Child Master (The Then and the Now): Difference between revisions

In the midst of the war, the child made a deal with the [[War Doctor]] to end their old ways and become allies, fighting alongside the Doctor. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[The Organ Grinder (comic story)|The Organ Grinder]]'') At some point, they sat together on a barren planet strewn with destroyed [[Daleks]] and a ruined building resembling a destroyed [[Capitol]] (though whether this was actually [[Nine Gallifreys|any version]] of [[Gallifrey]] is unclear); despite being time-locked, this event was unexpectedly, briefly visited by [[Missy]] and [[The Master (Terror of the Autons)|the "UNIT era" Master]] when using [[the Doctor's TARDIS]] to search the Master's timeline for an alleged way to access part of the [[Key to Time]]. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[The Master Plan (comic story)|The Master Plan]]'')

Eventually the War Doctor was sent on a mission to find a way to stop the [[Cyclors]], who had allied with the [[Daleks]]. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[Pull to Open (comic story)|Pull to Open]]'') When fighting alongside the [[Thirteenth Vexillatio]], the Doctor showed the child evidence of the Cyclors' involvement when the entire troops were psychically wiped out, leading him to agree to join him. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[The Organ Grinder (comic story)|The Organ Grinder]]'') At some point, [[the Squire]] also joined the Doctor's mission to stop the Cyclors. The group fought the Daleks and Cyclors on [[Veestrax]], where they saw a broken wall with "Exterminhate" written on it. The child told the Doctor that he hadn't written it. The Doctor then asked for the child's help with destroying the planet. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[Outrun (comic story)|Outrun]]'')

In order to infiltrate the center of [[Golgauth]], the home planet of the [[Overcaste]] to whom the Cyclors were bonded, they embarked on quests to acquire tools such as a [[megarhythmic anodizer]] from [[Chroleen]], a [[mimetic whisperfield]] from the [[Terrorsmith]]s of [[Diwoon]], and most importantly the [[Psilent Songbox]] of [[Karn]]. During the final preparations for their plan, the Doctor and the Master encountered the [[Volatix Cabal]] on [[Lujhimene]], proving the rumours of their existence true. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[The Organ Grinder (comic story)|The Organ Grinder]]'')

At this point, [[Alice Obiefune]], a companion of the [[Eleventh Doctor]] in the post-Time War universe seeking answers to its events, used the future version of the Master's TARDIS and its [[chronal tumour]] to attempt to break through the time lock. To do this, the corrupted TARDIS took control of her mind (represented to her as its owner, the small boy, at her day job as a librarian), and crash-landed in the past version of Lujhimene. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[First Rule (comic story)|First Rule]]'') Here she encountered the War Doctor and the small boy, but was quickly captured by the Volatix Cabal. However, the Squire rescued her and brought her back to the Doctor and the small boy she saw in her vision, whom the Doctor identified to her as being nameless, but formerly having been known as the Master. The boy reclaimed his TARDIS from "some tangled tomorrow", which could still communicate mentally to him, and connected it to the Doctor's as they headed for Golgauth.

 

[[File:Kill God.jpg|thumb|The child admires the [[Cyclor]]s. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[Kill God (comic story)|Kill God]]'')]]

As the Cyclors approached, the child taunted Alice about how her beloved Doctor had committed genocide in the Time War. Due to the temporal instability, she briefly saw him as [[The Master (Terror of the Autons)|his past self]]. The War Doctor revealed his plan to use the [[Psilent Songbox]] to affect the Overcaste's [[collective unconscious]] such that the Cyclors would ascend. As Alice stole the Songbox in an attempt to avoid the history she knew, the child used a device to summon a squadron of Gallifreyan ships to attack the Cyclors. He used this chaos of the Cyclor attack to flee, sneaking into his future self's TARDIS to escape the Time War. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[Kill God (comic story)|Kill God]]'')  

As the Master began to take off in his reclaimed TARDIS, he realised that it was his future self who had implanted the chronal tumour on his [[TARDIS console]] in the first place. At some point in his now aborted future, he was to operate on the brain of his TARDIS, which would result in the chronal tumour that protruded from one side of the console. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[The One (comic story)|The One]]'') But since escaping the Time War in his TARDIS would preclude him from implanting the tumour in the first place, the resulting paradox shattered reality in "a cascade of temporal possibility." Subsequently, the chronal tumour began to react to the Psilent Songbox, creating a [[chronal meltdown]]. While the child attempted to disarm the device, it was too late, and the resulting temporal bomb left the time-ship spiralling out of control. With the child's timeline collapsing as a result of the paradox, reverted him to his previous incarnation of the [[War Master]]. [[The Squire]] would later note he had been flung "who knows when." ([[COMIC]]: ''[[Fast Asleep (comic story)|Fast Asleep]]'')

Due to the paradox, all parties present would lose their memories of the events, though the exact extent of this was not clear. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[Fast Asleep (comic story)|Fast Asleep]]'') When revisiting her timeline and seeing this incarnation alongside the [[War Doctor]], [[Missy]] claimed to not remember which was her and which was the Doctor, implying she may have forgotten this incarnation entirely. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[The Master Plan (comic story)|The Master Plan]]'') Alice did recall the Master being present as a small boy, and at least the fact that the Master was present in the Cyclor event surprised the Eleventh Doctor; Alice's memories of her time in the Time War seemed to soon fade from her. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[Gently Pulls the Strings (comic story)|Gently Pulls the Strings]]'') Before she had gone back to the war, the Master's TARDIS had also printed an image of the child incarnation alongside Alice which the Doctor kept secret. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[The One (comic story)|The One]]'', ''[[First Rule (comic story)|First Rule]]'')