Soul's Shadow (Doctor Who - SI)

[BRBonobo]

Something is obviously terribly, terribly wrong. Nothing went wrong on Christmas, which is, in itself, very wrong. So, I guess something did go wrong. Okay, no need to panic then...

 

[TardisGhost]

Part XII - Gains and losses​

After the celebration I kept my promise not to push the Time Lords closer together. Should they deal with whatever they had for one another themselves.

It was hard enough to keep track of the confusing emotions I harboured myself. They were unfamiliar, following not a single rule I ever knew of. There was attraction, sure, but the Master had made it clear enough how disgusting he found humans. There was curiosity, lots of it, and it had only partially to do with the fact that he was an alien. There was a certain fascination - for who he was. And what.

Maybe even an obsession.

Whatever it was, I probably should make sure he would never know about it. Even with our deal in place I was never entirely sure he wouldn't just snap my neck in case I got too bold. The sensation he had sent through my body when his fingers had touched mine… it had chilled me right to the core, had reminded me that I was dealing with a wild beast. And only because he decided to play nice did it never ever, for even a second, mean that I should let my guard down.

Which shouldn't thrill me as much as it did.

I turned around and groaned into my pillow. This was frustrating and I had no idea how to deal with it all.

-----------------oOo.oOo.oOo-----------------​

Soon after, the Doctor brought the children away to their new home. It was a hearty goodbye with lots of hugs and even tears. Those rascals had stolen my heart already and it was sad to see them leave. Once again I was reminded of my nephews, whom I had helped raise and whom I hadn't seen in years - and probably would never see again.

The Master wasn't present when they left. Of course he wasn't. The way he had allowed himself to show a slightly softer side with them had probably broken what he thought was his reputation. It was a funny thought at least, so I stuck with it.

When the Doctor returned, he looked a bit sad, so I decided to cheer him up with what I thought was one of his favourite things to do.

"So…" I drawled, "You have any cool place in mind you wanna show me?"

"Uhm… weeeell…" He glanced from me to the console, rubbing his neck. "Sure… sure. Bet there's something. Nice and quiet, eh?" A small smile tugged at his lips and he tossed me a worried glance. "Are you sure? You haven't been so well, lately and-"

"Yep, absolutely," I assured hastily. "As long as it doesn't get too much all at once, I'm fine. Really."

The Doctor slightly pursed his lips and started to halfheartedly push a few buttons. "I want you to have fun, not collapse."

I snorted and crossed my arms in front of my chest. "I'm not that fragile. And as long as a certain someone isn't making a ruckus I shouldn't get so overwhelmed."

At that the Doctor tossed me another glance with raised eyebrows, one even I had no trouble deciphering, one that clearly said: I told you to stay away from him.

But for that, it was already too late.

"And you're sure you don't want to take another day's rest?" he tried once more.

"Nah. Had enough of that." I shrugged. "And I want to distract myself. And you."

"Me?" The Doctor let out a small laugh. "Why's that?"

Crap. I hadn't planned on revealing that. But now it was too late. "You seem sad, now that the little ones are gone. Just thought… and I like going out with you," I blabbered on. It wasn't a lie. "It's fun and I like your stories and the cool places you take me and…"

The Doctor laughed happily and stepped closer, hands in his pockets, bent down a little to meet my eyes. "And that's why you want to cheer me up?"

"Uh… y… yes? Is that… it's selfish, isn't it?" I turned away, suddenly feeling bad for even having the idea.

"Selfish?" The Doctor giggled and bent lower to get back into my field of vision. "It's not selfish to want the people around you happy."

I shrunk together a little and peeked up, rubbing my arms. "But… I benefit from it, don't I? If people are happy, they are nice to me. And then I can have fun times with them. And it makes me happy to see them smile. That's… all of that isn't for them, right?"

"Oh Lucy, you think way too much about everything, has anyone ever told you that?" said the Doctor, voice soft and smile gentle.

Maybe I shouldn't tell him who had told me the exact same thing already. Instead I nodded and sighed. "Can't change it. I… don't think I'm a good person."

"And that bothers you." It was a statement, not a question.

I looked up at the Doctor and nodded. "It does."

"Why's that?"

Oh, there was so much childish curiosity in his voice and in the subtle smile he wore. No judgement. It always amazed me how he could be like that and it was probably the only reason I felt free to open up around him in a way I had never been able to with others.

"I don't want to hurt people," I said quietly and wrapped my arms around myself. "I don't want to see anyone suffer. Especially not because of me."

"Weeell… that doesn't sound like a bad person to me."

"But I do," I whispered. "I do hurt others. I'm able to do it and I don't even flinch. Sometimes I have to. If I don't want them to break or lock me away, if they are bad to me… I… I can. I can do bad things, Doctor."

I winced when I suddenly was encased by arms and got pressed against the Doctor's chest. It took some seconds to even realise that he was hugging me, before the tension in my chest slowly eased.

"You're not a bad person for doing what's necessary," he said softly.

"But you think so too," I mumbled, voice muffled against the cloth of his jacket. "That's why you always want me to go."

"Hey, I don't!" he protested, hugging me even tighter. "I just know what a life like this does to people. I've seen it too often. And you…"

Finally I allowed myself the comfort of hugging him back and enjoyed the warmth he gave off. Somehow the Doctor always reminded me of how it felt to have sun rays shining through thick clouds on a cold winter day. Never actually dispelling the cold, but bearing hope and letting one relax for a while.

"My own life did a lot worse things with me," I mumbled and gently pushed myself away. "Now come. I want a nice coffee somewhere."

-----------------oOo.oOo.oOo-----------------​

We ended up on earth, a few years in my past, where the Doctor knew of a diner that had already vanished in my own time. Somehow it was strangely soothing to be back on my own planet, even though I didn't know the location. It also was weird to see an American diner in London. The Doctor had been right, though, the waffles were amazing and I could get a refill on coffee as often as I wanted.

The sun had already set and rain was running down the windows, creating fascinating patterns with the street lamps outside. A nice and quiet evening, perfect for relaxing and just forgetting about the world for a while. Someone even started the old-school jukebox, letting a song play that was probably as old as myself, while the Doctor sat there, quietly reading the newspaper with his specs up his nose.

I tugged at my own glasses, still thinking about keeping the contacts the TARDIS was providing me with. They were a lot more convenient, but each time I looked into a mirror I had to cringe. The glasses always made me look a bit nerdy, which I liked, and without them something was just missing from myself.

A car drove by, splashing water from a deep puddle all over the sidewalk. The Doctor turned his newspaper and folded it to read the next page, while the waitress made her round to collect used dishes. I glanced at the paper to maybe find what date it was and instead spotted a weird little advertisement for a new weight loss pill.

"Adipose," I read and chuckled. "What a dump name for a pill."

"Huh?" The Doctor glanced up and turned the newspaper to see what I had been looking at. "Oh, what's that? You're thin enough, don't you think?"

"Mhm… nowadays." I shrugged. "I actually used to be quite overweight until some years ago. Had almost double my current weight."

"And this stuff worked? Looks suspicious." The Doctor raised both eyebrows and studied the ad.

"Noooo." I chuckled. "I just counted calories for a while. Those pills are all a hoax."

"Oh dear, they aren't," spoke a voice next to us. I turned my head to see the waitress, waving her coffee can. "I've lost forty pounds in just a few weeks. And no yo-yo effect or whatsoever. It's really a miracle! And cheap at that." She winked at me and refilled my cup. "Although your boyfriend is right. You don't need them, dear."

"He's not…"

"Oi, Henry! Did you spoil the chocolate again?!" the waitress suddenly called out and rushed away.

I pouted at my coffee and heard the Doctor chuckle.

"Yeah, you find that funny, don't you?" I grumbled, but also had to laugh. "What do you make of that? Sounds impossible to me."

"Oh, absolutely! I mean… just consider the age gap!"

"Doctor…" I sighed and huffed, "I meant that pill."

"The… oh yeah! You're right. This does sound suspicious. And impossible. Literally. The human body… But that would mean… No, can't be. That virus is long dead. And I got rid of xirfuret worms ages ago."

"Uh… I actually was thinking of some worms. Tapeworms or something like that… Or some enforced thyroid overproduction. Both wouldn't be healthy. Probably…. Doctor?"

He wasn't listening, head somewhere in the clouds, or who knows where, tipping the blue end of the sonic against his nose. Sometimes I enjoyed getting into random conspiracies, but he definitely wasn't one to spin wild and useless theories over a cup of coffee. Not that this was a helpful pastime, but fun nonetheless.

"I have to go and investigate!" exclaimed the Doctor all of a sudden and jumped up from his seat.

"Whoa, calm down. It's not as if you could do much about some big company and their-"

"I can at least snoop around," he announced with a big grin. "Love snooping around. Especially in places I shouldn't be. At least until I know if it's safe for people."

"And if not?" I raised an eyebrow and followed him out of the diner.

"Then I'll make them stop, what do you think?"

"Riiight…" I shrugged.

I couldn't imagine he had the means to actually tear a company down, but then again… some of his stories clearly told something else. I hadn't anticipated that he would go that far, though. Maybe I needed to be more careful with what random thoughts I spoke out loud, in the future.

"Wanna come along to investigate?" he suddenly asked, eyes twinkling as he turned around to me, walking backwards a few steps.

"Wha'!? No way." I shook my head. "I'd be totally useless and obvious and scared and…"

He chuckled and patted my shoulder. "It's okay. You don't have to."

I gnawed on my lower lip and glanced at my moving feet. "Sorry. I'm not as useful or fun as your other companions."

"Oi, don't say that. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. As soon as I get some clues I'll let you look over them. You're good with your head. Patterns and all that."

We reached the TARDIS and stepped inside, greeted by only the hum of the ship. The silence was uncanny, after we had had the children on board for so many days. Maybe that was why the Doctor wanted to swoop down on a new adventure. Some distraction, some noise.

"Okay. Let's do that," I agreed.

 

[BRBonobo]

The silence was uncanny, after we had had the children on board for so many days. Maybe that was why the Doctor wanted to swoop down on a new adventure. Some distraction, some noise.

Click to shrink...

A quiet TARDIS with no Master to be seen. Certainly not suspicious or worrying...

 

[TardisGhost]

Part XII (II)​

After we came back I went to check on the baby dragon, watching it play with a pink bug for a while, before devouring it. Its head snapped in my direction, purple eyes big and expecting. I chuckled and praised the little one for the good catch.

The Doctor was right, it could barely walk, clumsily skidded around and lacked all the grace the mother had had. Not even a hint of wings were visible, no claws or teeth and certainly nothing that hinted at any ability to spit fire. I looked through the few notes he had been able to gather, but they were nothing but legends and told nothing about hatchlings.

