Title: Absolute Power
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: gen
Fandom: Doctor Who
Rating: R
Table: Buffet 2, fc_smorgasbord
Prompt: 52, Corrupt
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my own imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the Tenth Doctor. Please do not sue.

***

The Doctor sighed as he looked down at the viewscreen, the planet that he'd just left receding rapidly from view. It hadn't been a pleasant place, and he'd been more than ready to leave when he had. In fact, he'd probably overstayed his welcome.

The people there had been .... well, grasping, to say the least. He had never been able to understand the lure of money; he'd never been much troubled with it, and the way that some species seemed to covet it simply didn't make sense to him.

He'd been uncomfortable the entire time he was on the planet, and he'd been more than happy to leave. If he hadn't left when he did, he might have gotten into a good deal of trouble -- and without having a companion to watch his back, that was one thing he definitely didn't want.

At least he'd managed to make it back to the Tardis and away from there without being quesitoned, and without attracting the trouble that he usually managed to run into whenever he was visiting a place that he hadn't been to before, he told himself with a wry smile.

Without a companion, it could be difficult to know when to extricate himself from a place when trouble was brewing. A second pair of eyes could sometimes see things that he didn't catch at first -- things that he had a tendency to overlook until it was too late.

But at the moment, he was satisfied to be alone. It had been a while since Jack had left, and he wasn't ready to let anyone else have that coveted spot in his life. Of course, no one would be a part of his heart in the way Jack had been -- but they could be a friend.

That was really all he wanted at this point. Just a friend, someone to laugh with, talk with, share things with. He wasn't looking for another lover -- and after Jack, he seriously doubted that anyone would be able to lure him into their bed.

He'd gone to that planet thinking that it would be a new place, a new adventure -- and the thought had been in the back of his mind that he could possibly find a companion there, someone who would want to come away with him into time and space.

Instead, what he'd found were people who were attuned to accumulating power and wealth -- and that seemed to be all in their world that drove them forward. That most certainly wasn't the kind of person he wanted to have at his side every day.

He'd barely been comfortable around those people for a few hours, he told himself, wincing at the memory of how they'd made him feel. If he had to be around anyone with that sort of attitude on a constant basis, he would go insane.

Such a lust for power those people had! They reminded him of the Master, he thought, shivering as an icy chill stole down his spine. If the renegade Time Lord ever found that planet, he would fit right in with the general attitude of everyone there.

Oh, there could possibly be people there who were different, he admitted, but if there were, he hadn't met any of them. He doubted that they would be able to exist on a world that was so committed to the idea that money and power were all that was important.

If the Master found that world .... the Doctor's lips tightened as he stared down at the viewscreen; the planet had disappeared from view, but he couldn't help wondering just what might happen if the Master did indeed discover that place.

The Master wanted absolute power. So did most of the people on that planet -- well, all of them, from the limited view he himself had been able to get. If they should form some sort of coalition -- then the rest of the universe would be in deadly peril.

What was that saying? he asked himself, his brow furrowing before the words came to him. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. In the case of the Master, it was true -- and probably of most of the people on that planet as well.

There was no way to ensure that the Master could never find the place -- unless he destroyed it. And that was something he wouldn't do. He'd already caused the death of his own people; he wouldn't commit genocide again.

It would have been worse this time around, if it had come to that, he thought, his hands tightening on the edges of the console. When the Time Wars had been going on, he'd had to do what he'd done. He'd had no choice, no other way to turn.

If he had to destroy this planet to prevent the Master from wreaking havoc, he would always wonder if there could have been another solution. It would haunt him to the end of his days, in a way that the destruction of his own planet never could.

There were some who enjoyed holding that kind of absolute power in their hands; they turned it over, studying it, letting it sink into them until it became a part of their souls and they allowed themselves to become corrupted by it.

That would never happen to him. He turned away from that sort of power; he didn't want it. He'd used it once, and the result still gave him nightmares at times, and a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach whenver he had to contemplate it for any length of time.

He didn't want that kind of absolute power. There were people like the Master who craved it -- along with the people on that planet, and several humans he'd come into contact with. But he wasn't like them. He would never let himself become that corrupted.

It would be all too easy to let himself be drawn to that dark side, the Doctor told himself reluctantly. It was in him to accept that power, and to cause harm with it. The darker side of his nature didn't often come to the surface, but it was there.

He wasn't going to give in to that darkness in himself. He'd always managed to keep a tight leash on it, for all these years, all these centuries. He wasn't going to let power corrupt him now, not when he'd resisted that sort of corruption for as long as he had.

The Doctor blinked rapidly, realizing that he'd been staring down at the viewscreen on the console for quite a while as his thoughts had wandered. The planet was no longer visible; he'd come far away from it, and he didn't intend to make a return trip there.

If he had to go back because of the Master -- well then, he would cross that bridge when he came to it, as humans would say. If he was lucky, it wouldn't happen, and he would never have the make the sort of choices that the Time Wars had forced him into.

And if he did .... He sighed, turning away from the console and heading for one of the corridors that led to other parts of the Tardis. This was a problem that he could wrestle with at some other time -- though he sincerely hoped that he would never have to.

***