Title: The Horror of Our Love Author: ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
british_demon Word Count: 8604 total
Pairing: Theta/Koschei, Eight/Jacobi!Master (Chapter 12), Ten/Simm!Master (Chapter 13)
Rating: PG-13/T
Warnings: mild adult content
Beta thanks: ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/user_ontd.gif)
clutzycricket Who is a far superior writer than me in nearly all ways c:
Summary: The Doctor and the Master… from the day they met to the day it all ended and why. The backstory you always knew existed, but no one talked about.
A/N: In which... I draw from the Seventh Doctor audio "The Master".
(Chapter I: Never So Much Blood Pulled Through my Veins)
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Chapter II: Moonlight Walking)
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Chapter III: Blackbird Screaming)
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Chapter IV: Hold You Down and Tear You Open)
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Chapter V: You're a Dream Among the Sharks)
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Chapter VI: Live Inside You... Oh, Love, I'd Never Hurt You)
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Chapter VIII: There's Catastrophe in Everything I'm Touching)
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Chapter IX: Dark Cathedrals Spilling Midnight on their Altars)
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Chapter X: I'm Your Servant, My Immortal...)
Chapter VII: You’re a Ghost, Love
He hadn’t meant for it to happen. It was an accident! He swore!
Theta wept in fear and guilt as he huddled in a corner of the dark, damp cave, holding the unconscious Koschei to him.
“Wake up Koschei,” he pleaded, whimpering, “please wake up!”
Then a dark shadow on the cave wall began to swirl and take form. He gasped as a dark, menacing figure, cloaked from the very essence of the cave itself, stepped forth. He knew who she was instinctively. She was Death.
Towering above him, wild, brittle, grey hair flung out behind her, she stooped to look at the shivering, terrified son of Gallifrey.
“You,” her voice was a hoarse bark, “you are responsible.” A skeletal finger pointed unwavering at him.
“But it was an accident!” he begged, “Please!” His tears came fast and hot, “I didn’t mean to kill him…” he could barely choke out between sobs. Oh, why wouldn’t Koschei wake up?! He cried into his best friend’s shoulder.
Death laughed, short and harsh, “But he is dead,” she pointed to the irrevocable evidence of the dead body behind her, “He has crossed over. And now, you must make a choice.”
Theta shuddered, trying to stem his tears, “What?” his voice quavered.
“I have come to offer you a gift, young Time Lord. Become my disciple, learn what I alone can teach, and eternity is yours.”
Theta shook his head at her, only half-comprehending the words, but it didn’t matter. He just wanted this day to end, he just wanted to get out of here and be safe and warm and happy with Koschei again.
She frowned, “You deny my gift?” she hissed at him.
Theta nodded, “Yes. I don’t want eternity and I don’t want to kill.”
“Then you shall die here, with your first blood,” she raised her gnarled, pointing finger to strike him down.
“No, but wait! Wait!” he spluttered, finger digging into Koschei’s arm, “Wait… what about him?!” he gestured to the boy in his arms.
Her seemingly sightless eyes roved to the motionless Koschei. Her thin, transparent lips thinned in a cruel smile, “There is much Death and Destruction for him in what is to come,” she gloated indulgently, “But so have you both,” she returned to Theta.
Theta swallowed, “Me? But why me? I don’t want death and destruction!”
Death sneered at him, “It is not a matter of what you want, but what you must do… what you were chosen to do… your name, for instance…”
“THAT IS NOT MY NAME!” he shouted at her, “I AM THE DOCTOR AND I MAKE PEOPLE BETTER!” he fell silent suddenly, in shock of his own temper.
Death said nothing, only watched the boy’s horror at what he was capable of, “You see now why I want you? You will be my disciple, boy of Gallifrey. Or perish here, with your guilt.”
Theta’s mind sought everywhere for an escape, something to cheat Death, impossible as it was said to be. “Wait, wait… if you kill me, then my destiny, it wouldn’t be fulfilled would it?”
Death regarded him narrowly down the edge of what would have been her nose.
“So you can’t kill me!” he exploded, “you can’t.” He gasped in relief.
“Mock not Death, child, I am forever and will have you, in time…” she started to drift back into the shadows, to a place no mortal could tread.
“Wait!” he begged one last time, “wait, could you… could you make him better?” he looked up at her with, for the first time in this whole ordeal, truly sorrowful eyes.
“A bargain!” she cackled mercilessly, “I can mend your Koschei, but at the end of ten years, you must kill him and resign yourself to me. Or you will live to see your Koschei become the very thing you hate most.”
Theta glared at her, “Never! I could never hate Koschei, and he’d…” he looked down at his friend, and even as he lay there, still and innocent, Theta remembered all those dull pricks in the back of his mind whenever Koschei would say something dubious, or do things that were almost evil on purpose, and worst of all, his secretive smile that went with the drums in his head… the drums…
“Why don’t you take him, then?” Theta whispered, almost without realizing he’d said it.
Death smiled darkly at him, “Very well, young Time Lord, our deal is sealed. I will make your Koschei well, but after ten years, you will come to me… or he will…” and with that she faded into a dark mist and was gone.
Koschei woke up, shivering and coughing, in Theta’s arms, “Theta…” he struggled to get out between coughs, “where are we? What’s going…?”
Roughly, Theta seized him by the collar and kissed him passionately. Koschei didn’t have the slightest idea what had brought this on and he really wouldn’t have minded either, except he still needed to breathe.
Eventually Theta let up, “I love you Koschei,” he whispered hoarsely in his ear, crying weakly.
Koschei felt a twinge of worry in his hearts, “It’s alright Theta, I’m here,” he sat up and cradled Theta, soothing him and muttering sweet nothings that told Theta that no matter what Death had promised, he would always love his Koschei as his Koschei would always love him.
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british_demon 
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