So the only thing I could do was to wait and hope that the little creature would grow one day. Or hope I would find out what it might need to do so. The hatching itself had needed a tremendous amount of energy and probably a connection to the void, somehow. I was convinced to have been there, despite what the Doctor said.

The dragon yawned and stared at me until I reached a finger inside the terrarium to tickle it under the chin until it squeaked happily and rolled itself together to a small ball.

The sight always made me smile and also reminded me that I still hadn't decided on a name yet. I had always been horribly bad at naming things or characters for stories, let alone pets and I wanted something fitting.

"Good night, little one," I murmured, smiling and left the room to find the kitchen.

The waffles had been a nice treat, but I needed something better to fill my grumbling stomach.

To my surprise, I found the kitchen occupied already, and by none other than the Master, busy stirring something in a pot and just about to taste a spoonful of the content.

"Found a new hobby?" I teased and sniffed the air. It smelled deliciously like a hearty stew.

"I could hardly try all the recipes I found recently," he said, nonchalantly. "And since we got actual cheveron crabs, I couldn't resist."

I trod closer and peeked inside the pot, admiring how nice it looked already. Then I turned to the fabricator and listlessly scrolled through the list of items until the Master grabbed my wrist.

"You really want to eat this stuff?"

My eyebrows shot up and I turned my head to look at the Master. "Sure. I'm hungry. And I bet you'd enjoy having me drool at your plate while I munch on a sandwich." With that I tugged my hand from his grip.

"Then you're wrong. I actually want you to try it and tell me how much you like the taste of my skills."

"Kinky."

The Master chuckled and got out two deep plates from a cupboard, setting them on the table, together with some cutlery. A few minutes later the steaming pot followed in the middle and he waved expectantly at the chair, smile smug. He even filled my plate first.

Suspiciously I poked my spoon into the dish, ignoring my rumbling stomach just long enough to savour the smell. If that tasted only half as good as it smelled then I'd be tempted to dedicate the rest of my life convincing the Master to become a chef instead of a villain.

It was better than that.

I hummed content and shoved another spoonful into my mouth. It was hearty, but not spicy, savoury, but not too much. And the crab meat was so delicate it practically melted on my tongue.

"This is even better than what you made for Christmas," I said with closed eyes, smiling. "And I'm not trying to please your praise kink here. This is actually good."

"Of course it is," he replied, practically oozing pride. "Now eat up, I need you in good strength."

"Why's that?" I took a sip of water from a glass next to the plate and eyed him through it.

"Because I want you to learn."

"Oh, right. Sure. Sorry I've been so useless until now. Didn't plan to fall ill."

There was no retort to that. We silently finished our meal, anticipation rising with every minute. Afterwards he led me to his room, pointing at the sofa. It was wide enough so we could both sit on it, cross legged and facing each other.

Suddenly nervous, I glanced up at him, fidgeting with my fingers. The Master sat there, seemingly concentrated, and suddenly the lights dimmed until they were gone. Instead, small orange glowing dots appeared next to us, forming a line along the wall.

"The TARDIS has a low telepathic field," the Master murmured, smiling at my dumb expression. "She doesn't like me much, but reacting to certain signals is just built into her, so…"

"Show-off," I huffed. "So… how…"

"Give me your hands."

He stretched out his own and I placed mine in his, the gesture making me suddenly too aware of every detail, the rough skin of his palms, the way his thumb moved an inch before halting. I looked away and into his eyes instead, glinting with the reflections of the lights around us. Like stars. Like there was a fire burning deep within him, ready to break lose every moment and devour the universe.

A smile twitched his lips upwards and the glint seemed to gain more intensity, mesmerising me so much I barely registered how our minds intermingled until we were so deep already I could feel his mirth.

Am I that fascinating, lil' lumin? he asked, smug and amused. Concentrate. You need to learn how to get deeper.

How do I do that? I wanted to know, deliberately ignoring his question. Doesn't it need more skin contact? Nerve endings and all that?

The Master nodded. The more, the stronger. But it's not necessary. See it as a boost. The stronger the initial contact, the easier it is to go from there. And more dangerous.

Now it was me who nodded, ready and eager to learn more.

Feel the flow of your own mind. Feel how it's different to mine and where they meet.

I nodded once more, exhaled slowly and relaxed my muscles. Going inside my own head was easy, drawing all of my awareness away from the world and inwards. But what in there was me? The sound of my blood in my ears, my breath, the tingling of warmth where our hands met. Up from there, up, up, up and inside.

All the way into the darkness.

I flinched away from the sensation, surprised, scared even. Was that really inside of me? This deep, endless pit of nothingness?

The Master didn't react , didn't interfere. I could barely feel him and lingered in that seemingly empty space for what felt like hours, until I noticed that it wasn't empty at all. It was impossible to tell what it was I felt there, it wasn't perceivable with my usual senses. Maybe those were my emotions? Memories? Maybe…

Yes, I heard the Master. This is your life force.

For a while longer, I lingered there, trying to sense what it even meant. It was different to what I had imagined, fainter, darker, barely existing.

This should be a bright glowing pool of energy, said the Master. He felt curious, fascinated, tendrils of his awareness tenderly stroking along the edges of this place. But you allowed all of it to go. There's nothing left.

Softly he guided my awareness to the centre of the darkness to where I found a small, hazy sphere of hovering embers, bright and strong and burning like the Master did. In awe I gaped at the sight, the sensation that was so strong I could see it clearly behind my closed lids.

This is yours, I realised.

Yes. All of it.

I thought… I thought it was just a metaphor, I admitted. Never had I expected that he meant it so literal.

The Master chuckled and gave my essence a nudge. Then he slowly retreated and took me right along until our minds had unravelled. The connection, however, stayed, hung between us like an unspoken question.

"That wasn't so bad," he commented, using his voice again. There was a hint of mockery, but it sounded strangely affectionate.

I opened my eyes, having difficulties adjusting to the dim light in the room after I had seen the darkness inside myself. Had the Master chosen the faint orange glow because he knew this would happen? The same sparks were burning in the darkness of his gaze, lingering, waiting to be let loose. The familiarity made my heart jump.

The Master observed my features closely and smirked, his thumbs idly stroking over the backs of my hands.

"Now you've seen it," he whispered, tugging at me.

I swallowed and glanced down at our joined hands, somehow scared and somehow soothed at the same time, knowing that I truly didn't belong to myself any longer.

Did he know the extent of what he had done on a whim? Or had he slowly found out as time dragged on? Was this the reason I felt so safe with him, or had that been the case before? How could I ever know? How could I ever answer any of this?

Another tug at my essence tore me out of my fearful musings, made me aware that my breath was trembling, as was my body. The Master grabbed my hands firmer and pulled at them, tore me to my knees and made me yelp in surprise.

"So I am still able to scare you," he said mockingly. "That's almost cute."

I couldn't protest. When I opened my mouth to do so, he pulled at my hands again, harder this time, made me fall forwards and almost against him. But he caught me, showing off just how strong he was as he held me in place, our hands still clasped. A grin was spread on his face, eyes glinting.

Slowly he eased me lower until I was able to sit back on my knees again. His fingers slipped out of mine, only to grab my collar and drag me forwards until we were almost nose to nose.

"Let me taste it," he muttered. "Let us go deeper."

My breath hitched at his words. I nodded, waiting for him to reach out to cradle my head, dropping his own against mine. The contact was there immediately and still slow, like colour trickling into water, dissolving, mixing. My hands wanted to move, wanted to hold something. Instead I curled them to fists on my upper legs and focused on my mind instead.

The process stopped at some point, left us intertwined and still only at the surface. I felt him tugging, probing experimentally. I focused on the sensation, tried to trace it to the end, or maybe the beginning.

You're much stronger than I, I thought. Why can't you just go deeper and take me along?

I can't. His answer was amused. It would break you. Telepathy isn't a thing for one. It always needs both.

Tendrils of his awareness wrapped themselves around parts of mine, guided them to the point I had been looking for. It was like feeling a membrane around myself, an invisible barrier, but incredibly thin and almost illusive.

It's not really there, said the Master. Your mind tries to protect you from intrusions.

So… I have to let you go deeper on my own will?

Us.

The word reverberated through me like the sound of a bell, but something was still missing. Something that had to come from myself. I tried to let the barrier vanish, tried to bring us both beyond it, but I couldn't. It was simply impossible.

Eventually I let out a frustrated groan and opened my eyes. The Master gave me a smirk, confirming that he had been suspecting my failure.

"Don't mock me," I grumbled.

"Och, let me have the fun." He snickered and retreated his mind, then his hands. "I hadn't suspected you to manage on the very first time."

I scowled at him, lips pursed. The disappointment didn't stem from my inevitable failure alone. Truth be told, I had been looking forward to just vanishing in the blur of our minds for a while.

The Master was still smirking, watching me closely. It seemed as if he was able to sense my thoughts, or maybe they were just written on my face with indignant radiance. He leaned forwards, wriggled a finger in his own direction as if he wanted to whisper something in my ear. And when I bent a little to meet him, his hands were on my sides already, drawing me closer with a strength that left me no choice but to follow his movements until I, once more, was seated in his lap, mesmerised by the glow in his eyes and the sheer closeness we shared.

His hands slipped under my shirt and onto my skin, pressing me closer to him. I pushed against his shoulders to keep at least some distance, but already felt his mind slip into mine, deeper and more potent than before, wrapping itself around my awareness like soft silken smoke. Nothing about the intrusion was forceful. My forehead dropped against his with a sigh, warmth spreading in my whole body, engulfing me, letting me float and forget where I ended and he started.

I'm amazed, the Master's voice resounded somewhere in the swirls of what was us. How willingly you give into this.

I wasn't sure if I even understood what this meant. Why would I fight against something that felt so… good, so whole. It probably should scare me. Because the man I shared this with had committed atrocities far beyond anything comprehensible. I had seen some of it, felt the cold, calculating streaks in him, the enjoyment of cruelty, the bliss in owning the stars themselves.

His fingers dug into my skin, drawing me back to the surface as he slowly disentangled himself from me again. When I opened my eyes, after what could have been hours or mere seconds, I caught his gaze and blinked in surprise. There, for a second, he looked lost and so eternally lonely that my heart clenched hurtfully.

"Sorry," I muttered, not sure what else to say.

His look hardened instantly and the Master let out a huff.

"What for?"

I didn't know. But I could sense that, "I hurt you, didn't I?" I muttered, voice choked. "I don't know how, but I did…"

The intensity of his stare was almost burning me, a crooked grimace appeared on his face, there to betray himself.

"You still can't grasp what you're doing there," he said, voice barely audible. His fingers stroked along my jaw, the touch making me shiver. "And you do it only for yourself."

For the longest time I glared at him, heart thudding and hurting, ripped open by his words, even though I didn't know what they meant. The Master smiled, shoving me gently down from his legs.

