Bad Wolf From Space

44. The Year That Never Was

The days passed by in a haze.

It felt surreal that I couldn't feel my sister anymore. I could still sense her but our connection felt dim.

The Master enchanted with my new 'form' had made an elaborate birdcage catwalk above the heads of those who came to the helm room. There I was imprisoned only being let down to do my daily rituals before being pulley back up into my golden cage.

He hadn't ended up bringing my family onto the ship, instead he had a couple screens of mum and Mickey's living rooms near my cage so I could see they were well but being watched.

My truly Rapunzel-like hair was kept long by order of the Master and braided by the women staff. It was just one more thing weighing me down in my spot.

My dreams were full of another life, a man with blonde hair and blue eyes that looked at me and smiled with no joy, just satisfaction. Strong grips on my arms and tightening grips. I would feel suffocated when I'd wake often leading into panic attacks when I'd see the golden bars glimmer in the moonlight.

It was in those moments that a low hum singing the song of Time would resonate inside my head, so familiar and so different from when my sister would sing it to me.

At first I thought it was the Doctor but our connection had also dulled along with my sisters. I still knew he was working on intercepting the satellite's signal, I would get hints of his determined emotions on occasion.

It took me longer than I'd like to admit to remembering the same hum from my time living in Mrs Lovett's TARDIS. The night I realised this the hum sounded approvingly before continuing until I felt my heartbeat and breathing normalise after a recent attack.

Time passed and the Earth became the Master's domain but instead of being satisfied he became more erratic and restless.

One night I woke to see the Master wander into the helm room, his gaze unseeing as he meandered around the room mumbling beneath his breath.

He made his way over to my piles of braided hair, almost as if by instinct, before he curled up in the heaps, his mumbling calming and his face smoothing over looking calm.

This would happen on numerous nights, on some his wife would come to find him. Waiting till he woke before guiding him back to their suite. Her expression always seemed so empty but in those moments she'd gaze up at me with such resentment.

The Master would prefer to ignore me most days. However, he was sensitive to others paying me attention, on occasion throwing his staff physically off the ship if they so much as talked to me even if they were just performing their duties.

Other days he'd try to get reactions out of the Doctor and I. He would have the chained Doctor brought to the helm and then show us some heartless thing he'd done recently. Sometimes I wondered if he wanted praise but knowing that impossible he sought for any emotion from us.

The Doctor often would lose the game, his hands clenching at his sides or shouting 'why!' But even that grew into disappointed silence over time.

He quickly found I was not an easy target. I had been imprisoned before by an obsessive prick and I learned long ago how to shut down my reactions to everything.

One day he surprised us though, even his wife who had begun to look like a marionette reacted.

He knelt before my seat with a smirk on his lips.

"Shall I ask you to marry me again?"

The Doctor gaped while I shook my head.

"When have you ever asked me to marry you?"