last place Rallon and Milennia were seen."

---

Drax began making a scene. What a surprise - he had always been the most explosively demonstrative of the lot of them. But, on a certain level, he was making sense.

Which disturbed the Master, actually. Not only because Drax was making sense, but because the sheer emotional appeal to old friendship was what was making sense.

Clearly, the Master thought, the silencing of Rassilon's Drums has left me mad.

But finally, Drax's ranting was silenced by the Doctor, pointing out that - if they were to work together - they had to trust one another.

"That's the trick, isn't it?" said the Meddler, a faint smile on his face. "But... I'm in. For Milennia, if for no other reason."

Drax started to speak, then stopped and looked seriously at the rest of his "colleagues". He sighed. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm in," he finally said, not managing to look at Jelpax as he did.

A mocking smile tugged at the Master's lips. "You have my tissue compression eliminator," he said, deadpan.

[Deleted]

The Master snarled at all the bickering amongst the remaining Deca members. And even his backup or whatever the hell copy or other him this man was just stealing his thunder and his attention. Hell, he's kissing up to the Rani and assuming she was talking to him. Note to self: Prepare a trap for him...and a lethal blast from another ancient Dalek Artifact. Or hell, just leave him alone with the Doctor's Granddaughter and frame him for killing another one of her love interests.

But at the ... Other Master's reply to his own earlier statement, the Master replied, "For once we can agree on something then."

And then that respect was gone. Oh, so now he's using one of his weapons, is he!? He just walked over to the Doctor and placed a hand on his shoulder. He leaned in and said to him in a low voice, "So long as I don't have to sit with him on the trip there, I'll be good with whatever the hell you decide to do."

He walked past the Doctor and turned around as he stood in front of his TARDIS, clapping his hands. "SO! Doctor! I imagine you have a plan or a path for us to follow into the Toymaker's little home? Or would you like me to lead the assault? Because last I checked, only four Deca Members have ever gotten into the ToyMaker's Toyroom, and out of them, only you and I have returned."

Which was true. He had stolen what once looked like a music box of some sort, back when the Master fought Graak at the Great Divide when he had captured the first through seven incarnations of the Doctor back in his Tremas incarnation. That same little box was most likely locked up in some vault on his TARDIS right now.

[Deleted]

The Rani's brow quirked as the War Chief suggested the idea of working together. “And your specific skill set is... what... the ability to pick up various objects and throw them at various beings?” She'd hoped it would strike a chord with him, the Rani wasn't the type to work well with others.

Jelpax commented on a vote, and the Rani was quick to raise her hand. “I suggest we go our separate ways. My specific skill set still harbours secrets to which I'd rather not share with the rest of you”.

Vansell and the Doctor shared their thoughts on the subject. Yes, they were all friends once; but the War had torn them apart. The Rani herself had been exiled from Gallifrey long before the Time War started, so she really couldn't care less what happened to her fellow species.

However, Drax's reaction caused the Rani's smirk to return. Perhaps there was a method to her madness after all, yes – maybe she could learn something from this group once again; to see how much they really had changed. The majority of the Time Lords in the room had nearly used all of their regenerations – the Doctor in particular, the Rani sensed perhaps... Eleventh? The Two Masters were going to cause some sort of chemical interference and she was most curious to see how they manage to exist.

Moments after she had thought about the Masters, one of them spoke to her rather suggestively. Was he implying to rekindle an old flame? “Might I remind you, Master; of a recent phrase you uttered – oh yes. Not in front of the children”. She shook her index finger slowly under his nose. “You of all people should know better to keep such desires to yourself. They could see it as a weakness”.

She watched as the other Master approached the Doctor. Oh yes.. this could indeed be a fun social experiment indeed... “I withdraw my vote. However... I have one request. Leave the remains of the ToyMaker to me, and I will be glad to help you recover our... friends”.

[Deleted]

Jelpax nearly retreated as Drax shouted at him. In any stature, he wasn't nearly as strong as any of the others, he probably couldn't even match physically to The Rani either. He held up his hands trying to calm his old friend, trying to appease him by noting what he really meant.

"My vote is to go as well Drax, I just wasn't sure everyone else would go along with it as well. You can't honestly tell me that everyone here has always been the most agreeable of sorts. Some of us have spent the last thousand or so years trying to kill each other."
----------

“And your specific skill set is... what... the ability to pick up various objects and throw them at various beings?”

"I could pick you up and throw you down that ventilation shaft. Would you like that?" Chief wasn't going to get caught up in The Rani's game like The Master was. He was perfectly capable of looking an attractive Time Lady in the eye and telling her off. Now, putting his boot upside her head, that might not be as simple, The War Chief was still honor bound, however, he certainly didn't mind telling her off.

Chief coughed and said, "Hey, at least I only tried to kill one of us once. And let's be realistic, if I'd gone and done the work myself, we'd be standing with one less Doctor." He'd already given his vote in, he wanted to go and help Rallon and Millennia, anyway that they could.

