for best_served_hot Every night he had bad dreams...

[quitehomoerotic]

It had been months since then. Months since the Valiant and the terrible events that occurred upon it. It had been months of rebuilding a life. Torchwood, his team, his people.

But every night. Every night without fail. He dreamt.

No, not dreams. Dreaming sounded like too nice a word. He had nightmares. Terrible nightmares.

He did his best to ignore them, or at least get used to them, and sometimes he even managed it. He did his best to push aside the memories of that year that never was, and of the pain and terror. To forget the face of the man who caused it all. But it never was that easy.

Some nights would be easier. The nights forcing himself to stay awake or better the nights he spent with Ianto. It stilled his mind and sometimes he could even relax. But they'd still be there, tickling away at the back of his mind, reminding him that they were there. Reminding him of just what happened.

He'd even, on an occasion or two, gone to the point of taking pills to steady his mind. They worked, at least for a while.

But nothing could work for long, and when he slept, he knew to expect it, and to expect he'd wake in a sweat.

And he expected that now. Alone in the Hub at the end of a long day, lying in bed and waiting. He closed his eyes, and he knew they'd come.

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[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack put the papers on his lap to one side and stood up to snatch the ones away from his hands and take them from him.

"Fine," he said, "I know how this goes. You stand around and say your bit, try and be intimidating, say a few things cryptic, maybe a few baseless threats. So come on, why don't we just get on with it so I can wake up again."

[best-served-hot.livejournal.com]

He favored him with a look as if Jack were an adult who'd deprived him of his favorite stuffed animal. "Didn't your mother ever teach you to share?" he commented, giving a slight glare.

"That desperate to go back to the waking world? Let me whisper in the back of your mind? Let you pretend you're that much stronger than I am? You exhausting yourself is only giving me more leverage."

And Jack knew he wasn't lying. The Master had no reason to lie then. The truth would be more terrifying than any lie he could spout off.

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"Oh she taught me lots of things," Jack said, shoving his hands onto his hips and straightening his back, standing tall.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he lied in a weak attempt to pretend the Master was wrong. But that was never likely to work, was it. As much as he disliked the Master, he had to respect the amount of power he had. He wasn't some chancing alien trying to get his way. He was a Time Lord. One of a great and powerful race. He was no trifle, and he wasn't a man to take lightly.

He paced back and forth a little and sighed. "So where is this going then? You just want me to stand here and bicker with you?"

He thought he'd try a different direction. Don't appear frightened. Try to reason with him.

[best-served-hot.livejournal.com]

"Like how to abandon family?" It was asked quite calmly and he leaned back against the sofa cushions, lacing his fingers together.

"Oh, but you do, Jack. I'm growing stronger and you are losing." he smiled as he said that, watching him as he began to pace.

"I have already explained what I'm after. What you decide to do with the time you have left to waste on fighting me is entirely up to you. Personally, I'm looking forward to trying Ianto's coffee with the way everyone is gushing over it in this place."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack stopped pacing and spun his head around to glare down at the Master. "You've got no idea what you talking about," he grit through his teeth. The Master knew nothing about Jack, he thought. He'd looked, he'd looked for him for years. He'd failed him.

There was other family too, of course. Family Jack hoped the Master would never learn about.

At the mention of Ianto he paced over to him and leaned down, grabbed him tightly by the collar and pushed him hard against the sofa. "Don't you dare lay a finger on them. You're not going to win. You're not in control of me."

[best-served-hot.livejournal.com]

"Don't I?" he asked, maintaining a rather innocent look until he was pushed against the sofa.

"You should really take care to keep those emotions of yours in check. They're going to get you into trouble one of these days." It was punctuated by something that Jack had probably hoped never to hear again. The sounds of the creatures that attacked his home all those years ago.

The lights flickered about them eerily, a few of them going out. There was silence and the smell of blood. Of death.

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack stepped back as though his hands on the Master burned him. He tripped back and swung his head around the Hub as though there were things there in the darkness.

He hadn't heard that sound since he was a young boy; since his childhood was snatched away from under him and his life spun off in a different direction.

"Don't," he said before he could stop himself, and it was almost like he was pleading, almost.

[best-served-hot.livejournal.com]

The Master stood swiftly, straightening out his suit in one fluid movement. The lights still flickered, cries echoing out as if they were birthed by the darkness itself.

"Gray!"

His lips pursed in mock sympathy. "Oh was that you just now? How terribly heartbreaking."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"Stop it!" Jack said as he backed up into Tosh's computer, only stopping when his back hit the workstation.

He heard his own childhood voice echo through the expanse of the Hub. The terrified little boy, running to find his brother. So scared because he'd let go of his brother's hand.

Jack lifted his hands and covered his ears. He didn't want to appear weak like this, but he couldn't, he couldn't take that.

"Stop it," he repeated, "stop it and I'll listen."

Maybe if he listened to whatever the Master had to say he might be able to work this all out. Might be able to stop it. But that was assuming the Master had anything to say at all.

[best-served-hot.livejournal.com]

The Master laughed at his reactions to the onslaught. "One simple thing he asked you to do and you couldn't even accomplish that. I suppose it was a mercy that your father died before he could see what a failure you were." he goaded, mocking Jack's pain openly.

This was magnificent. This had been what he was after during their time on the Valiant but he never quite had the right button. He got close, oh so close, when he'd placed the Doctor's torture on Jack's shoulders but he'd never gotten outright cowering.

"I do believe it's too late for pleasant conversation, Jack. Far too late."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack could be prepared for so much. He was prepared for pain and destruction and loss. He could put himself through so very much and come out the other side at least appearing unscathed.

But he couldn't cope with this. This was too much of an onslaught.