"Tomorrow," he said then. "Same time, same place?"

Huffing I nodded, smiling even. Doing this maybe every day from now on sounded definitely like a good thing, despite whatever was going on with him.

-----------------oOo.oOo.oOo-----------------​

The practice had made me tired, but not so much that I wanted to sleep already. And I needed to distract myself from thinking too much. So I went to the console room and really found the Doctor there, specs on his nose and staring at a monitor.

"You were right," he drawled, mouth open. "Something is not right at all about that company. Just can't really figure out what. Good numbers, no bad reports, satisfied customers."

"You're really investigating those?" I wondered, slightly amused. "I was just joking about it, you know?"

The Doctor snapped his mouth shut and turned to me, eyebrows raised. Then he suddenly grinned and chuckled. "I know. But you have some great instincts. So I thought this might be interesting after all."

Me? Great instincts? Perplexed, I blinked at him, but he didn't even seem to notice.

"New company. Many employers, mainly for marketing. Couldn't find out much about the product or the production. Nothing about ingredients or where they make it. Come, take a look. Take your time. I'll fetch a cuppa tea. Want some too?"

"Uh… yeah, sure. Thanks," I mumbled and stood next to him, glaring up at the screen.

"There. This knob is for scrolling, and that is bringing you back to the main archive. Rest is just touch controls. You'll get the hang of it, right?"

He encouragingly slapped my back and hurried away, leaving me alone with what he had gathered. I had no clue what most of it even meant, all those numbers and words I had never heard of. Coordinates, dates, names. I scrolled through most of it, trying to find something that made sense to me.

Some time later I heard the Doctor return and he placed a cup on the console, beside me.

"This is all completely random," I complained. "Nothing's sorted."

"Oh, yeah, weeell… I just came back. Didn't have the time for it. But you know what?"

"Mhm?" I Tore my eyes away from the screen and glanced at the Doctor, picking up the tea cup.

"I wanted to do some maintenance anyway. We'll stay for a couple of days. You can sort and filter all you want. If you want. Do you?"

I had to laugh at his hopefully glinting eyes, the smile anticipating like that of a child awaiting a yes to the longed for ice cream. He even wriggled his eyebrows in response, which made me properly laugh.

"Alright, alright." I nudged my shoulder against his. "But I won't promise anything."

"Ah, you don't have to. Just try. Maybe's nothing. Maybe we found something important. Who knows. Brilliant, isn't it?"

"Not at all." I giggled at his childish attitude and turned back to the screen.

 

[BRBonobo]

About as intimate as you can get, but I am still somewhat anticipating their relationship becoming more physical. Don't know why I need that, when they are all up in each-others' minds, but I do.

 

[TardisGhost]

I know exactly what you mean. Guess that's us being human xD
But don't worry... 👀👀👀

 

[TardisGhost]

Part XII (III)​

The next few days went by in a similar manner. The Doctor went out to gather new information about this Adipose company, or he vanished somewhere below the console to do repairs.

Meanwhile I sifted through the data - after I had begged for a laptop, since staring at the little screen of his console was a pain. Now I could at least be bundled up in a jump seat, with a cuddly blanket - the heat wasn't functioning while the Doctor fiddled with whatever - and a cup of coffee.

The first days I barely made any progress at all. The data was too random and much of it was completely beyond my capability of understanding. I did appreciate that the Doctor let me do this, but it was still frustrating to feel so limited. There were coordinates and data about temperature, space-time fluctuations, shifts in several energy levels. None of it seemed related to the case at all.

"Weeell… I had to start somewhere, didn't I?" said the Doctor, soot on his face and grinning sheepishly. "I'm not sure what we're even looking for."

"And what's with that stuff? Is space supposed to bend in random places?"

He tossed a glance at my screen, tilted his head from side to side and finally nodded. "Yup. You wouldn't notice, though. It's too subtle. But space, exactly as time, is never quite fixed. Twists, bends, expands, contracts… it's almost a dance," he concluded happily.

I grunted at the unhelpful response and gave up for the day.

In the evenings I went to see the Master, in case he hadn't been around all day. Sometimes he strolled into the console room to make a snarky remark about whatever, or just sat there with a random thing he was tinkering with, or - to my surprise - even helped with some of the repairs. I concluded that it was out of boredom and because a functioning TARDIS was benefitting him too, after all.

And maybe he enjoyed the company.

Getting a hang of the telepathy was harder than I had initially feared. A lot. I struggled with keeping us apart, struggled to open my mind to let us slide deeper. And as the days dragged by, I had the feeling I had made no progress at all since the beginning. It was as if I was struggling with everything at all. And it made me feel utterly useless.

"I told you, even we need decades to figure this all out. We have classes on it. Teachers, lessons, practice."

I sulked, angrily glaring at the intertwined hands in my lap. "I don't have that much time."

"Mhm, we'll see," the Master muttered. There was no way of telling what he thought of it. If he had hopes I could manage or not. He snickered. "Don't be so upset. You get what you want, in the end."

That comment startled me. Of course I also did this because I liked the connection, but that didn't mean I didn't want to help. I wanted to. With a frustrated sigh I let go of his hands, feeling how our minds slipped apart as well.

"Do you want to stop already?" came his mocking question.

"Why is it so easy when… when we're… closer?"

The Master tilted his head and lifted a brow, seemingly thinking about it for a moment, before he leaned closer, forcing me to look him in the eyes. I hated when people did that - usually. But with him there was no unpleasant feeling to it. Quite the opposite. His gaze could hypnotise me without him even trying. The sheer intensity of his very being, mesmerising me beyond any level of comprehension. I looked up and winced when he stretched out his hands to cradle my cheeks, gently holding me, his forehead on mine all of a sudden.

The connection returned, stronger than before, more intense, letting us pour into one another without any trouble.

"It's like opening a floodgate," the Master muttered. "The wider you open it, the greater the flow."

"Then why do I have to squeeze myself through a tiny gap?" I asked, sulking again. It seemed unnecessarily unfair, almost designed to mock me.

"I told you. It's dangerous." His nose brushed against mine. On accident? My eyes were completely fixated on his, the glimmer of orange sparks sitting deep within them. "Open it up too wide and you lose control, it tears everything apart, rips off what should stay in place, carries along the things that you don't want to be seen."

Memories of the day I had heard the drums resurfaced, of how utterly lost we had been, of the warmth of his… I swallowed and tried to back away, but he held me too tightly. I could feel his mirth at my struggling and also… something else. Something more. A longing, but for what I couldn't tell.

I tried to focus on it, tried to see what were his thoughts and emotions and how they differed from mine. But already I was lost, engulfed in the shared moment. And so was he, not saying, nor thinking anything any longer.

What tore me out was the sensation of him inching closer, our noses touching again, his breath against my lips. Potential. Going deeper, running high, losing ourselves entirely. I managed to open my eyes, without knowing how, saw that his were already open, watching, burning, demanding all of my attention so he could…

I winced away, this time breaking free of his grip and I felt the connection splinter into pieces, into shards of stars and embers and all the things that never were, but might have been. I gasped and heard the Master take a sharp breath, too, rage burning behind his eyes when he glanced at me.

"'m sorry," I mumbled and reached a hand out. "I didn't want to hurt you."

His look softened and a bitter smile crept on his face. "It still scares you. No matter what you tell."

My hand dropped down and I had to look away, the glowing blades of shame burning me from the inside.

"Thought you like me scared," I retorted, only because it was the only thing I could think of. The shattered connection still lingered in the form of a stinging in my head, of a twisting in my guts. He probably had the same effects, if not worse, so I thought he was owed an explanation at least. "I was just startled. And… you said it yourself, it's dangerous…" And after a pause, once more, "'m sorry."

The Master huffed and it sounded derisive. He stood up, looking down at me. There was a sneer on his lips when I glanced up, one that made me wince. "You don't understand anything," he growled. "That's why you fail. That's why you can't ever… this was a stupid idea." He ran a hand over his face. "To let a primitive thing like a human inside my head. Drums or not. What was I thinking?"

"It helped, didn't it?" I asked, feebly and close to tears of frustration and fear.

Again this derisive snort. He bent down to meet my eyes again, but I couldn't look. Not this time. Even without any connection I could feel the hatred that was directed towards me, the contempt. It was a familiar feeling. Sooner or later… I had experienced it from every person that had ever claimed I meant something to them. From every person I had ever given a piece of myself.

In the end I could never be enough.

"Get lost," the Master grumbled and went to his desk to tinker with another device.

It hurt. More than it should. I made my way through the corridor, ignoring the soft hum of the TARDIS and trying to fight back my tears.

Just this once it had appeared that I might be able to be of use to someone. But as it turned out, this had been a false hope altogether. The Master was right, how could I, a mere human, be able to learn something my species wasn't even designed for? The thought in itself was ridiculous.

-----------------oOo.oOo.oOo-----------------​

"Oh, still awake?" The Doctor strolled in, a bag of crisps in hands. "I wanted to watch the stars for a while. Want to join?"

I looked up from my laptop, yawned and shook my head. But instead of leaving me to my own, the Doctor came over and peered over the screen.

"That's a site about conspiracy theories." He chuckled. "Seriously?"

"Your data doesn't tell me anything, honestly." I shrugged and dropped my gaze. "Guess my brain isn't equipped for that either. So I thought I might as well resort to things I have experience with."

"Aha! I see. The internet - a realm of knowledge, true and false, where you can find anything if you only set your mind to it. One of the greatest inventions of humankind."

"Yeah. It truly is." I glared at the screen, remembering all the hours and days I had spent there, browsing through social media, listening to psychology lectures on youtube or learning more about everything there was to know about my own condition. All in the hopes to, one day, be able to appear human enough to find a place amongst them.

The screen lowered until it lay on my fingers. When I looked up, the Doctor gave me a friendly smile. "Come on," he said, nodding to the door. "This has time."

He went to the console and manoeuvred the TARDIS someplace else, giving me no choice but to close the laptop and clutch it so it wouldn't fall to the ground from all the rumbling and shaking. The Doctor then jumped to the doors and opened them wide with a dramatic gesture, revealing space and the stars and all the colours of a distant nebula.

Hesitantly, I laid the laptop on the seat and got up, but only took a bunch of steps before halting. I was close enough to see the fascinating sight and still far enough to be somewhat on my own.

The Doctor sat down, letting his legs dangle outside. He patted the small space next to him and grinned at me. "You can have some crisps too, if you want."

"I… don't want to bother you," I mumbled, not moving a muscle.

His grin fell and he regarded me with a long look, before letting out a "mhmmm" that could mean absolutely everything. His face lit up after that and he nodded to the seat.

"Let me see what you've found. It looked interesting."

"Uh… okay."

I nodded and went to grab the laptop, then squeezed myself next to the Doctor, glaring at the bag of crisps that hung in the air in front of us. The lack of gravity was fascinating and definitely one of the things I would never get used to.