"Right, we're all in agreement now, can we go?" He rolled his eyes as one of The Master's cut him off to ask The Doctor nearly the same exact question, "Glory hound."

[Deleted]

Vansell cut in, "I don't think it's a question. We should. They were our friends, we need to help them, however we can."

"That's what I'm talking about!"

"I didn't mean that for everyone Drax. Perhaps not all of us feel the same." Vansell was looking at things as fairly as he could, really he felt like it was their duty as friends of the two to do what they could, but there were members of the group that likely didn't feel that way. His eyes shifted to The Meddler, who was giving a counterpoint, and the blonde Master, who seemed to be the wildcard of the group.

The Doctor spoke, and if he'd note been the destroyer of their home world, Vansell might even consider his words inspirational. At the moment, he struggled with it. Had Gallifrey really needed to burn? He supposed as a deserter, he really couldn't speak his mind on the matter.

The Rani refused at first, but by the end of her sentence, she'd changed her mind, “I withdraw my vote. However... I have one request. Leave the remains of the ToyMaker to me, and I will be glad to help you recover our... friends”.

She could be so, polarizing. Vansell spoke up, "Isn't the Toymaker's body that of Rallon's? We should work to remove the Toymaker from his body, not kill them both."

[Deleted]

“I withdraw my vote. However... I have one request. Leave the remains of the ToyMaker to me, and I will be glad to help you recover our... friends”.

"Isn't the Toymaker's body that of Rallon's? We should work to remove the Toymaker from his body, not kill them both."

The Doctor cut in, "That's true. However, we should be able to rig something that will be able to remove the Toymaker from Rallon's body. We'll allow The Rani to keep his essence as payment for her assistance, seems like a fair trade off to me."

They were all in agreement now, The Doctor was pleased that they were all willing to do what they must to deal with the Toymaker, help their friends, and learn more about the potential threat of The Paladin Hordes. He continued, "The other issue is Millennia. The Toymaker transformed her into a marionette. We're going to have to discuss means of which we can return her to a body of flesh and blood, or the closest of which we can manage. I believe that we can save the both of them, as long as we're all in this together one hundred percent."

The War Chief looked like he was about to snark, so The Doctor cut him off, "Yes. That was incredibly cliched, we don't have time to dwell on that."

"SO! Doctor! I imagine you have a plan or a path for us to follow into the Toymaker's little home? Or would you like me to lead the assault? Because last I checked, only four Deca Members have ever gotten into the ToyMaker's Toyroom, and out of them, only you and I have returned."

The Doctor had thought briefly on the subject, "Yes, I imagined that we wouldn't have the easiest of times with this one, so I've planned for us to go through the back door. We'll only have enough room to fit one TARDIS in, and since my old girl has some experience with the Toymaker, I'd like to volunteer taking her. With nine pilots, we'll be able to fly her like a Time Tot writes out a thesis on quantum physics."

[Rob "the Meddler" Goodfellow]

The agreements began to be made - hesitantly, grudgingly, but everyone slowly decided to pitch in on the rescue of Rallon.

For the Meddler's part, he had largely lost interest in the proceedings as soon as he'd agreed to go. Instead, he was examining the cubes on the table, idly turning them and weighing them in his hands. His dark glasses rested on the table next to his hands, and his eyes burned with a faint golden light.

"My vote is to go as well Drax," Jelpax assured the belligerent engineer. "I just wasn't sure everyone else would go along with it as well. You can't honestly tell me that everyone here has always been the most agreeable of sorts. Some of us have spent the last thousand or so years trying to kill each other."

"Yeah, well..." Drax shrugged. "Bit of a laugh, wasn't it?"

"I never really tried to kill the Doctor," the Meddler added, absently. "I was just trying not to get killed by Daleks." A pause. "This was, of course, back when they really only hated him."

He blinked, and the glow went out as his eyes became orbs of obsidian.

Drax considered the Meddler for a moment, then shrugged. "He still ain't right in the head, is he?"

The Master walked past the Doctor and turned around as he stood in front of his TARDIS, clapping his hands. "SO! Doctor! I imagine you have a plan or a path for us to follow into the Toymaker's little home? Or would you like me to lead the assault? Because last I checked, only four Deca Members have ever gotten into the ToyMaker's Toyroom, and out of them, only you and I have returned."

"Yes, I imagined that we wouldn't have the easiest of times with this one," the Doctor replied, "so I've planned for us to go through the back door. We'll only have enough room to fit one TARDIS in, and since my old girl has some experience with the Toymaker, I'd like to volunteer taking her. With nine pilots, we'll be able to fly her like a Time Tot writes out a thesis on quantum physics."

Drax looked long and hard at the Master. "Yeah, I suppose that could work. Only, I'd rather have the Doctor do it." A pause. "That way, if everything goes ploin-shaped, we've got someone in charge who'll blow everything up instead of just cut and run."