Calufrax

Posting on behalf of Styrofoam monster on Teaspoon.

Story: Self-Preservation
Author: Memory Dragon
Rating: teen
Word count: 16429
Characters: Delgado!master, Three, Simm!master
Summary: Running for his life with the Master, the Doctor finds someone he just can't leave behind.
Warnings: This fic is part of a well balanced diet of angst and cuteness. The Master gets a bit beaten up (off screen abuse of the insane on backwater planets) and there is a small bit of violence towards the Doctor, but I don't think it's anything major. Just a bit of choking, really.

Recced because: Self-Preservation features two incarnations of the Master, and Memory Dragon writes them both splendidly (though of course, anything Memory Dragon writes with the Master is guaranteed goodness). This fic shows the trust between the 3rd doctor and his master, something that has been lost in their later regenerations, and the mercurial nature of simm!master, and offers a believable explanation for how Delgado becomes who he will be. The story is very much one of contrasts, a moment of truce in a conflict that almost feels like a farce because it's obvious in this fic that Three and his master don't hate each other - rather the opposite. The concern the 3rd doctor and Delgado!master show for each other only underscores how bitter their battles will become. The conversation between the two Masters was also well done, with Delgado characteristically dismissive of his older self's melodrama. And the ending is excellent.

I could go on about it all day -- go ahead and read it!

excerpt: ( after the cut )