Chapter Text
It's amazing how far a single name can go, all the good and bad things that go along with it. Sometimes it could only take on person to change the fate of that single name for the rest of history. And other times the name could be representing something of importance, or to create a resemblance for ones self. But spread around for so many to hear, it could create a whole new meaning. The principal was exactly what the Doctor wanted Martha Jones to discover. Use the countdown was all he whispered to her before Martha teleported away from the Master and into the world of chaos and destruction that the Doctor's nemesis created. She was traveling all around the world to tell the story of the great Time Lord that would save them from the evil and fear cast upon them once more, save them like he did so many times before. So when the time was to come, everyone on the whole planet would be thinking of one word, one name; Doctor.
Currently, Martha was in the Andes Mountains in South America traveling through the south western part of Bolivia. She heard about groups of people taking cover from the Toclafanes. Right now, as she was trying to find them, a blizzard was rampaging its way through the mountainous area, a frigid wind was howling past Martha as she hugged her coat closer to herself in a desperate attempt to stay warm. "I have to find a place to get out of this blizzard before I end up freezing to death," Martha shivered to herself, her voice inaudible from the screeching wind.
She strained her eyes, trying to look past the white sheets that where whipping past her to find somewhere to shelter herself away from the ravenous storm. Eventually Martha made out a dark outline of what had to be a cave. Frantically, she ran to it, careful not to trip in the snow that was steadily making it's way up to her knees. After a minute of trenching through the snow, Martha finally made her way into the cave and nearly collapsed onto the cold ground due to the exhaustion that crept up on her. She rested her head against the black stone wall and looked out the entrance of the cave. "If the snow doesn't let up soon, I'm going to end up getting stuck in here," Martha sighed, too worn out to make any other kind of emotions and within the next several minutes, Martha was fast asleep.
-*-*-
When Martha first woke up, she wondered whether she was truly awake due to the darkness that was castled her vision. She listened for the howling wind from outside but only heard a soft whisper of it. Martha drew in a quick breath before grasping for her flashlight that was placed somewhere on the side of her pack that was still straddled to her back. After rummaging through her pack in complete darkness, she finally found the flashlight and switched it on, pointing the beam of light at the cave's entrance. "No!" Martha cried, looking at the mouth of the cave completely blocked with snow.
She rushed over and began clawing at the freezing snow, trying to dig out some kind of exit. After what seemed like hours of trying to get the snow away from the cave, Martha's hands were numb and her arms were aching. "What am I going to do now?" she asked herself, staggering backwards.
The flashlight radiated towards the other end of the cave, revealing more never ending darkness. "Maybe the cave has another exit," she said positively, walking further into the cave. Or I could end up getting lost in a maze of tunnels and never find my way out of this bloody place.
-*-*-
Martha was almost grateful that the tunnel didn't divide into any tunnels forcing her to make a sudden decision of which way she should go, desperately hoping it was the right choice. She knew she had been walking for a long time when the light on her flashlight started to flicker. "Come on!" she plead, hitting the side of the flashlight, "Please don't do this, I just put new batteries in here yesterday!"
Despite her efforts, the beam of light slowly flickered away, leaving Martha in complete darkness. "Great," she groaned, slipping the light somewhere in her pack. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she noticed something ahead. It was small, so very small, but it was a light. Something was down their, and it could just be a way out. As quick as she could move her exhausted legs, Martha ran towards the light, watching it grow bigger and bigger with every couple of footsteps.
By the time Martha made it to the source of the radiating light, she found it was a dead end, there was no other way of of the cave. But the room seemed to be impossible, it was shining off light without any real source of light reflecting into the room. The Doctor would be just as fascinated, if not more, by the working of this room. Green emeralds, red rubies, purple amethysts, blue sapphires, white diamonds, as well as so many other stones of a rainbow of colors were projecting a light all around her. Just as she was just about to touch one of the purple gems, an unfamiliar voice whispered throughout the multi-colored room, "Martha Jones who stands so tall, what will happen when she hears the call?"
"Who...who said that?" Martha demanded, turning away from the wall.
When no one answered, she asked another question, "Where are are?"
"For I am here, and I am their. I travel all around but never to be found," the voice carried again.
"Why can't I see you?" she asked looking around the room for something that could indicate a living creature.
"Because I choose not to be seen, coming on person would be quite obscene. I know why you're in my pretty cave, for I must say that you are quite brave. However there is one thing that I must say, before all of us can end the day..." The voice stopped talking for what she assumed to be a signal for her to respond.
"And what would that be?" Martha asked, still searching for what she was talking to.
Silence
"An what is that?" Martha repeated.
After an uncomfortable silence for Martha, it finally responded, "All around everything seems to be ending as we know it, but what if the two lords became the opposite."
"What do you mean by that?" she shouted, a bad feeling rising in her gut. "Nothings is going to end as long as I'm still here. And what do you mean by 'the two lords becoming the opposite'?"