"I was looking for user reviews for the product," I told him. "Many firms buy them, but you can easily see which ones are fake. No one writes like that." I scrolled through a list of ratings, all showing texts of various lengths and stars next to it. "It's weird. Every single review has five stars. Full points, no regrets."

"Well, that's good, isn't it? Satisfied customers." The Doctor chuckled.

"It's basically impossible." I snorted. "No matter how good a product is, people will always find something to complain about. But…" I showed him a bunch of reviews that were poorly written, clearly by people who weren't especially bright or who couldn't speak the language too well. "I'm pretty sure those aren't fake. And that made me look further."

"You think they are being manipulated?" The Doctor leaned closer to the screen, observing it's content.

"That was one thought, yes. Hence why I started looking elsewhere. And boy, are there many theories. Everything from aliens to microchips and brainwashing. But this one" - I pointed at one article - "is interesting."

"Mhm… went missing," mumbled the Doctor, skimming the text. "No one believed it… no police… never existed? Yeah, that sounds weird, indeed."

"Their headquarters aren't even that far. Maybe sonic your way in and see if you can find any records of their customers?"

The Doctor looked at me, brows raising, lips spreading to a wide smile. "That's a brilliant idea. I'll do that tomorrow." He chuckled and ripped the crisps bag open, took some of its contents and left the bag hovering outside the doors. "Your method was a lot more useful than mine, I have to admit."

I closed the laptop with a smile and shoved it behind me. That small compliment had almost made me blush, so unexpected was it. Especially after all the failures from before.

"So. What's bothering you?" asked the Doctor between crunches. He tipped the bag and let it float in my direction. "I'm rather sure I know who's responsible for your mood. But since you refuse to stay away…"

The bag floated in front of me and I stopped it to pick out a few crisps. "It's not so easy to stay away. Even if I wanted to. He's living and breathing and existing here as much as you and I." Despite everything it still made me angry at how the Doctor treated the other man, deserved or not.

He sighed and looked at the stars. "I know. But you know he's hurting you and you still spend more time with him than you have to." The Doctor held his hands up in defence, his look soft, an amicable smile on his lips. "I'm simply curious, honestly. I don't get why he saved your life. It's not a thing he normally does. And I don't get why he lets you come near him… at all."

"Because he hates humans so much?"

"Yes. You know only a fraction of what he tried to destroy earth and to erase your entire species from existence."

"I think that's mostly to spite you."

"Mhm…" He stuffed some more crisps into his mouth and poked the floating bag. "It's a funny thing. The Time Lords once released him on earth, had his TARDIS broken, so he couldn't even escape to somewhere else. It wasn't the first and not the last time he had to spend quite a lot of time on earth."

I huffed and grabbed the bag. "And yet he doesn't understand a thing about us." A single crisp floated away and slowly vanished into space.

"Yeah, I knooow!" The Doctor giggled.

"Same as you, by the way," I added with a smirk and laughed when he choked on his last bite.

"Oi! I'm good with humans! Mostly."

"Sometimes. At best."

The Doctor pursed his lips, but smiled at the same time. He nudged my shoulder. "Still. Tell me what's bothering you."

But that was the problem. I couldn't. Would he find out that I tried to find the drums, he would only try to stop me.

Not that it mattered anymore.

"The problem is that I'm only human. And that he has a short fuse and no manners and is incredibly impatient." I grunted in frustration.

"Impatient?" The Doctor cocked a brow. "Are we talking about the same person? I've never met anyone with more patience. Believe me… the Master has a history of taking his time. He spent years preparing for some of his schemes to work, to set everything up, etc. I can't picture him being impatient."

Confused, I blinked out at a space, feeling my mood drop quite a bit. If that was true… then what did his behaviour mean? I sunk together, oblivious to the beauty in front of me. Had I just destroyed something?

"Hey." The Doctor nudged me gently and wrapped an arm around my shoulder. "It's okay if I give you a hug? You really seem to need it."

I glanced up and nodded, even leaned against him as he pulled me into an embrace. It wasn't tight, but still comforting, soothing. "I'd never say no to a hug," I commented, smiling.

"Ah, just thought I'd ask anyway. Sorry I never asked before. I know some with your condition who can't stand any touch. Especially not if they didn't initiate it."

"Yeah, for some it's unnerving. But I like it." I made myself comfortable at his side, reaching for the crisps again and playfully poking the bag so the Doctor had to catch it.

He left one arm around my shoulders, his feet dangling back and forth. The silence of space sung to us, the darkness and the faint lights of distant suns, spinning a woeful lullaby for lonely travellers.

It felt so different to be with the Doctor. A quiet union of unspoken thoughts. The comfort of a moment ending eternally. He saw the stars with the eyes of a child and felt its wonders with a never dying awe. The universe was his playground. And everyone who lived in it his chess pieces.

I could never imagine cuddling up with him like I did with the Master, but the comfort I found in his presence was able to ground me in the moment and made all worries pale for however long he stayed.

"Ohhh, right!" The Doctor sat straight, removed his arm and rummaged through his coat pockets. "I thought about you for a bit."

"Uhhh… okay?" Was that a good or a bad thing?

"And I don't see how I can return you home with a happy ending. If there is no family or anyone else. I don't want you to be all alone. That would be nasty. And…" He pulled his hand out, holding something small in his fist. "...the Master would find a way to kidnap you again. And here I can at least have an eye on everything."

Thinking about my last encounter with the Master, I wasn't so sure about that anymore. It seemed more like he wanted me gone, and preferably forever.

"Give me your hand."

I held one out and watched as he opened his fist to let a small object fall into my opened palm. It was a key. An ordinary key, but strangely warm and almost humming with energy. Puzzled, I glanced up at the Doctor and found him smiling warmly.

"It's a key for the TARDIS. Just in case you ever get lost."

I opened my mouth to say something, anything. The small object seemed to gain weight, lying in my hand like a promise. One of a future I had never hoped to have. I swallowed and rasped out a "Thank you."

The Doctor grinned from ear to ear, snatched the floating bag of crisps and held them out to me, allowing me to lean on his shoulder again to watch the stars for another while.

 

[TardisGhost]

Part XII (IV)​

"I'm going to investigate their headquarters," said the Doctor when I strolled in the next morning to enjoy my first coffee in the company of the TARDIS' humming. "It's close by and there is supposed to be a presentation."

"Presentation?" I parroted, leaning against the console.

"Yup. It's all for the press and important people. Want to come along?"

"And get into trouble? They wouldn't even let us in."

The Doctor only grinned and flashed his psychic paper. Right now it was empty, but I remembered what effect it could have.

"I could just blow the place up and all worries would be gone," announced another voice from behind.

My heart rate shot up in an instant, thudding painfully in my throat. I didn't dare turn around, afraid at what disgusted face he would make at my sight.

"Noooo! I don't even know if they do anything bad!" protested the Doctor. "We'll go and have a look and maybe I might get some customer data."

"I didn't agree…" I carefully objected.

An arm landed on my shoulder, casually propped up there.

"Playing detective?" the Master asked joyfully. "I thought you were too scared for this kind of thing."

I had no choice but to look up, anxious and shy and awaiting to find more of the repulsion he had regarded me with the night before. He was still facing the other man, but then turned his head and… flashed me a grin. An expression of boyish mischief and challenge.

A sharp pain shot right through my heart, so fast did it beat, so frantically did it try to escape its cage. I caught myself fast enough to not let him see through me, straightened and returned the challenging smile.

"I'm not scared, just you watch me."

There it was. I could prove to him that I wasn't useless, that I wasn't afraid of things I didn't know, and if I was anyway that I could overcome it all and be brave.

"So you're coming with me?" asked the Doctor, already grabbing his coat to slip in.

"Yeah. Just let me get a jacket."

-----------------oOo.oOo.oOo-----------------​

The presentation was rather boring. The Doctor had gotten us inside by busting a backdoor with his sonic and had then flashed his psychic paper to make anyone who dared ask believe we were from "Health and Security". Which ended in us sitting in the film cabin, watching how a blond lady in oversized glasses tried to convince everyone how great their product was.

To me it all sounded like made up bullshit.

A woman in the film hall started to ask some uncomfortable questions, clearly willing to rile the blonde one up and to get some nice headlines.

I barely listened to more babble about biology. A topic that had never fascinated, nor interested me. I knew the basics and probably more than most anyway, since my brain tends to soak up information like some sponge. It sounded pretty bullshitty anyway, even to me. As if a big company like them would tell in detail how their product worked…

"This is a scam," I muttered towards the Doctor. "Dunno how they fake the reviews, but come on…"

"Mhm…" He nodded, continuing to watch the scene below.

Sometimes it was fascinating how concentrated and calm he could be, in contrast to his usual overexcited behaviour.

I, on the other hand, was still nervous, despite the psychic paper and despite how no one so far had really bothered us. This was too easy. It couldn't be so easy. Sooner than later someone would ask questions we couldn't answer and tell us we had no business being here, no matter the status.

The presentation ended, everyone poured out of the room and the Doctor, too, made his way outside, following some corridors. We passed another exit and I contemplated just waiting outside.

If only it weren't for my stupid decision to prove that I wasn't a coward.

If only it weren't for the fact that I was.

The whole time we spent in the office was sheer torture and it surprised me that no one could smell how nervous I was, while the Doctor casually flirted with one of the sales women. That no one saw how I couldn't keep myself from tossing glances around. That no one felt all the anxiety I radiated.

Then again and despite how I felt about the situation, I could not, for the life of me, resist nicking one of the golden capsules the sales woman had lying on her table. Not that I needed the money anymore, but it was small and shiny and just perfect to have in my pocket and fidget around with.

Priorities, I guess.

It made the whole situation only worse, though and when we finally left the building it felt as if I was about to simply collapse from exhaustion. The Doctor looked at me, smiling.

"You did great, you know that?"

"I?" I squeaked as we walked down a street to meet one of the customers to question him. "I've been nothing but an antsy ball of fear!"

"Yup, I noticed." He chuckled. "And yet you stayed and managed not to be suspicious. You didn't run off. I think that deserves a little praise."

I snorted. "Don't pity me."

"Oi, I don't! I meant it!"

It still made me feel bad how noticeably scared I was. I had thought to have gained more confidence through staying with the Time Lords and the adventures I had been through, but in the end I was still as small and useless as before.

"But if you want to go back I can talk to that customer myself. No problem."

I grumbled and fingered the golden chain in my pocket. The texture of the small links was soothing, damping down my anxiety.

"I'll wait outside," I decided. "Just in case. Call me if you need backup."

"Oh, I will."

The Doctor had chosen someone who lived nearby, so we only walked for another ten minutes. The house was like every other in the street, nothing special or suspicious. I walked up and down the street, using the chain as my new fidget toy, while the Doctor questioned the man inside.

