A Question of Time

Two months after Jack came to the realization that he was carrying the Doctor’s child, the ex-Time Agent began to have some very… unusual dreams.

Like all humans, when Jack slept he dreamed, but never before had Jack had dreams like the ones he had now. These ‘dreams’ were glimpses into the lives of two men… Theta Sigma and Koschei.

It wasn’t until the seventh or eighth dream that Jack realized that these two weren’t men, but Time Lords… and Theta Sigma was the Time Lord whom Jack would later know as the Doctor.

Through his dreams, Jack watched as Theta Sigma and Koschei attempted to rebel against the society they had found themselves born into… only for Theta Sigma to apparently give in to the demands of Time Lord Society and loom a child with a Time Lady.

While Theta Sigma was tied down to the life society wanted him to live, Koschei was following his path of rebellion… he became the Master, a renegade Time Lord. Soon after the Master found himself exiled from Gallifrey, Theta Sigma adopted the title of ‘the Doctor’… and stole a TARDIS to escape the planet and society that he’d come to hate and pity.

In his dreams, Jack watched the two Time Lords, seeing their adventures as the two fought across Time and Space, the Master and Doctor both going through regenerations and changing their appearances again and again… and Jack came to realize that, even as the Master and the Doctor fought with each other, the real battle which was occurring was the two Time Lords attempting to hide the love they had for each other not only from themselves, but from the whole universe.

Other Time Lords attempted to explain the Master and the Doctor’s relationship by saying that the two were mates, but that the two were attempting to fight off destiny… but Jack knew better. The Doctor and the Master were mates, but they were only two of a triad… they needed another mate to stabilize their relationship… and these dreams seemed to be telling Jack that he was the Master and the Doctor’s missing mate…a con man from the 51st Century.

The Master and The Doctor were Jack’s mates… and although he had never met the Master, Jack knew that the child he was carrying inside of him was not just the Doctor’s, but the Master’s as well.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It had been three linear years since one Time Lord realized that the Time War between the Daleks and the Time Lords could only end in the two species' destruction… Upon realizing this, the Time Lord, who was known as the Master, decided his only option was to run.

He’d been brought back from the dead to win the Time War… given a new set of regenerations so that he could destroy the Daleks. The Time Lords hadn’t trusted him to stick around, so ever since the Master was brought back to life there were always two armed guards accompanying him… not only were these two guards there to keep the Master from fleeing, but they were also in place to prevent him from seeking out his mate.

The Government of Gallifrey hadn’t been stupid. When they granted the Master another set of regenerations, they knew it would only be a matter of time before he left, striking out on his own once more. The Time Lords were willing to (eventually) grant the Master his freedom, but when the war started to go badly they realized that the Master would not be the only warrior they would lose…

If given the opportunity, the Master would take the Doctor away from the Time War… which would be a loss that the Time Lords would not be able to recover from. After all, the Time Lords had lied to the Doctor, telling him that it was impossible for the Master to be given a new life.

By the time the Master was able to escape, it was too late for him to remove his mate from the Time War… the Doctor had been forced into a suicidal mission, a last ditch attempt to end the war.

Mere seconds after he escaped from Gallifrey, it exploded behind him… and the Master heard the Doctor screaming as he died, along with the rest of the Time Lords. It was a sound that the Master would never forget, the final death of not only his entire species, but most importantly the final death of his mate.

The ship in which the Master had managed to escape was no TARDIS, and he’d only managed one jump through time and a few short jumps in space. Eventually he’d ended up on Earth, where his ship crashed. The crash not only stranded him on the planet in the twentieth century, but injured the Master to such an extent that he was forced to regenerate.

Under the alias of “Harold Saxon” the Master took up residence in London, England. After a year of living under a cloud of depression over the death of his mate and the destruction of his race, the Master became a little more like his old self… he’d started plotting.

It all started one day when the Master realized that he could, given the right resources and technology, have a half-way decent chance at bringing his mate back from the oblivion that the entire Time War had been sucked into… however, in order to do that he would need to do something along the lines of taking over the Earth. In order to reach this goal, the Master had done a few things, one of which was becoming the head of Torchwood, overseeing its various branches and saving the best bits of alien technology for his own personal use.

Everything had been going as planned, until a report from Yvonne Hartman reached the Master’s desk… apparently Torchwood One had a visiting Time Traveler, a man who claimed that he was one of the Doctor’s companions. Wanting any connection he could have with his mate, the Master looked into the matter… only to become horribly confused.

The man’s name was Jack Harkness. The Master knew the names of every single one of the men, women, aliens and robot dogs that had traveled with the eight incarnations of his mate… and never once had he head of anyone named Jack Harkness!

Wanting as much information as possible, the Master requested all the files on the Doctor that Torchwood had to offer, thinking that Jack Harkness had traveled with the Doctor for a short length of time while the Master was occupied somewhere else.

As the Master looked through the files he found himself laughing and holding back tears as he read about the lives of the man he’d fought with… the man he’d loved. But then he’d flipped to the next page of the report… only to find that the file didn’t end where it should have.

The Doctor’s file was, like the Master’s, divided into smaller files based on the different forms the Time Lord had taken. The Master had expected to see eight files on the Doctor, only to find that there were nine Doctors listed.

The Master knew that the Doctor had been in his eighth form during the Time War… regenerations of Time Lords, especially famous ones like the Doctor, were well known. A Ninth Doctor could only mean one thing. The Doctor had survived the Time War… the Master’s mate was alive.

The Master quickly found Jack Harkness in the latest section of the Doctor’s file. Harkness was a time traveler in his own right; he’d met the Doctor’s ninth incarnation during the Blitz and joined the Doctor as his companion. If you knew what to look for you could find Jack Harkness all across human history, along with the Doctor and a woman with bleached blond hair… he’d instantly hated that woman, because when there were photos of her she was always hanging off of the Doctor.

