Fandom Master Who: Through The Gaps [Closed]

[Lucyfer]

It was the Age of Universal Peace, or so the history books had called the years after 2409 AD. Not that the people living within it would know, and so Jana Coeur was not so inclined to call it that as she considered many would disagree. Certainly, those on Earth, living above the pollution on floating islands, would be unhappy with such a term.

Human colonies, as well, were often finding trouble with native species.

Human exceptionalism seemed to be the only endless, guaranteed thing about Time Travel – or at least, the belief in Human exceptionalism, by humans.

Jana was over it, even if it made traveling easier, as it certainly did as she flashed a piece of blank paper in front of the four eyes of the two-headed aplan. Once upon a time, she would have wanted to tell the aplans they were extinct in her time. She might have wanted to warn them, though she hardly knew how they could prevent it. Even in her time, their cause of extinction was unknown.

Right now, they were in debates with humans to allow a colony to exist on their planet. The Foreign Hazard Duty, aka UNIT but in Space, was there to help the negotiations after a colony of humans sort of just…showed up, with the intent of taking it over.

Her card would indicate her as a member of that organization to the aplan, picture of herself in an FHD uniform, black hair neatly tied up, pleasant smile lighting her face.

Not exactly the look she wore walking in.

The aplan allowed her through, albeit begrudgingly. She had little interest in actually working with the FHD to help the humans get a colony that she already knew would fail. She was morbidly curious into how it all failed, and intended to see that – to see what group had managed in the face of human exceptionalism – but mostly, she thought this world might offer her a bit of peace.

Alfava Metraxis was one of those worlds forbidden, in some eras, to the Time Agency.

This was one of those eras, and she did wonder if it had anything to do with their later extinction, though that was many years down the line.

No, as she walked out from the screening area and into the open air of Alfava Metraxis, she certainly seemed a touch odd. Her attire was not the fashion of the 25th century, and certainly not what the FHD was wearing. Of course, the Vortex Manipulator usually made her stand out anyways, and she had no plans of taking it off as she strode down the rock-steps and out into the open where aplans were moving between places with some obvious anxiety.

They definitely gave her a few odd looks, but they let her by with nothing more than that.

That’s what she got for hopping from Ancient Rome to here, though. Pompeii had been another banned location, so naturally, she had to go see it.

She had also wanted a stola, so she stole a blue stola. To her, it fit this natural world with its high-rising temples, and just-visible mazes, quite well. The world itself almost seemed like a relic with all the nature that was around it. A breath of, literal, fresh air. ‘And humanity won’t ruin you.’ It was the only happy thought.

Jana made her way to one of the temples, though it seemed the one she chose was the source of some of the debates. She saw the human colony easily enough staked out on grounds around the temple, their ship parked not far from it. Aplans and suited FHD agents were discussing the situation not far off. She intended to ignore them.

“Hey!” Someone in charge shouted over at her. “What do you think you’re doing? Humans aren’t allowed in the temple at this tim—” Jana attempted to just flash the piece of paper again, but her arm was caught.

Much to her surprise, Jana broke her attention away from the steps that led into the six-floored temple to look at the woman who held a vice-grip on her wrist, nearly so hard it hurt.

The woman lowered her voice, “That little piece of psionic paper isn’t going to work on me, Time Agent.”

‘Well shit.’

Jana gave a smile. “If you know what I am, you know I’m not involved in this mess,” she hissed under her breath, feigning pleasantness to any onlookers while looking at the older woman.

“I don’t know that, actually. I’m Director Pyrha, and you seem to be flouting the rules quite exceptionally here.” Her icy gaze went over Jana’s attire, “Come with me.” Jana considered resisting for a moment, before letting herself be pulled aside.

To the company there, Director Pyrha simply called out a cheerful, “Just a moment, we’ve had someone sent in and I need to debrief them on the situation!”

Well, at least Director Pyrha didn’t seem entirely inept. Jana would give her credit for that as she barely masked a smirk, some small touch of appreciation present for the director.

 

[AngstyAnarchist]

It was... Frustrating?

At the moment, anyway. What it actually was had a tendency to chance with whatever thought, or plan, was unfurling itself inside the Masters head. Boring was another one. She had gone from coming /this/ close to victory- forcing the Doctor to admit defeat, to admit his inferiority -and then it had all been snatched away. She wasn't sure whether it made her want to laugh, or scream right now.