Eventually he came back out, holding a strange blinking and beeping device in his hand.

"I have a trace!" he called out. "Come, Lucy, it has to be cloooo… sssse."

Before I could even start to follow, the Doctor already stopped, as did his device. The look on his face fell in disappointment.

"What is it? Why did it stop?"

"It's… gone," said the Doctor, hitting the device a few times and doing something with his Sonic. "Just picked out of the air."

"And that thing here…?"

"Oh, this!" He proudly held up his toy. "I made it who knows when… it's a detector for alien life forms. When it finds one it makes ding!"

How in the world could he tell that with such a proud face? Sure, the tech behind it must be complicated, but it sounded so silly that I could hardly suppress a laugh.

"Anyway," he continued. "Either it malfunctioned or whatever there was is gone now. Let's get back and check a few more customers tomorrow. That one told me a few interesting facts. Might as well compare them."

-----------------oOo.oOo.oOo-----------------
​

I had dinner with the Doctor, pondering over the information we had gathered. He was rather sure it had to do with aliens, especially after his device had gone off just before. I wasn't so sure about that - tried to argue that our own people were capable of enough bad stuff on their own.

After that I went to check on the dragon and then went to the library, trying to read or to sift through more data on my laptop. The thing wasn't suited for gaming and I was contemplating asking the TARDIS for one that was. Video games had always been a great way to flee from reality for a while. Just wandering around worlds where the rules were clear and consistent, world's where I didn't have to constantly remodel my perception of reality, because I met new people who destroyed whatever I had believed to be right about human behaviour.

And there I was supposed to understand how a Time Lord worked? A completely different species that only resembled humans in the way they looked?

I didn't go to the Master. Not when the clock showed the time I would usually see him and not when it had long passed the numbers. Doing anything, however, became more difficult with every creeping minute. The anxiety from before was back in full force, albeit for a different reason.

Absently I plucked out the golden pendant and let the chains run through my fingers. The capsule itself was pretty and felt smooth between my fingers, the size perfect to trace over it, let it roll in my palm and just turn it around and around. I closed my eyes, focusing on the sensations to ground myself. For most of my life I used to carry around various crystals or other objects with nice textures, just to have something in my fingers.

"What an awfully ugly thing."

As soon as I heard the voice, the pendant was plucked from my fingers. My eyes opened, as did my mouth to let out a protest. Then it closed again, whatever I had wanted to say replaced by the sudden and frantic beating of my heart.

The Master's voice had come from behind me and now he was leaning over the sofa rest, right next to my head, examining my trinket. I shifted uncomfortably, the laptop on my legs almost slipping down. In the corner of my eyes his fingers moved and the sound of the necklace's chain quietly rattled through the numbing silence.

Then it paused. The Master let out a disbelieving huff and I prepared for contempt or rage or…

"What is it with humans and porn ads? Seriously."

I blinked, utterly confused, until my eyes landed on the laptop screen again. A Web page was open with more conspiracy theories and… yes, lots of random ads. Some of them definitely pg18.

"Haven't installed an ad-blocker yet," I mumbled, just because I had no idea how to respond to that. "Spend enough time on the Internet and you just blend them out, after a while."

"Do people actually… use those… services?" the Master asked, sounding amusingly disturbed. "I know that you lot can't control yourself, but that… that's just disgusting."

I risked a glance upwards and saw his incredulous face. Despite my still raving anxiety I had to smile.

"Guess some do. Those ads would be wasted otherwise." I watched as his expression morphed more into a grimace and I couldn't help it and mockingly asked, "Gee, how do you guys even reproduce?"

The Master's head turned slightly to me, his brows raised in a surprised what?

"We'll, I'm pretty sure the Doctor doesn't even know sex exists." I poked the screen. "He'd probably ask me what game they are playing there or something like that." Now the Master snorted and then giggled at the thought, obviously finding it as amusing as I did. "And you seem so repulsed by the whole thing that I can't imagine…" I paused, remembering that both of them seemed to have had children at some point. "I mean… you might lay eggs. Do you?"

The Master glared at me with wide eyes for a second, then barked out a laugh and knocked against my head. "No, we don't. If you really want to know… most Time Lords are infertile. And it's ineffective anyway. They are very… keen on keeping the gene pool… unsoiled. Except for rare cases we are born from Looms. Energy and DNA carefully mixed to weave a new little Time Tot."

"You're…. made?" It was a surprise, but not the biggest. "Humans would totally freak out would you suggest that to them."

Although I could see the benefits. It probably ensured that inherited diseases couldn't spread and that no child was born with severe disabilities. Or any at all - which made me swallow. The whole of diversity would parish should humankind ever decide to use a method like that. I certainly wouldn't exist, then.

"And it doesn't repulse me," muttered the Master. "I just don't get it."

"I'm not going to give you a birds and bees speech. Sod off."

His knuckles knocked against my head again. Not hard enough to hurt, not even closely, but definitely to make a point to stop being silly.

"I mean-" he waved at the laptop screen- "it's the only method humans have to connect. And you sell it to strangers as if it were nothing more than candy." His voice had taken on a derisive tone, almost a snarl.

I blinked at the screen, somehow even understanding what he meant and why. "It's not… the only way," I murmured, pondering over his words.

"You have to know," he grumbled.

I coughed, remembering the adventure with the Vikings. And everything that had come with it. "See, that's why I think you're wrong."

"Oh? Do enlighten me."

"Well… how to frame it? I don't think it's that much of a connection. It's a… voluntary and mutual display of vulnerability. And an agreement of not abusing it. For the sake of both. Most people need a great amount of trust to do that. So it appears to be… like some kind of ritual to connect."

"Now, that was a lot more elaborate than I anticipated." His remark was incredibly snarky and probably accompanied by an eye roll.

"Shut up," I grumbled, but also had to chuckle. "You wanted to know."

He shifted next to me, making noises with the capsule. I really wished he wouldn't hide behind the sofa and just sit down. The position made it hard to look at one another. But that was maybe the purpose.

"We do connect, though," I continued, after he stayed silent. "Not as deeply as you do, but… we can have long conversations, spend hours having fun, drink and dance and play together. Swap stories. That's… probably as close as we can get to a real connection."

Finally the Master moved away from the backrest and rounded the sofa to stand in front of me. The laptop screen lowered and closed, his hand on top of the lid. He went down to his haunches, glaring up at me with half knitted together brows and a look that couldn't decide if it wanted to burn or slice me open.

The racing pulse was back and with it a part of my previous anxiety. Then again, I couldn't help it, just had this urge to be honest with him.

"Honestly… I think a kiss is a lot more intimate."

At that both his eyebrows shot up and still he managed to look angry somehow. "How's that?"

"Uh… I… I'm not sure I can explain." I looked down at my hands, suddenly feeling extremely stupid for even mentioning it. And when I spoke, I told the closed laptop lid what was actually meant for ears to hear. "There is nothing to gain. You don't achieve anything with it. Not really. You're just… close. And quiet. And just… together. It's just about those two people, about a shared moment in time. It's… the closest thing to a mental connection we have."

And maybe that also was the reason it could deepen one so much.

When I finally dared to look up, the Master's eyes were still trying to burn holes through me. I swallowed, waiting for an answer that never came. He just sat there, like a cat waiting for its prey to make a wrong move. I wanted to get away, wanted to wrap my arms around my knees and just have the knot in my chest vanish.

I sighed, having enough of the vagueness. "You come in here, ask some random questions and steal my trinket. What do you want?"

"What I want?" The Master smirked and stretched his hands out, placing them on the closed laptop to form a bowl. "I want to hold all those stars out there in my hands, little one. Each and every single one of them. I want to feel their weight and walk their surface, I want to own all the wonderful things they shelter. I want to see flames dancing in beautiful patterns and ash falling like snow on long forgotten battlefields. I want to feel their suns' warmth on my skin and dive in their freezing waters. I want to rule over their people and topple their known structures, just to leave them behind with nothing but chaos. I want to…" Suddenly his voice faltered, breaking the hypnotic spell his speech had cast on me. He took a sharp breath, pinched his eyes shut as if in pain. "I just want it to be quiet," he muttered, eventually and so quietly that I barely understood the words.

"And now your only option turns out to be useless," I concluded as quietly. "I… I'm sorry. Really."

The Master got to his feet again and regarded me with a long, dark look. I wished he would just tell me to try harder or to have patience, wished he would wave my words away with a sneer.

But he said nothing at all and eventually just strode away.

-----------------oOo.oOo.oOo-----------------​

The Doctor took me to see more of the customers. I even got inside with him, watching as he casually asked them about this and that, trying to find a pattern in their answers. All of the people seemed genuinely satisfied. No side effects, a good price and the benefits were literally measurable.

"I really wish I would have had something like that when I tried to lose weight," I sighed while we walked down a road.

"You don't look like you need to lose some," replied the Doctor, quickly darting his eyes over my slim form.

I snorted, grimacing. "Cause not. That was the point. I've been overweight for almost all of my life. And when people hate you anyway they use every detail they can get to make it worse."

And bully you mercilessly.

"Oh, I didn't know. Were they that mean to you because of that?" The Doctor strolled along, hands in his suit pockets, coat flapping behind him.

"It wasn't because of that. In elementary school we had a girl who weighed a lot more and even she made fun of me. It's just… another detail."

The Doctor tilted his head, pondering. "Then why did you want to lose anything?"

"New me." I shrugged. "It was… when my ex dumped me on the street."

"He did what?" the Doctor called out. "You had a place to stay, right? You weren't homeless? He didn't just…"

"He did." I sighed and glanced at my moving feet. "Had nothing but a bag of clothes. No money, not even a valid ID. Some people are just… evil."

"Yeah. New bodies are confusing." His brows knitted together.

"A friend took me in. And I decided I needed a change. A new me. So I lost weight, got myself a haircutter and shaved my hair off. I even got a new style of glasses."

"We'll, you can't just change your body, after all."

"Heh, yeah, no. That would be cool. But I do like that more andogynous style I have now. I don't need a new body. Would be weird."

"Yeeeaaahhh," drawled the Doctor.

"So. Any more people to interrogate today or can we have waffles?" I asked hopefully.

"Oi! I don't even have any money."

"Last time you had."

"Well… leftovers. I helped this woman some time ago. Long time ago, actually. For me, probably not for her. She needed to get to her wedding, but then we had to fight a giant spider and… anyway. I got her money for a taxi and had a few notes still in my pockets."

"And from where did you get it back then?" I asked, brows raised.

"I, uhhhh…" He shifted uncomfortably, kicking a pebble away. "I soniced an ATM. It was an emergency, okay? I won't do that again!"

I giggled, even though I was a little disappointed. "You have way too high morals, you know that? The banks wouldn't be hurt."