Torchwood had only really become interested in Jack Harkness when he appeared right smack in the middle of Torchwood One… the Master guessed that Jack had some sort of connection with the Time Agents, or at the very least he possessed Time Agent technology which had enabled him to make a jump in time and space without a ship.

Upon arriving in 2007 Jack Harkness had slipped through Torchwood’s fingers. He was living with an employee of Torchwood One, a human man named Ianto Jones… and no one had seen him for several months, but somehow no one thought that was strange.

Unable to get any more information through Torchwood, the Master summoned Ianto Jones for a meeting, in order to find out a little bit more about the man. It wasn’t often that the Master enjoyed the company of humans, but Ianto Jones proved to be an amazing young man, polite while holding his ground against his superior.

Upon arriving in 2007 Jack Harkness slipped through Torchwood’s fingers and started living with an employee of Torchwood One called Ianto Jones… then he’d dropped off the map. Torchwood knew that Jack was still living with Ianto, but no one had actually seen him for several months.

So the Master summoned Ianto Jones to a meeting, in order to find out a little bit more about the two men. The Master was surprised by Ianto’s loyalty to Jack, even though the two had only known each other for a few short months. After meeting with Ianto a few times, the young man agreed to allow Harold Saxon to come to his home in order to meet with Jack… but only if the time traveler agreed to the meeting.

That was how the Master found himself sitting in a modest but well cared for apartment, drinking some fantastic tea while Ianto Jones fetched Jack Harkness. Everything seemed normal enough… but then the Master felt a tiny mind brushing against his own.

The mind which was reaching out to grasp his own was no human child… human children might, if born to powerful psychic parents, project a thought or two. This child was actively reaching out and clinging onto the Master’s mind… which meant that the child was Gallifreyan and was being born the natural way, as opposed to being loomed.

The Master’s eyes closed as he reached out for the tiny mind, smiling at the funny little half-formed thoughts that the child was passing on to him… for the Master, each little thought was as precious as a diamond.

He felt the child physically move closer to him and opened his eye, expecting to see a young woman, maybe confused and hiding behind Jack Harkness… instead he found himself looking at two men who were standing in the doorway. There was Ianto Jones and next to him was Jack Harkness… and the Master could tell that Jack Harkness was carrying the tiny mind the Master had felt brush against his own… Jack Harkness was pregnant.

Jack Harkness had traveled with the Doctor… and was now carrying a Gallifreyan child… that could only mean that Jack was the Doctor and the Master’s mate.

In a matter of seconds the Master was standing in front of Jack, staring deeply into the human’s eyes, one hand slowly rubbing over Jack’s baby bump. The Master purred softly as he felt the child inside his mate move, his eyes closing as he leaned closer to Jack…

“Jack Harkness,” the Master whispered, his eyes opening slowly as he smiled softly.

“Master,” Jack replied, his hand resting on top of the Master’s hand which was on his stomach. Jack smiled and leaned on the Master, allowing the Time Lord to support him. “I was wondering when I’d get to meet you…”

“What are you doing here?” the Master asked, looking over at Ianto for the briefest of seconds before his eyes went back to his mate, who was carrying his unborn child. “What possessed the Doctor to leave you here? And in this condition?”

“He doesn’t know I’m pregnant…and he thinks I’m dead,” Jack whispered. Without saying anything, the Master guided Jack over to the couch and sat down, drawing Jack into his arms as tears formed in the human’s eyes.

“Tell me,” the Master whispered, gently running a hand down Jack’s back.

“I’d finally managed to get the Doctor to admit he liked me,” Jack whispered, his eyes closing as he practically lay on the Master, Ianto silently sitting down across form the two. “I fell asleep in his arms… but when I woke up I was on a space station. The Da….” Jack trailed off, shivering violently. “A few Daleks had survived… they had created an army and were going to destroy the Earth.”

“And the Doctor couldn’t let that happen.” The Master laughed sadly, holding Jack tighter as tears fell from the human’s eyes.

“I went on a suicide mission… in order to buy the Doctor enough time to find a way to kill them,” Jack explained, running a hand over his stomach. “I died.”

“What?” The Master blinked, not understanding what Jack was saying.

“The Daleks shot me and then… I don’t know how, but I was brought back to life.” Jack looked over at the Master. “The Doctor didn’t know that I was alive, and he’d left with Rose… leaving me trapped on an empty space station.”

“You were a Time Agent, weren’t you?” the Master asked and Jack nodded.

“I still had my wristband,” Jack replied, gesturing at the leather that still was on his arm. “It had enough power for one jump, so I came here to try and find the Doctor… I didn’t even know that I was pregnant until I’d already been here for a month.”

“The Doctor has two ‘current’ companions,” Ianto stated, pulling a picture out of his pocket and holding it out to the Master. “There’s Jack, of course… but the other is a young woman named Rose Tyler.”

The Master looked down at the picture Ianto had passed him. The picture showed Jack, the Doctor and a young blonde woman standing in what the Master guessed was Cardiff.

“Rose’s mother lives in London… we’d come back every so often to visit her,” Jack explained. “She’s the best bet I had to get back with the Doctor but…” Jack sighed, looking between Ianto and the Master. “Rose is…well, head over heels in love with the Doctor. I’m afraid to get in contact with her mother.”

“You think that Rose would lie to the Doctor in order to keep him to herself.” The Master sighed, running a hand through his hair as Ianto and Jack nodded in unison. “That does complicate things a little bit… but I think with my contacts among UNIT and Torchwood I can get us to the Doctor without going through Rose.”

TBC