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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The Master stepped back then, smiling graciously as if he were the host of a magnificent party and Jack were an honored guest.

"And on that brave note, I leave you to their tender mercies. They have so been looking forward to playing with you. Have fun!"

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"No," Jack shouted, face going pale. "No!"

He struggled against the chains in vain as the sphere's approached and the next thing that could be heard from him was wailing screams as they attacked and cut him up

The next thing he knew he was sitting up in bed. Awake.

He clutched his wrists, and they still felt sore from the shackles.

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Soon you won't be able to get away from me so easily. It was weak, a barely there whisper. He'd used much of his energy with that little game. But now that Jack knew of his existence, lurking behind the veil of his mind and the drums were a constant in his subconscious--

It wouldn't be long now.

Go ahead and mainline coffee and other assorted stimulants but sooner or later, you'll be back and I'll be waiting, Jack Harkness.

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

That should have been it, when he woke up. That should have been enough to cut off the nightmare.

But it wasn't.

The voice was distant, but it was there, like a whisper in the back of his mind. His imagination; it had to be. It wasn't real, it couldn't be.

"Jack, you're finally losing it," he whispered to himself.

He spent his day as normal, working. Nothing huge, no big dramas or end of the world scenarios, just a day in the Hub with paperwork and coffee. A lot of coffee. Fine, he thought. He was fine. But then when he was alone, sitting at his desk, he found himself tapping away on the desk. That little drum beat...

Tap tap tap tap, tap tap tap tap

No. No it wasn't in his head. But then he could swear that when he noticed it he heard laughter.

He couldn't fall asleep again. He wouldn't let himself. Two days was easy enough to stay awake. Easy enough with caffeine and concentration. But as he got tired (as much as he ignored it), that peat seemed to appear again, just at the back of his head.

And he couldn't will it away.

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And yes, the Master was laughing at him. His feeble attempts to fight off the Drums now that the floodgates were opened. As he promised Jack, he would wait. Oh for the prize he was after, he had no problem in biding his time and tormenting Jack whilst the human tried to wish him away.

Ianto wasn't stupid, he saw Jack and the rhythm he'd been tapping at odd intervals throughout the two day span but being polite; ignored it. But he also seemed stressed, so after refilling his cup again, he waited, watching.

"Song stuck in your head?"

Oh if only the little teaboy knew, eh Jack?

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"No."

Jack had snapped at Ianto and stood from his desk to pace. "It's nothing." He tried to ignore it, and the whisper of a voice that mocked him. The voice that seemed so much more real now than it was when he was wide awake. He couldn't force it away, and that was some how scarier. He shouldn't have to face this now, he shouldn't have to be afraid in his own skin. Captain Jack Harkness didn't do afraid.

He spent the next two days in the same manner, forcing himself to stay awake, but the waking nightmare just getting worse. The sound, that little feeling that even when completely alone, there was someone there.

It was day four when he fell asleep again, and it was much against his own will. Sitting on the couch in the Hub with some much needed to attend to paperwork on his lap, he drifted off.

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Ianto frowned, filing the outburst away to think on later. It was painfully obvious that something was bothering him and he hadn't been the only one of them to notice. But he doesn't press for answers, he knew it wouldn't get him anywhere, anyways.

"Let me know if you need anything else then." He hoped he'd take the offer before whatever this was got out of hand.

And when he finally falls asleep, he'd hear the rustling of the papers in his lap as the Master picked them up for closer examination. He dropped one, letting it float to the floor.

"Boring."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack 'woke' into his dream with a start. He hadn't intended to fall asleep, and for a moment he didn't think he had. But there he was, in front of him. Chilling to see him standing in the Hub like that.

He straightened his back and tried to clear his head a little.

"What do you want?" he said as he wiped a hand over his face, trying to act as though the Master was nothing more than a minor annoyance.

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The Master ignored the question in favor of procuring another paper to muse over. "Oh no, very much no. Do you know anything about that species at all? That is not their modus operandi at all."

He shook his head, looking at him in disappointment. "And here I had at least thought you were some sort of expert. Teach me to put any faith in you stunted little apes."

[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."

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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.

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"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."

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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."

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"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.

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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.

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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."

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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."

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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.

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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."

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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."

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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