"It's still not right."

I shrugged. "But why is it bad if it doesn't hurt anyone?"

The Doctor gave me a long look, humming thoughtfully. "Because… everyone would start to do it. And then it starts to do harm."

"We're not everyone, though…"

"That doesn't change a thing!" he protested. "No waffles for you, young lady! For a sheer lack of morality!" He nudged me playfully and laughed.

"Aaaaw, come on! That's not fair!" I laughed with him. "How about I'll make us some when we're back?"

 

[BRBonobo]

I am interested to see how she changes the ending to the whole Adipose episode.

Also, using super-alien-hacking abilities to steal, or to manufacture money digitally from nothing is not something he really needs to worry about the average human emulating, lol.

 

[TardisGhost]

A/N: Sometimes it's really bugging me how the show never explains how the Doctor even knows where to look for stuff or ends up putting his clues together. Sure, it's unimportant for the show, but I still wanted to have a more logical approach to this one. xD
And yes! Donna! She is the best!

Part XII (V)​

My dragon was waiting already when I got back to the terrarium, having its small fingers pressed against the glass, together with the snout. When I entered it let out a tiny squeak.

"Hey there, Gary," I greeted. The dragon took a step back and shook the small head. "What? Not a good name? No, I didn't think so either. But look… I don't even know what gender you are." I squatted down in front of the glass, tapping against it with a smile. "Or if you even have one."

The dragon sat on its hind legs, almost mimicking my own posture. It's eyes were glued to me expectantly.

"Alright, alright. But don't you tell the Doctor, yeah?"

It let out a happy squeak and jumped against the glass, waiting impatiently for me to get out a tin foil pack with a slice of bacon in it. It was cut in several thin stripes, which I let down in the terrarium, only to see them vanish with astonishing speed.

"You're far too small to even store so much bacon, you know that, Susi?"

The dragon sneezed and glared at me, then bumped its nose against the glass.

"Right… I didn't like it either. How do you even chew that? You have no teeth."

Which didn't bother the little one at all. The next stripe vanished.

"How about Kuro? It means black in Japanese."

It didn't react.

"I know. Boring. What about Shade? No?"

The last stripe was gone and I watched the fletchling lick its hands, the tongue darting over snout and nostrils. I actually had discovered the hands only after I had smuggled in the first piece of meat. It had looked as if the thin, wingless arms ended in a hook. But at closer inspection I saw that it could spread those into three separate fingers.

After it had licked itself pristine, bending like a cat, it started to look at me again, head slightly tilted and feeling so… needing.

"Huh? What's that?" I muttered and reached a hand inside so the fletchling could happily wrap itself around my fingers. "Did I imagine or did you communicate?"

The dragon nibbled at my finger and nuzzled its head against my palm. A small pang of happiness was left inside of me and, again, I wasn't sure if it was my own or not.

"Your mom was telepathic too," I told it. "I bet you will develop an ability."

It played with my hands and eventually rolled together to a small ball, tail wrapped around a finger. Now I felt a short emotion of warmth and comfort and was almost sure it couldn't be my own.

While it slept, I watched some episodes of a TV show on my laptop, wearing headphones. But I could never completely tear my eyes away from the little creature. My hands were quite small and still it had enough space to sleep there, looking weird with the long arms that wore no wings yet.

Psychic abilities. What would I give to have those. Sure, there were hints of it, as the Doctor had mentioned. My uncanny ability to sense others' emotions or detect if they were lying without knowing how or why. But both of those skills seemed rather useless.

They didn't help with the Master and the fact that he didn't ask to continue the practice. He came to the library every so often, starting to ask the weirdest questions about humans. He wanted to know why so many preferred to eat in company, or how it came that they needed so much sleep. Once he played some music from a different planet and made me tell him what it made me feel. I never learned whether or not my answers were satisfying or telling him anything at all.

And like that almost a week passed.

-----------------oOo.oOo.oOo-----------------​

"We're going in tonight," said the Doctor. "From every place we visited I took scans and everywhere I found super tiny traces of some alien substance. And you remember the guy with the cat flap?"

"Yup, I do. Do you think something comes in at night and… feeds on their fat or something?"

"Might be… yeah." He ran a hand through his hair, leaving it standing up in several directions. "And then there's the thing with missing people. Just get erased from the records, but of course, people still remember. Not many cases, honestly. Probably two, maximum three I can directly link to the pills."

"So… sometimes something does go wrong," I concluded.

"Maybe." The Doctor glared at the console screen, specs high up on his nose. "I'm honestly not sure. But I want to check them anyway, see if they do something illegal."

"Illegal?" I arched a brow. "Sounds like there is some kind of space police. And it sounds as if Adipose might do something that's actually allowed."

Chuckling, the Doctor turned to me, a toothy grin on his face. "Both are correct. Somewhat. There is something called the Shadow Proclamation and they made rules so we can all live together relatively peacefully."

"Wow. So, something like the Federation from Star Trek. Fancy."

"Yeah, innit?" He almost radiated joy with his words. "Aliens are allowed some activity on other planets. As long as they don't harm the inhabitants or interfere with their development in any way. There's a huuuuuge list. Reeeeaaally huge, believe me."

I nodded, able to imagine all too good how many rules and cases it might need to have something like that work out.

"So… we sneak in and see what they are up to when no one watches?" I concluded.

"That's the plan! If you want to come along that is."

No!

"Uh… yeah, guess so." I shrugged, trying to hide how anxious the thought alone made me feel.

It wasn't only that I wanted to prove something to the Master. I had to prove this to myself. That I wasn't completely useless, that I could overcome my fears. I had beaten most of my social anxiety already, had faced the devil and a dragon. And an evil Time Lord.

This was fine.

Like that stupid picture of a cartoon dog drinking tea in a burning house - fine.

Humans had always scared me a lot more than any other danger. Because they were unpredictable and followed no logical patterns. One day they would smile at you and be your friend, only to lash out the next day, hurting and abandoning you for no apparent reason. They are out to hurt and to damage and they love to do it in subtle ways so you feel safe until it's too late.

Maybe, after all, that was why I liked the Master. He never hid how bad he was. It was a plain and simple fact that he wouldn't even want to hide. Sure, his actions oftentimes confused me quite a bit, but overall I knew what I was facing.

-----------------oOo.oOo.oOo-----------------
​

We got in through a back door which the Doctor simply soniced open. A flash of psychic paper here and there carried us past the few security people we came by. And then we waited in an unoccupied room until the building got noisy and busy, followed by eerily quiet. Everyone had left for the day, no phones were ringing anymore. Only the buzzing on neon tubes above our heads filled the silence.

The Doctor led the way, although he also had no idea where exactly to go. We slipped into several rooms, storages, offices and whatnot, the Doctor scanning everything he deemed interesting. He was probably searching for a laboratory or maybe documents about how those pills were made.

We climbed more and more stairs, sometimes hiding from patrolling security. Once I got grabbed right in time to be drawn behind a wall, heart pounding too fast. How strangely fast one was able to get used to constant fear, I thought at that moment. It became almost something like routine to sneak and hide and be scared of being detected.

The Doctor eventuell followed a signal he detected and led us up more stairs and eventually outside and into a window cleaner's cradle. I gulped, carefully stepping inside the thing and hoped it wouldn't break. With his sonic, the Doctor got the thing to move and also to pause when we reached the right window.

There were people inside. Luckily in an angle that would make us hard to see. Only if they would turn and specifically look in our direction. There were several guards, a dark skinned woman bound to a chair and also the blond lady with the big glasses from the presentation.

I could barely make out what they were saying, but they definitely were interrogating the bound girl. The Doctor seemed to have trouble hearing, too, judging by how he produced a stethoscope from his infinite pockets and pressed the end to the window. It looked silly and was also ironic, considering the name he used. Meanwhile I searched the room for anything interesting, anything that might tell me what was going on.

The bound woman was struggling here and there, but couldn't get free. The blond woman talked and talked. I made out something about human fat and children and eventually she turned to a desk to open a drawer and pick out a… small white creature.

I gaped at the little thing, the wide opened eyes, the small mouth with a single tooth in it. The alien was just a block of white stuff with short arms and feet. Completely adorable and roughly the size of a chihuahua.

Those couldn't be some kind of threat, could they?

I looked around to see if there were more of those and my eyes landed on a door on the opposite end of the room. Or rather, the round glass window in it.

A red haired woman stood there, glaring at us with wide eyes. When she saw that I was aware of her, she raised a hand, mouthed something I couldn't make out and pointed at the Doctor in a poking gesture. I blinked, surprised and nudged the Time Lord, nodding to the woman.

Again I got surprised. His mouth fell open and he mouthed something to the woman, who answered with what looked as if she called out his name. The two of them gestured back and forth, obviously bewildered and happy at the same time.

"Are we interrupting you?" asked the blond woman all of a sudden and lour enough for us to hear.

Our heads simultaneously shot in her direction, shocked that she had seen us.

"Run!" screamed the Doctor and stretched out his sonic to lock the door the red head was behind, so the guards couldn't follow her. "Crap, crap, crap. I need to get her before they do."

"You know her?"

The cradle slid upwards again, way faster than before, making me dizzy. When it reached the roof the Doctor jumped outside, not waiting for me to catch up, which forced me to stop thinking and just blindly follow him down a narrow staircase. I almost ran past the woman as she approached, not noticing me, but instead running up to the Doctor to hug him tightly.

"Oh my god, I don't believe it," she called out. "You've even got the same suit! Don't you ever change?"

The Doctor gently pushed her away. "Yeah, thanks, Donna. Not right now."

I heard heavy footsteps from the roof behind us and after a quick look we all ran down, as fast as we could. We ended in a dark wing of the building, sneaking through empty offices.

"I thought," muttered Donna, excited and still trying to be relatively quiet, "how do you find the Doctor? And then I just thought, look for trouble and then he'll turn up."

Despite the fear of being caught, I had to smile at her words. It was so horribly true, after all.

"So I looked everywhere," she went on in the same hushed voice, "You name it. UFOs, sightings, crop circles, sea monsters. I looked, I found them all. Like that stuff about the bees disappearing, I thought, I bet he's connected. Because the thing is, Doctor, I believe it all now. You opened my eyes. All those amazing things out there, I believe them all. Well, apart from that replica of the Titanic flying over Buckingham Palace on Christmas Day. I mean, that's got to be a hoax."

The Doctor stopped dead in his tracks, eyeing the red head with a raised brow. "What do you mean, the bees are disappearing?"

I tugged at his arm to get him moving again. "Don't just stop," I grumbled. "They could still catch us."

"It's what it says on the internet. Well, on the same site, there was all these conspiracy theories about Adipose Industries and I thought, let's take a look."

Now it was on me to toss her a bewildered glance and the Doctor chuckled. "Alright, alright. You two definitely have the upper hand in this time period."

