puzzleprompts | They'll Never Understand Us (Three Prompts) (Reply)

Title: They’ll Never Understand Us

Author: RoseGlade

Fandom/Universe: Doctor Who

Characters: The Master and Missy

Rating/Warnings: N/A

Length: 915 words

Spoilers: “The Doctor Falls”

Notes: Originally posted to who_contest for prompt “Lack of Understanding”, but was tweaked for Challenge

Summary, etc: “They’ll never understand us … No one will ever understand our drums.”

Power Hour - Prophecy

Random Object - Apple

Random Descriptor - Blue

Missy twirled her dark golden brown hair and sighed in exasperation. The concrete brick she was laying against poked her as she shifted her body weight from side to side.

“What’s wrong?” Her evil counterpart inquired with the same tone.

“Oh, nothing.” Missy sat up and began playing with the grass at her feet.

“Missy, I can’t read minds, prior to contrary belief.” The Master sat up and leaned against the concrete bricks of a broken wall. He smiled. “Come on, tell me.”

“Why do we oppose the Doctor? Has there ever really been a purpose to it all?”

The Master laughed. A good laugh which could have only been aroused by great amusement. He clutched his side as he steadied himself on the broken wall.

“Hey, I mean it!” Missy slightly slapped his shoulder. “All the Doctor does is good and all we do is bad. Now, when you think about it, the good is boring and isn’t helpful in the long run. But, the bad also gets boring after so many evil schemes. Don’t you ever think about maybe … switching sides? Maybe just for a day?”

“Stop!” The Master laughing increased. “Please stop! Oh, you’re going to make me regenerate!”

After about a minute and a few eyerolls from Missy, the Master took a deep breath and glared at her with an unexplained rage and a sense of dominant in his eyes. As much as that glare scared her, it also calmed her.

“Switching sides? Switching sides? Oh, you really have fallen for this old fool.”

“Have not!”

“Have too!” The Master sat back on the concrete bricks and sighed. “You know as much as I do why we do what we do.”

Missy looked down at her shoes. She did know, but she didn’t like it. Her memories of her time as the Master were a bit foggy, but she remembered the highlights. The Drums. The neverending drumbeats from Hell itself. The Rage. The feelings of betrayal after learning that the Gallifreyans had put them there. The Insaneness. Really no use of describing that. And the solitude. He was so alone. Millenniums after millenniums he traveled causing havoc and grew tired after every world. He’d never admit it, but he missed the company of some type. And of course, he never complained about or even mentioned it. But the hole was there and it still is.

“I’m afraid it’s a bit foggy in that area. You’ll have to remind me.”

“The Drums.” By the way he said it, Missy could only assume he was grinning. “The constant banging!”

The Master rolled off the bricks and walk out in front of her.

“You must remember it!” The Master turned to her; His eyes blazing just the way she remembered. He ran up to her so that they were mere inches apart.

“They’re always there!” He grabbed Missy’s forearms and she grimaced at his tight grip.

“Bang! Bang! Bang! Ba-”

“Bang.” Missy finished. Her eyes locked with his and they held their understanding for a few seconds. The Master smiled as he looked down to his feet.

“They’ll never understand us. The Doctor will never understand us. No one will ever understand us! We are the fulfillment of the prophecy of long ago. We are the ultimate being! You ask me why we don’t switch sides when the reason is, one, we’re born evil, are evil, and always will be evil! And there’s no changing perfection, darling. We are different. We were meant to cause chaos. We all play a part in the universe and we have the role of the villains in this story. Two, we are the only people in the history of the universe who hear this sound. No one will ever understand our drums. The drums that beat in our heads.”

Missy looked down at her feet. He had a point. Though the drumming was primarily in the Master’s head, it still beat in her head if only slightly quieter. And she was the only one who could hear it.

“Oh,” The Master looked up. “Don’t be sad. You can still hang out with your boyfriend, but there is no joining him. Not now and not ever. If you do however think about siding with him then I’ll have to come and remind you why you won’t.”

The Master released his firm grip of Missy and reached down to pick up an apple which had rolled away from the Doctor’s workstation. He meticulously gazed at the bright red apple as if he was looking for some type of trigger. He brought it up to his mouth as if he was going to take a large bit but then, threw it halfway across the field. As soon the apple hit the ground it exploded into copious pieces. The Master smiled smugly and made his way back on the concrete bricks. Missy looked to the house in which her Doctor was devising a plan to save the people on this ship and she sat with her back to the Master. She pushed away all her thoughts of switching sides as she went back to twirling her hair.

“So Missy,” The Master gazed up into the dark blue, computer-generated sky. “After we get off this blasted spaceship, what world should we concur first?”

“How about ... “ Missy had to think for a second. “Mars. Heard the Ice Queen woke up recently.”

“Mars …” The Master took in a deep breath. “Sounds marvelous.”