Tucked away, safely above the notice of the Doctor and the rest of the Time lords, in the ironically named 'Age Of Universal Peace' the Master would wait.

And think.

And somewhere among all the threads, all the possibilities that lay before her, her plan would be devastating. Beautiful.

In the meantime, she could find the darkest corners of any age- encourage them -because in times of desperation there was always so much potential
and really what the Master needed right now was to slowly rebuild her connections across the universe. Alfava Metraxis had merely provided an easy- albeit interesting -place to do that. The little struggle for power between the aplans and the humans was trivial if you knew the inevitable result.

But that didn't mean there still wasn't a certain level of... Flexibility that was allowed to the Time lord. After all, as long as the end result was the same, what were a few minor manipulations along the way? Humanity had always been the Doctors weakness, so why not set her sights on the entire FHD? For a start, anyway.

Now, the arrival of the Time Agent complicated things.

It was alarming to think she could have been caught so quickly, the Master hadn't even brought the Tardis she'd stolen with her to the blasted planet. But no mind, she'd walked right past the Agent as she'd made her way towards the temple- come to think of it, what kind of Time Agent dressed like that? curiouser and curiouser... -without the barest hint of recognition.

Oh, this was too good!

The Masters frustration gave way to an amused curiosity, and she returned to the meaningless group of humans she'd. who ingratiated herself with so nicely, to tap the Director on the shoulder. "What is it, Isha?" She woman asked, quirking a carefully sculpted eyebrow. The Master wondered if she could feel the influence the Time lord was slowly imposing over her. "One of these things, is not like the others." She said in an almost singsong tone, green eyes sparkling with mischief, as she jerked her thumb towards the Time Agent, letting herself fall back while the domineering human intervened.- and oh she was proving useful!

Slipping away from the group again as the Master followed after the Agent and Director, waiting to see what new possibilities could come from the arrival of the Agent. Maybe there was even a new friend to made- or used, depending on how the circumstances played out.

But for now, she would figure out exactly why the Time Agent was here, and maybe that meant she would have to adapt her plan slightly, but what was the FHD compared to a Time Agent?

She briefly considered killing the Director- so she could present herself as having saved her new intended friend. -but she really didn't know the other well enough for that, or if she was actually here to drag the Master back to the miserable hole she'd barely managed to crawl out of and for now the risk didn't seem worth it.

"Director!" She called after a moment, mind settling on a different approach. "You shouldn't have to let this distract you, since I'm in consideration for promotion, why not let me handle it?" Her voice was light, reasonable, not betraying the hope that the psychic link she'd been working to establish would have enough influence already to give her what she wanted- it always was a delicate process, best not rushed.

If that didn't work she supposed there was always the potential or murder.

Or patience, but hadn't she shown enough of that lately?

 

[Lucyfer]

The Director’s attention snapped over to the interruption that was Isha. Isha had pointed out this agent, and now she seemed to want to take it over? Pyrha scowled, but relented, telling herself that the matter with the human colony was still too delicate to leave alone. Which was precisely why she had been about to drag the Time Agent away.

She dropped the agent’s hand, “Thank you, Isha,” she allowed, stepping away, “See her to our current set-up, debrief her on the situation, and find out what she’s doing here,” Pyrha ordered, clearly not thinking that was too much for someone up for promotion. “And don’t just let her hop away,” she gestured to the Vortex Manipulator.

She was tempted to have it confiscated, but that might be a step too far, not knowing what the Time Agent was here for.

Jana did consider doing just that, out of spite. However, she refrained, while tucking away the psionic paper.

Partially because her curiosity on this era remained, but also because there was something…amiss with this red-haired Isha. She wouldn’t speak to it, but it was the sort of intuition that came with her training to be a Time Agent, as well as her time in war. Isha didn’t belong. She couldn’t say why, or even how she knew, only that she knew, and she wasn’t keen on doubting her intuition anytime soon.

It had gotten her out of enough messes.

Perhaps Isha was the reason everything fell apart here.

It was enough to hold her there, for the time being, to figure out what it was, or until her curiosity waned.

“I’ll come along,” Jana said, lifting her hands, “You don’t have to drag me.”