Lost in the Universe

xxxiii

A year. It'd been a whole year. Usually, Nina would have realised. She'd have felt the time pass, she'd have known a whole year had gone by. But she didn't have the chance to. The Master didn't give her the chance to. 

For a whole year, he kept on pushing her, he kept on breaking her mental barriers until he would be able to take control over her. She didn't break. No, Nina Jones did not break. She had faith. She knew the Doctor was going to save them, or at least do something to make all the pain stop. 

Jack came to visit her sometimes. She was kept locked in a small glass room the entire time, but sometimes Jack would sneak in past the guards and say hello, tell her that he was okay, that the Doctor was okay, that everything was going to be fine. The Master caught him twice. He shot him dead with the screwdriver; a very painful way to die. But Jack didn't care. He kept coming as much as he could. Sometimes he wouldn't for weeks, months, but Nina always knew he'd be back some time. That helped her keep hope. 

The only one that was allowed into her small glass room was the Master himself. 

During her Hydra years, the doctors and her handlers would use torture to break her. They'd use the chaire she feared so much. The Master, however, was a TimeLord. He didn't need an electricity chair. He only needed to get access into her brain, into her memories, and the pain and all of the suffering of those years would come right back. And he had access. He had Nina tied up, helpless, not able to fight him back. 

She was weak. She was tired. She was completely ready to give up, but she didn't break. 

She knew her brother was weakning her mind so he could take control and use her to destroy the only good things she had left. He wanted to see her wake up and realise everyone she loved was dead, and she'd been the one to do it. So Nina fought back. She wasn't going to give him the satisfaction. 

She didn't know how long it had been, or how much more of it she could take. Everyday was the same. She'd wake up weak, since they'd only give her food once, sometimes twice a week, and sooner or later, the Master would walk in, bringing back every bad, horrible, terrible memory she had ever lived, making her suffer through all of it again. 

Except one day, it all changed. 

One day, she didn't know which, she could feel herself travel through time. It was a distict feeling she'd only ever gotten during a time travel, either by the TARDIS, the Vortex Manipulator or by her jumping through the Doctor's timeline, she always felt it. Nina frowned, wondering if she was jumping again. She looked down at her hands and saw they weren't glowing like they usually did. 

It was like she could feel a weight lifting from her shoulders. It was then she realised: the paradox machine. Someone had broken the paradox, and now time was being reversed. She flinched in fear as a figure appeared in front of her room's door, but she soon relaxed when she realised it was Jack.

"Come on," he said, opening the doors and approaching her with the Doctor's sonic. In mere seconds he had freed the cuffs that had been holding her ankles to the ground for all these months. Jack extended his hand, offering help to stand up, which Nina immediatly took. To be honnest, she was surprised she was even able to stand up, although her knees were like jelly and her legs could barely support her weight. She was exhausted, and it was obvious for anyone to see. Not dirty, not unkept; Nina had a bathroom in her room, and the Master sent Martha's mother over sometimes with a clean, fresh set of clothes. She looked fairly normal, but her eyes... they were red from exhaustion, and there were bags under them, as if she hadn't actually closed them in days.

With Jack's help, Nina was able to walk through the corridors of the Valiant until they arrived at the main room. Just as they were about to walk out of the elevator and into the room Jack had told her the Doctor was, someone ran right into Jack. 

"Woah big fella!" Jack exclaimed as he grabbed onto the Master's arms letting go of Nina. She held onto the lift's wall for support, unsure on whether or not to trust her own legs. " You don't want to miss the party. Cuffs," Jack demanded and one of the armed guards immediatly gave him his cuffs. 

As he was doing so, the Doctor was able to walk to them, a worried look on his face as soon as he saw the state Nina was in. For everyone's sake, as soon as he came walking towards her, Nina let go of the wall, thankfull her legs were only shaking a little bit. 

"What happened?" The Doctor asked, his hands on the sides of her hace as he scanned her whole head with his eyes, as if any of the pain she'd been through this past year would show on the outside of her head. "What did he do to you?" The Doctor asked her quietly, pity in his eyes. Or... maybe not pity. Maybe it was just the fact that he cared about her. Very much. Yeah, maybe not pity after all. Nina sent the Master a glare, even though Jack was holding him and the man couldn't actually see her. Her glare was being wasted on the back of his skull, but she didn't care.

"Not now," she answered in the same quiet tone. The Doctor's gaze shifted to her entire body, and he was able to notice the faint redness on her skin at her wrists. It was well hidden. She'd obviously rolled down her sleeves to hide it, but he could see it there; the marks from the cuffs -- some days ropes -- that the Master used to tie her down during their 'quality time', or so he called it. He frowned at the sight, and opened his mouth to say something, but Nina beat him to it. "We have other things to deal with, right now, remember?" she reminded him, nodding towards where Jack was holding the Master. The Doctor hesitated for a mere second, before he nodded, and walked back to where he was before Nina and Jack entered.

"So,what do we do with this one?" Jack asked the two Time Lords, carefully watching Nina as she made her way to the Doctor, standing in front of the Master alongside him.

"We kill him," Martha's father said without any hesitation.

"We execute him," Trish agreed. 

"No, that's not the solution!" The Doctor tried to convince them. 

"Oh, I think so," said Francine's shaky voice. 

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Haven't done this in a while