"Shush!" I made, raising my hand to stop them both, then pointed at the door in front of us. "There are steps."

Everyone fell silent and we rushed to hide behind the door, pressed tightly against the wall in the hopes, whoever was coming wouldn't notice us in the darkness. Seconds ticked by, painfully slow, my heart again beating wildly in my throat. Eventually the door opened and in stepped only a single person, swallowed immediately by the darkness. I held my breath, hoping they would just walk by.

But they stopped, tilted their head and then turned in our direction.

"Don't harm us!" Donna called. "My mom knows I'm here, she'll call the cops on you lot, just you know!"

I let out a breath and sacked against the wall, convinced I would die of a heart attack any moment now. I would kick him. I would definitely kick him. Later.

"Donna, it's okay," said the Doctor. "He's with us. But… what the heck are you doing here, Master?"

The other Time Lord played with a pen in his fingers and gave us all a wide grin. "Was bored. And I overheard your talk about going here."

"We're in the middle of a run!"

"Did you just call that bloke Master?" asked Donna.

"Pst, I hear more steps!" the Doctor shushed her and gestured for the Master to close the door.

He did and watched with a cocked head how the Doctor soniced the lock shut. "I thought you lost your screwdriver."

"What? No, of course not. Why would you think that?"

The Master held out the pen he was playing with. "Found that in one of the rooms."

The Doctor took the pen, glaring at it in disbelief. "A sonic pen. How's there sonic pen?"

"Shut up," growled the Master and tugged at the other one's arm. "They're coming. Let's run."

He was right. The steps clearly came in our direction. As silently as possible we hushed back to where we had come from, hoping to get through the office room unnoticed. But the hope was in vain. Halfway through the room the lights flared to live above our heads, blinding me for a moment.

I stumbled to a halt, seeing the others did the same. There were people in front of us, weapons raised and people approaching from behind, not less armed. The blond woman stepped out from between them, regarding our little group with a haughty look.

"Well then, at last," she says.

Promptly the Doctor shot straight, wearing an impossibly confident look as he spoke. "Nice to meet you, I'm the Doctor."

"And his little gang? What are you here for? Stealing my secret?"

"Certainly not his gang," snorted the Master, his eyes firmly glued to the woman just to make her uneasy.

Which didn't seem to work. We were trapped, I realised. The Master couldn't hypnotise her without everyone else noticing and all ways were blocked. Panic started to rise as they continued speaking, making my head dizzy. Frantically I searched for a gap or anything at all where I could flee to. I was small enough… maybe…

"Matron Cofelia of the Five Straighten Classabindi Nursery Fleet. Intergalactic Class," answered the blond to a question I had missed.

"A wet nurse, using humans as surrogates," mumbles the Doctor, dumbfounded. "Seeding a level five planet is against galactic law."

"Oh, leave her be," drawled the Master with a dismissive hand gesture. "Those little things are probably twice as intelligent as those apes here anyway."

"Oi, take that back, martian!" shouted Donna. "Wait, are you an alien too?"

The Master shot her a grin that meant no good.

How could they all be so calm in a situation like that? They would shoot us. The Master turned his head to me, barely raising an eyebrow. I begged him with my eyes to do something. All the Doctor did was talk and that wouldn't save us for sure.

"Oh, I found this sonic pen," said the Doctor. "I'm sure it's yours. Sleek."

"Definitely sleek," agreed Donna.

"Yes, a very useful technology. You can't stop bullets with it, though."

At her words the guards all around us raised their guns. I stiffened, shamelessly grabbing the Master's hand. He tugged me to his side, but made no move otherwise, just sending me a short mental nod towards the Doctor.

"No, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. One more thing, before dying," he blabbered. "Do you know what happens if you hold two identical sonic devices against each other?"

Foster raised both brows. "No."

And suddenly there was a triumphant grin on his face as he held both devices together. "Nor me. Let's find out."

An ear shattering wave shot through the room, nauseating and deafening. Immediately I felt sick and doubled over, would have fallen hadn't the Master held me in place and then tore at my hand to get me moving. It felt as if my head would burst, as if my stomach wanted nothing more than to empty itself. I heard Donna shout something, was vaguely aware of my legs moving and saw everyone around us was equally affected by the sound wave as I was. Or maybe not as much.

We ran past the guards, who had dropped their weapons, holding their hands over their ears, teeth gritted. Only the Time Lords seemed relatively unaffected, Donna looked surprisingly fine, too. Only for me it seemed to be as bad, maybe because of my oversensitive senses.

Somehow we got away, somehow we were still alive. Somehow I was aware of how we stumbled into a tiny room, barely big enough to hold us four.

"Well, that's one solution. Hide in a cupboard. I like it," mumbled Donna. "Well, not as much with him here." She pointed at the Master. "You, Mister, really have to work on your manners."

The Master shot her a menacing grin. "I have enough of those not to kick you out. Yet."

I took a few deep breaths, my body slowly calming down from the madness from before. The room truly wasn't big at all. We barely fit in there and the Doctor didn't make it better by tinkering with a machine in the back.

"You look older," remarked Donna. Her voice sounded a little concerned.

"Thanks?" The Doctor scowled at her for a second, sonic between his teeth.

I wondered where and how they might have met before and how much time might have passed for each of them afterwards. Absently I noted that my hand was empty now, the Master still by my side, but busy studying a few tiny displays on the wall.

"Well," continued Donna, "at least you're no longer on your own. That's something." She beamed at me, reaching a hand out. "Hey, Donna Noble. Nice to meet you two boys."

I took the hand and had to grin. "I'm Lucy, hey."

Her eyes widened. "But that's a girl's name, isn't… you're? Oh my god, you're a girl, I'm so sorry."

I giggled at her reaction. "It's okay. Happens a lot."

"Crap, crap, crap," muttered the Doctor, irritated.

A crackling sound came from some speaker, "Inducer activated."

"What's it doing now?" Donna asked with widened eyes.

The Master snickered, watching the other man fumbling frantically with the machine. "She's started the program."

"What program? And Why's that funny?" Her irritation was very well audible.

"Those cute little creatures she breeds," the Master explains, grinning. "I know that species. They transmit a genetic signal that then gets boosted and adjusted by tebelastrian waves to modulate the conversion of foreign fat cells into the respective DNA strands of their species. Which is how they breed, by the way. But in an emergency situation, the signal can be altered to speed up the birthing process. Meaning they start to convert everything they can get into new children. Bone, tissue, blood, you name it."

"Is that what happened to poor Stacy?" Donna looked devastated. She turned to the Doctor. "Do something! They have one million customers. If they all…"

"Yes! Yes, I know, Donna," snapped the Doctor. He ran a hand over his face and blinked at her. "Sorry. Sorry. I just don't see how I can fix this. If I still had the capsule with me, maybe. Didn't think it would get important. Stupid me."

"You mean the gold trinket?" Donna rummaged around in her pockets and produced one of the golden capsules I had nicked from the sales woman.

The Doctor halted all his movements and glared at the small object, his eyes widening in sudden joy.

"Brilliant!" he exclaimed, snatched the pill and screwed it open to plug it into a socket of the machine. "This contains a primary signal. If I can switch it off, the fat goes back to being just fat."

"How boring," mumbled the Master and I glanced up at him, inwardly cursing him for having stolen my own pendant.

"And what is wrong with you?" Donna glowered at the Master with a dark look. "One million lives are at stake. We have to protect them!"

He sneered at her, a cruel glint in his eyes. "I don't have to do anything for your pitiful race of ape brains. There," he stabbed a finger in the Doctor's direction. "He's the stars' forsaken all time hero. Not me."

I chuckled at his reaction, but all banter got interrupted as the computer voice told something new, something that made even the Doctor pale.

 

[BRBonobo]

I always liked Donna because she wasn't wrapped up in The Doctor's cult of personality. She wasn't some doe-eyed young woman secretly in love with him (Rose, Martha, Amy, maybe/maybe not Clara). She had her own life and motivations.
I disliked the fact that she seemed so grudging about travelling through time and space. Her attitude of "ugh... we have to go where now?" seemed a bit much.

 

[TardisGhost]

A/N: Whoaaaa!!!!!!!!! 100 chapters! (if you don't count that one bonus scene). I have a serious problem Ô_o And I still haven't run out of ideas... and there are still so many unanswered questions... I didn't expect this to come so far, honestly. My largest story up until now had 50 chapters. (Well, it also had a real plot, in opposite to this one, lol) I mean... there is a plot. It's mostly hidden in the details. And you know... the journey is the destination? Uh... anyway. I hope you still enjoy this abomination of a story xD

And a huge thanks to everyone who reads and/or comments. It means so much to me, you can't believe it :3

Part XII (VI)​

"No, no, no, no, no. She's doubled it. I need... Haven't got time… It's too far. I can't override it." The Doctor's hand ruffled through his hair, eyes darting between us in the hopes we might have something to offer.

"What do you need?" asked Donna.

"I'd need a second capsule to override the signal and boost the cancellation, but…"

"You already have mine," came her whisper.

I nudged the Master. "You stole mine."

But he only shrugged. "You think I'm carrying this thing around all the time?" His look was almost bored as he let it wander over our little group. "So, can we leave this cupboard already? I'm uncomfortable with so many humans in my personal space."

The Master didn't wait for an answer and just strode past us, pushed the door open and left without a glance back.

"You can still save them, right?" pleaded Donna. "Doctor? You can. I know you can, you have to."

He only looked incredibly tired.

"Hands up! No wrong movement!"

The shout had come from outside and seconds later the Master was back, hands folded behind his head and a rifle pointing at him. The guards had found us, after all. Silently we followed them, down some corridors, up some stairs.

And outside one million people were dying.

Was it my fault? Because I hadn't demanded the capsule back? But how should I have known this would happen?

We reached the roof. Cold air wafted against us, making my eyes tear. No screams sounded up to us, no panic, no traffic noises. There was only silence, until there wasn't anymore.

Huge, round spaceships appeared above our heads, throwing their blinding lights around. Blue beams darted downwards and levitated all the little creatures inside I had seen before. One UFO halted next to the roof and I could get a closer look at the creatures. They were tiny and cute and some even waved at us.

"See, Doctor," said Ms Foster, who stood at the edge of the roof. "A whole new generation. Oh, don't look so devastated. You still have enough people. But they. They lost their home planet. They need to survive."

"What do you mean, lost their planet?" asked the Doctor through gritted teeth.

"Well… lost? I don't know. I'm not meddling in their politics." She waved his words away with a haughty look then turned around to stretch out her hands towards the floating adipose ships. "Take me. The children need me."

"I don't think they will…" But the Doctor got shut up by another light beam that appeared right at the edge of the roof. "She's wired up the tower block to convert it into a levitation post. Ooo. Oh. That's trouble, it is."

