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It was the offer of life that had him accepting the game, not that it would be much of a shock to anyone who knew him, although the amount of people that did really boiled down to just him these days, and even that was a stretch, what he did know was that he adamantly refused to die if he could help it.
"So what shall we play?"
A simple question, five words and the Universe slowing to a halt around him so that he could fairly play whatever game he chose without dying on the God that had come to his call.
The Master glanced up at him from where he lay on the ground, a simple enough question with a simple enough answer.
"Chess."
With his word, a chessboard appeared between them with a wave of the Toymaker's hand, the white pieces on the Master's side, and the God sat on the other with the black pieces in front of him.
"Then we shall play, ja? White goes first."
And so he made the first move of many, pushing a pawn forward and watching as the Toymaker made an answering move.
Piece by piece they played their game, each move taking far longer than any normal game to play thanks to time being frozen by the game, each player pondering their move for what could easily be years.
"So why are you here anyway?" the Master found himself asking while pondering if he should move his left knight or the black space bishop.
"To be playing der game with you, ja?"
He decided to move his knight, leaving the Toymaker to take his turn.
"No, I meant in this Universe, I thought the Time Lords had things in place to prevent the Gods frlm coming in? And I really don't think me killing them all would have broken that... and on top of that, the walls between Universes have been shut for thousands of years at this point."
He watched the Toymaker's face as his eyes flicked between his pieces, a hand in front of his mouth as he pondered his next move, at the very least, if he did lose, he could take pride in the fact that he'd given the God a decent challenge, even half dead as he was.
"Oh!"
The Toymaker looked over at him at his clarification and then sighed.
"Ja... Herr Doctor sprinkled der salt at der edge of the Universe und said "You can only cross when you have been counting the salt grains," so I did."
The Master blinked at that, then stared at the chessboard for a long moment, or two, or possibly a day, then looked back at him.
"To you?"
"Nein, he was talking to der Not-people... but I heard him loud and clear!"
It was the Master's turn to sigh at this, "Of course that asshole did."¹
"Ah, lovers spat?"
He wrinkled his nose in distaste at the question, "Absolutely not, what gave you the idea that the Doctor and I were... like that?"
"Well... you do have der habit of messing with him und his friends, und you have been liking going to Earth because that is where they are, ja? I had been quite under the impression that you were liking them und they were liking you."
He scoffed, "If the Doctor liked me he wouldn't have left me again."
The Toymaker stared at him in silence for a long moment, the expressions on his face unreadable, and then he grinned.
"Ja, ja, I suppose you are right, not lovers then."
"No, not lovers."
A click against the chessboard had his attention going back to the game, and he quickly noticed that he'd moved a pawn forward, observing the board showed three possible moves, but he had plenty of time to think it through.
Their game continued, with conversations scattered throughout as they planned and plotted their best moves, until the Master was left with four pieces and the Toymaker three.
And it was his turn.
He glanced at his pieces, a bishop on the white spaces, a rook, his king, and a pawn.
His king was pushed up into a corner, the bishop protecting it from one end, with the rook in the other corner, blocked from the Toymaker's king by his pawn, a bishop on his black spaces.
The Toymaker grinned, likely anticipating an easy win now that they were down to the last few moves, but the Master saw a move, and took it, moving his singular pawn up the board, in just the right spot for the Toymaker's pawn to take it.
And he did, after a moment of deliberation, forgetting, as the Master had hoped, that their bishops were on opposite colours, and as he moved his bishop into place, he grinned.
"Checkmate, Toymaker."
"So it would seem."
The Toymaker was staring at the board with another unreadable expression on his face, before turning to him with a wide grin, his eyes glowing slightly with an unknown source of light, and the Master was reminded that the man he had spent the last however long it had been in that timeless state playing a game of chess and talking with was still very much a God.
The board disappeared with a snap of his fingers and the Master found himself unable to move as the Toymaker stood and approached.
"As promised, for winning the game, you shall live."
The accent had dropped, the Master noted, ad found that he couldn't open his mouth to respond.
The Toymaker placed his hand atop his head, "Although... I would recommend that you sleep for this... it will be... unpleasant."
To his alarm, the Master's vision went dark...
...
...
... And then he woke up, his eyes refusing to cooperate, to the smell of blood in the air and pain in his chest, he was laying on his back on something soft at least.