He wasn't one to plea, and it was something he resisted for a whole year on the Valiant. But this felt so much more. More intense, more... just more. It was in his head, inside his mind, and somehow managing to penetrate his deeper consciousness and burrow beneath the stoic walls he so often built up.

"Stop," he said again, falling down to his knees, still clutching his head. "Please."

[best-served-hot.livejournal.com]

And the Master, it wasn't like him to give into pleas but at times it suited a greater purpose. Breaking Jack completely was not the idea behind all of this, all the Master needed was a way to slip through undetected.

A way to take control.

The drums could be heard now, drowning out the other noises but not completely, not yet. He kneeled next to Jack where he was on the floor and very gently, attempted to move his hands away from his ears. "There now, let go. Enough of all this fuss." he soothed, voice soft.

"I'll stop on one condition."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

The Master talking so gently was in many ways worse than hearing his smug self satisfied little rants. So much worse than hearing him threaten or wage war. This was quiet, and quietly dangerous. And there was nothing he could do about that.

"What? What do you want?" Jack asked quickly, his gaze flickering up at the Master.

It wasn't an agreement, because of course he had no plans on agreeing to anything.

[best-served-hot.livejournal.com]

Those rants weren't needed now. He needed to be careful and a part of him hoped he wouldn't have to attempt to break his will down further.

"You to stop fighting me." It was simple but he knew Jack would resist. It was only natural to. "That's all you have to do."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

The idea was preposterous, and though the reaction was perhaps not the one he ought to have had, he laughed.

"Not in a million years," he said. "I thought you would have seen enough of me by now to know I'll never do that."

[best-served-hot.livejournal.com]

The Master's smile was still oddly gentle and he still clasped Jack's hands in his own.

"You'll come around." Or he would find a way through. "Just wait. Till then, enjoy your own personal hell." he said, standing up and disappearing into the sudden darkness that crowded around them. The wails of the creatures and of innocents dying came up once more, louder than before

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack stared at the Master and attempted to stay stoic. No, no he wouldn't give in. He would never give in. Not to him. He owed that to himself, he owed that to so many people.

The Hub seemed to melt away around him, and the computer station behind him disappeared into the darkness as the screams echoed around him. He huddled himself away, desperate to ignore it.

"None of this is real," he called aloud to himself. "None of this is real. This is just a dream. I'll wake up. And you're nothing! You hear me out there? You're not going to win! You mark my words!"

[best-served-hot.livejournal.com]

And his shouts of defiance seem to be swallowed up by the darkness. The Master is nowhere to be seen but the darkness shifts as if a person were moving through it, cloaking themselves in it.

But there's no voice. No drums. Jack is left to his own devices in the depths of his own tortured past. He could have ended it then but Jack chose the hard road.

The Master would show him the error of his ways. Jack had such delicious memories to exploit and he had all the time in the world and then some.

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack wasn't sure how long he was trapped in that one nightmare. The images of faces of people in terror, the screams and the sounds of the creatures. The memories of being a scared little boy feeling so fresh and raw.

But he wouldn't give in. He promised that to himself, he wouldn't.

Time didn't seem to matter in this blackness. Maybe it had been no time at all, maybe it had been forever, who was he to know?

He wanted to wake up. He told himself to wake up. But he didn't. Nothing happened and nothing changed.

Somewhere, in the back of his mind he thought he heard the voice of Ianto trying to wake him. But his body didn't wake, his body was stuck in this sleep.

And he was trapped.

"Enough!" he called, after what seemed like more hours of torment. "Enough!" he just wanted to rest.

[best-served-hot.livejournal.com]

The Master had been fully aware of the goings on around them. The tea boy trying to rouse Jack from the throes of the nightmare and Jack, still cowering in a dark corner of his own mind.

He had left Jack to his own devices for quite some time before he'd heard him shout out. He thought about responding but decided to wait just a bit longer. After all, he wasn't some servant to be called upon whenever someone yelled. Jack would do well to learn his place.

And the Master had all the time in the world.

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack sat with his knees pulled up to his chest. He repeated in his mind that nothing here was real, nothing was going to affect him. It couldn't. It wouldn't.

He tried to zone out to it all, but it was hard. Some of his worst memories, worst fears, all presented right in front of his eyes.

But Jack was strong, and he'd rather it be him that went through this than inflict the Master on the rest of the world. If it took this to stop him. He would.

"You're not winning," he gritted through teeth after a while. A tired voice. Asleep but getting no rest.

[best-served-hot.livejournal.com]

"Let's see." he mused aloud, breaking his own silence and also ignoring Jack. He still did not appear, so that left the freak in darkness alone in a way.

"I've always wondered just how many different ways you've died. You never would tell me and guess what? I don't need you to anymore! Isn't that great?"

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack didn't respond, he just shook his head. "You can't hurt me," he said, lying. It did hurt him, it hurt him a lot. Perhaps not physically, but it still hurt him.

"Shame really, you wasting your time like this. Time was you had the whole world at your feet. Look at you now, pathetic isn't it really."

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"Says the mouse to the cat." he said, sarcasm practically dripping from his voice.

"Have I mentioned your sounding like a broken record? You could at least allow me to help with that. This repeating business is going to get increasingly monotonous as you age, you realize." he sighed and continued his perusal of Jack's memories.

"Ouch. Stray javelin." he winced, finally coming into view. "Bet that stung."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"You kill me and I'll wake up," Jack said, trying to sound confident. He wasn't sure how true it was, of course, but it had gone that way before. But the Master was getting stronger. Who knew what he could do?

"And if I wake up, you're nothing. Think that makes you more the mouse, don't you? Caged at that. And you know I'll just keep saying it until you get it into that thick skull of yours."