Once again, silence.
By now the silence that consumed them became deafening. "Tell me what that means!" Martha yelled just as the voice returned.
"What's the point of just telling a tale, if I can have you see what this may entail," the voice finally said.
But before she could comment on the newest riddle, the lights transmitting from the surrounding jewels produced a blinding light that whited out the entire area. The last thing that Martha could hear was the voice whispering once again, "All around everything seems to be ending as we know it, but what if the two lords became the opposite."
-*-*-
Martha gasped at the air surrounding her, grasping onto whatever she was sitting on. Her lungs felt as if they haven't been filled with oxygen in so long, as if she was just thrown out into space without any air to breathe. By the time her vision was working again, she saw someone looking at her very worried, "Martha? You alright?" By this time she registered the face in front of her to be Captain Jack Harkenss.
"Yeah, I...I think so," Martha stuttered, her whole body was shaking but she was slowly calming down. "Wait...Jack? Is that you? How did you escape?"
"Escape from where?" Jack asked confused, his face growing more worried.
"From the Master! Don't you remember?" she exclaimed, bewildered on how Jack could forget all of this so easily.
Jack leaned back and crossed his arms, "Why don't you explain to me why I would be escaping from the Master?"
Martha gawked at him, unsure of what kind of mind games Jack was playing, "Because! He...he took over the world and had you chained up and caused the TARDIS to cannibalize itself just so time wouldn't collapse on itself. And he has the Doctor and my family! Come on Jack, don't tell me he did something to you to cause you to forget about all this!"
Jack gave a nervious laugh before answering, "I know know what kind of fantasy you just came out of, but none of that ever happened. And in your story, it sounds like the Master is the bad guy. Why would he destroy the Earth when he's spent so long protecting it?"
"What?" was all Martha could say.
"You know it's rude to be making such false assumption about someone, especially if they're sitting right across the table from you?" the Master remarked, looking up at Martha from where he was working with the TARDIS keys.
"No!" Martha jumped out of her chair and staggered backwards, pointing at the Master, "I don't know what you're doing or what you did to Jack, but you stay away from me!"
"Geeze, Martha? What has gotten into you?" Jack asked, slowly rising form his chair.
Silently, the Master reached inside his suit pocket, pulling out a sonic screwdriver that looked just like the one the Doctor has and pointed it at Martha, making the screwdriver start humming and omitting it's blue light. "Why do you have that?" Martha gasped as her back hit the concrete wall. "That's the Doctor's! I don't know what you to it but you keep that thing away from me."
"What's wrong with her?" Jack whispered to the Master.
"Nothing that I can pick up," the Master responded after looking at the results of the sonic screwdriver. "Martha, what do you mean by this is the Doctor's? Did he copy my design?"
Martha shook her head, "No, you copied his design! And how did you even find me? How did i even get out of that cave if the only exit was snowed in?"
The Master slipped the screwdriver back into his jacket and slowly asked, "What did this cave look like?"
She forced out a small laugh, "Well you know should know, you're the one who probably sent one of your Toclafane's to come find me so I couldn't be able to cast you out of power."
"Please," the Master's voice softened, "I may be able to help you, tell me what was inside the cave."
"Help me? Why would you...?" Martha started.
"Come on Martha," Jack rolled his eyes, frustrated by all that was going on, "Just tell us what the cave looked like."
She drew ina deep breath before continuing, not wanting to go ahead with the Master's orders, "It was bright and the walls were covered in many different types of jewels. I was deep under ground so there was no way that natural light could be able to light up all those gems. Then there was this voice, it was whispering and would always talking in riddles," the Master's face seemed to change a little at the mention of the lights and the rhyming voice. "It kept saying all these weird things that didn't make scene and then there was this blinding white light and by the time it faded away and all my other scenes were back to normal, I heard Jack calling my name and wound up here."
The Master turned away when Martha finished explaining and was muttering something about how it can't be, or how those can't possibly be still alive. "Master," Jack shouted, breaking the Master's thought possess, "What is it?"
"It's a Tilamimp," the Master turned back to Jack then looked over at Martha.
"Which is..." Jack added, waiting for an explanation.
"Which practically makes its own parallel universe based on switching two lives around. It's basically turning the universe around so two people would be able to 'walk in each others shoes'," the Master explained. "Was their a certain rhyme that it kept repeating?"
"Uh..." Martha searched through her memories for what the voice was saying, "All around everything seems to be ending as we know it, but what if the two lords became the opposite."
"Of course," the Master nodded, moving around a little, "So if what you're saying is true, that means that everything the Doctor went through is what I really went through...and everything I went through is what the Doctor went through."
The longer the sentence went on, the more pain and regret could be heard from the Master's voice. "Wow," the Master looked up with a fake smile, trying to mask his true emotions, "I guess this means my whole life has been a lie."