A crunching sound followed by a sharp jolt of pain had his eyes finally opening to see the Toymaker stood over him, an arm, bloodied, extended towards his chest.
The God's eyes snapped towards his face, more than he remembered, and then he tutted, "Ah, I said that you should be der sleeping through this, ja? Oh well, matters not now."
The Master swallowed slightly as his eyes flicked down to his bare chest, seeing a ribcage and skin moved, like an open book, exposing his right heart to the open air, he looked back up at the Toymaker, who was moving some items around on a nearby table.
"What...?"
The Toymaker giggled at that, musical sound consisting of seven notes, it almost made the Master want to roll his eyes.
Almost.
"I had been hearing of this thing der Time Lords haven, take a heart out und put it somewhere else und dann! Dann der Time Lord won't die, not as long as der removed heart still beats."
If the Master wasn't already pale from the blood loss, he would be now, "Wait- where are you-"
Before he could finish the question, the Toymaker had pressed a scalpel into the arteries, and the Master gasped from the pain, not long after, he saw as his heart was pulled away.
"Now, now, do not be fretting, Ich know der Time Ships get fussy when der Pilot has a single heart... so I grew a second one to replace the one I haven taken."
That statement would likely concern him far more, if he wasn't in such agony, but even with the pain, he couldn't ignore how the Toymaker's chest cracked open like a dollhouse.
He watched in morbid curiosity as the God removed one of his own hearts and replaced it with the one he'd taken from the Master, the orange-red of his organ contrasting with the dark ink-black of the Toymaker's.
The Toymaker hummed and pinched an artery with his free index finger and thumb, sealing them together, and the Master could feel it, detached as it was feom his body, it was still his heart, each pinch the Toymaker pressed against it to heal them together, to incorporate his heart, the Master felt it.
He gasped slightly from pain as his own body began to throb, and he became acutely aware of the fact that he should very much be dead from the blood loss by now, although given the state of everything, he presumed that the Toymaker's magic was, once again, keeping him alive as he worked.
A cracking sound has his attention going back to the Toymaker, who has just closed his chest and turned his attention back to the Master.
"Und now we fix you up."
The words should have been a comfort, were it not for the foreign heart in his hand and the glint in his eyes.
Fingers pressed into his chest, a heart going with them, and the Master wanted to scream, but just couldn't find the energy, he could feel as his arteries were sealed against the God's heart, could feel as it beat, and as the last vein was connected to it and blood began to flow through it.
He couldn't help the slight whimper that escaped his lips at the sensation and the Toymaker sighed running a bloodied hand through his hair.
"There, there, it is almost over now, und then your prize is secured, ja? No more dying for you."
The statement was true, of course, how could he ever die again when his heart was beating inside of a God? Inside of something that couldn't die?
The realisation hit him then, as the Toymaker snapped his ribs back into place, healing them as he went, that he would likely outline everything, including the Universe.
A wet slap alerted him to his skin being reattached, and a hand against his chest let him know he was being healed, the lightheadedness from bloodloss slowly ebbed away too, a curious thing, to know he was being refilled with blood like some sort of soup bowl.
He blinked, now that the fogginess had lifted from his mind, he realised that he was in some sort of room, all mahogany woods and burgandy reds, he didn't have to ask to know he was in the Toymaker's realm... it was sort of cozy, if one ignored the impromptu heart surgery he'd just had performed on him.
The hand lifted and he heard a sigh, followed by a hand carding through his hair for a moment.
"Try to sleep now, ja? Sleep is der best medicine, after all."
The Master huffed, opening his mouth to respond, then shut it, too tired to really think of a response or do much other than the God's suggestion.
"Fine," he mumbled, closing his eyes and simply listening to the sounds of the room around him, doing his best to block out the smell of the blood.
"Good," the word was followed by footsteps and a door opening and slowly creaking shut.
He sighed slowly turning to his side and moving his shaking hands to clutch at his chest, the feeling of the foreign heart beating in place of his own, and the subconscious awareness of his own heart beating elsewhere pushing him into a restless sleep.
"... Und now you won't be left, und neither shall I."
The words were whispered as the Toymaker glanced down into the room, watching the Master sleep.
"It has been a long time since I've had anyone who would stay, und you will come back, even if you go."