We watched as the blond climbed up the ledge, waiting for the beam to reach full strength.

Donna glanced up at the Doctor. "What are you going to do then? Blow them up?"

"Weather warning: Fatty rain incoming," mumbled the Master and I had to slap his arm to scold both him and myself for the inappropriate snort. He only shot me a smirk, but kept silent otherwise.

"Course not," the Doctor objected. "They're just children. They can't help where they come from."

"Oh, that makes a change from last time. Your new company must do you good."

Visibly startled, the Doctor looked at her, then at the Master and I. The expression on his face was indecipherable, but there wasn't time for that anyway.

The blond woman had stepped over the edge of the roof and was now hovering inside the beam, giddily smiling to herself.

"This is going to end baaaad," sing-songed the Master, sounding way too happy.

"Why? How is it going to go bad? It's good she's leaving, that one. I don't want her to murder more people!" squeaked Donna. "I don't even want to… can't think about it even. So many…"

"So many and one more," muttered the Doctor, eyes widening in a sudden realisation, right as the blue light beam stopped to pull the woman higher. He ran towards the ledge, stretching his hand out. "Matron, listen to me," he calls out.

But she only gives him a sneer. "Oh, I don't think so, Doctor. And if I never see you again, it'll be too soon."

He ran a hand through his hair. "Oh, why does no one ever listen. I'm trying to help. Just get across to the roof. Can you shift the levitation beam?"

"What, so that you can arrest me?"

"Just listen. I saw the Adiposian instructions. They know it's a crime, breeding on Earth. So what's the one thing they want to get rid of?"

The woman quirked a brow, looking at each of us.

The Master chuckled, stepping forward. "Their accomplice. They won't have any witnesses, of course. Far too dangerous."

I didn't like the happy look on his face. It meant no good. Something was about to happen, I sensed it. But I couldn't yet grasp what the Time Lords long understood.

"I'm far more than that. I'm nanny to all these children."

"They won't need a nanny anymore," giggled the Master.

I elbowed him again, but he didn't even notice. He was too occupied by the scene ahead and his eyes lit up when the Doctor called out something and then ran to the roof's edge. The Master stretched a hand out to hold me back, even though I hadn't planned to follow. But now I understood.

As did the Matron. Her face went limp, eyes wide. She never had the time to even reach for the Doctor's outstretched hand. Already, the light around her faded and then was gone, leaving her to gravity and a fall down into the depths.

It was too high to hear the impact, but I still was shocked from the sudden turn of events. Donna strode to the Doctor and hugged him, seeking comfort in him as much as he did in her.

The Master watched them with a wrinkled nose and turned to leave. We all followed, not knowing what else to do. Outside of the building were countless people, panicking, gaping, uselessly trying to wrap their heads around what had just happened. I wasn't sure whether or not I was really affected by the whole thing. It was too distant as of yet, only numbers in my head. But those people would have to face the reality of what it meant.

"I never heard of this," I said to the Doctor.

"Of what?" His face was hardened, the look cold.

"This. Of so many deaths. I'm sure I would have heard of it in my time."

The Time Lord stopped, glaring at me for a long second, then turned his head and kicked a pebble away. "Then time just got rewritten," he mumbled. "Happens. Shouldn't happen. Not when I can prevent it."

We walked back to the TARDIS in silence and when we arrived Donna let out a surprised noise. "That's my car! Well, it's mum's, but it's here! Right next to your TARDIS! That's like destiny."

We all turned towards her. I had almost forgotten that she was even here.

"I can bring you home," offered the Doctor. "Least thing I can do."

"Actually…" Donna bit her lip, but then looked determined. "I was really looking for you. I wanted to travel and did. But it's all bus tours and hotels and you're back in a week and nothing's changed. I want to come with you."

"Completely out of the question," snarled the Master.

"Oi! You're not deciding that, sunshine. Who are you anyway?" Donna was all puffed up, suddenly, arms in her hips.

The Doctor coughed slightly. "He's…"

"I am the Master," came the smug answer, his eyes wandered dismissively over her. "Time Lord. Not a weak, pathetic human like you. We don't need an ape sauntering around with us."

"Ahem… Master… stop that." The Doctor stepped next to him and tried to usher him into the TARDIS.

"Oh my god!" Donna called out. "Another one. You're not alone anymore! That's fantastic! Well…" She wrinkled her nose. "If he had more manners that is. But you said this TARDIS of yours is huge, I bet there is enough room for…"

"There absolutely is not."

"It's dangerous," replied the Doctor. "You've seen what can happen. And…"

"We're not taking a human on board," snarled the Master. "Just look at them. Humans are disgusting and pathetic."

"Why, thank you," I grumbled and lightly kicked against his shoe.

The Master turned around, glaring at me. "That counts for you too."

I simply shoved him, feeling anger bubble up. He didn't budge much and instead only tried to tower over the Doctor. Which didn't work sizewise, but his mere presence was radiating enough danger to make him shy away.

"If that one comes along, I'll leave."

The Doctor shrunk together under the temper. "I… can't do that."

"Oi, you goblin, stop being a prick!" shouted Donna and stepped towards the two. She grabbed the Master's sleeve to tear him away from the other man, just to receive his full anger in one murdering look.

She didn't even flinch.

To my surprise she only seemed to get more pissed at him. "If you can't stand me, fine. Stay out of my way. I can't stand you either, you nasty, egoistic prick!" Donna got louder the longer she spoke and even seemed to grow somehow. "But don't you dare speak like that to the Doctor. He's a good man. And you're just a kid with a temper!"

We all glared at her in utter surprise. Her whole posture was that of an angry cat, hissing and clawing and being very impressive while doing so. Not even the Master had something to retort, seemed to have shrunk under her presence, suddenly completely at a loss for words from being spoken to like that.

"Ahem… we… we'll manage. Somehow," said the Doctor carefully.

The Master blinked stupidly at Donna, raised a hand to poke against her forehead as if to check if she was real. The red head did not take it well, slapped his hand away and readied herself for another storm. But the Doctor could step between them in time.

"Just… stop. Both of you. Please. The day was bad enough already. Don't fight."

"Whatever," grumbled the Master. "Fragile things, they are. She'll be dead in no time."

And with that he strode away and pushed the TARDIS door open, vanishing inside.

"Blimey, how can you stand him?" Donna mused. "Might be the second last of you lots, but God does he have an ego problem. Hope you're more bearable, Lucy."

I winced at being spoken to so suddenly, ripped from my role as a mere observant and torn back into the present moment. I smiled sheepishly at her.

"I hope so."

"So then," Donna grinned at the Doctor. "I've packed. Didn't know what I'd need, so it's a bit much. But it'll do. I guess. For a while."

She ran to her car and opened the trunk, where a bunch of bags were stuffed inside. One after the other she took them out and pushed them into the Doctor's hands.

"I packed ages ago, just in case. Because I thought, hot weather, cold weather, no weather. He goes anywhere. I've gotta be prepared."

Fascinated by her enthusiasm I watched the scene. It was clear she had decided a long time ago to travel with him. Who knew what she had experienced, but it had to be good.

"I don't need injections, do I? You know, like when you go to Cambodia. Is there any of that? Because my friend Veena went to Bahrain, and she…" Donna paused, glancing up at the Doctor. "You're not saying much."

"It's just… You saw what happened."

"Yes…." Her voice got quieter. "But see… I'm not sure I want to be around to witness the aftermath. It will be everywhere. And I'm the only one who knows what really happened. That would really gnaw on me."

"Yeah… yeah, I get that. And there's still the Master, he's…"

"You're really calling him that?" asked Donna incredulously. "Please tell me you don't. That's ridiculous. I'm so not going to call him that. Might be the only one left of your people besides you, but I don't like him."

Wait what? I glared at the two, questioningly. What did she mean with the only one left?

"Tha… that's exactly what I wanted to say. He's…" A quick look wandered towards me and turned guilty immediately. "I'm not sure it's a good idea while he's around, is all."

"Och, I had the feeling she's handling him quite well," I retorted with a sarcastic grin. "Can't remember having seen him that disturbed. Ever."

"Can you… Lucy, I know it's much to ask-" the Doctor gnawed on his bottom lip for a second- "but can you have an eye on him? Somehow. Just… just… see that he stays away." Now that certainly was a new development. "He's not listening to me, but maybe… "

I chuckled and nodded. "Yeah, can do that. I'm sure he's not interested in crossing paths much, though." And I had no idea how to actually prevent him from doing anything at all if he would set his mind to it.

"So…" Donna looked back and forth between the two of us. "I can come?"

"Uh… yes! Yes. Actually, I think that would be lovely." The Doctor beamed at her and picked up the bags of clothes to carry them inside.

"The TARDIS can give you clothes," I mumbled in Donna's direction, smirking.

"Oh, couldn't know that. Won't hurt to have them with me, though, yeah? Oh! Ohhhh! Wait!" Donna stopped dead in her tracks. "Car keys! Still got my mom's keys. Be right back!"

We were left standing there, dumbfoundedly glaring at her vanishing back. I eyed the Doctor from the side and he looked as puzzled as I felt.

"Who is she anyway?" I wondered curiously.

"Donna Noble. I met her some years ago." The Doctor grinned. "Guess I sort of ruined her wedding."

I snorted. "And she still wants to come along."

"Yeah, well… it wasn't actually my fault. It just sort of… dunno. Happened. T'was before I picked up the Master. Long before… and after I lost…" He swallowed, biting his lip. "Anyway. Don't think I could have stopped her from coming along. She's got a head of her own."

I chuckled and smiled when she returned. She definitely was something else.

-----------------oOo.oOo.oOo-----------------​

She definitely was exhausting.

Within the first hour of her being in the TARDIS she asked more questions than I had probably heard in my entire life. Eventually I nudged the Doctor and reminded him of the vaccine, not wanting Donna to suffer the same fate as I had, or worse. They vanished to the med bay then and the Doctor returned on his own.

"I told her she can find a room for herself." He flopped into the jump seat, sighing wearily. But a slight smile was on his face the whole time.

"She's quite something, isn't she?" I mumbled.

The smile grew to a full blown grin. "Oh, you have no idea. I'll tell you the whole story one day. It was a wild day."

"And that justifies dragging that thing along with us?" came a grumbling voice from the doors. "She's arguing with the TARDIS out there." The Master sauntered in, shrugged out of his jacket and threw it over a jump seat, before he went to a panel at the console and started pulling out wires.

"Be nice to her. She's a good girl."

"Girl?" I giggled. "She's older than I."

"Is she?" The Doctor rubbed his neck and looked me up and down. "Yeah, might be. It's hard to tell with you lot. You're all so young…"

I snorted and shook my head.

"What're you even doing there?" asked the Doctor eventually, watching the Master tinker.

He looked up and tossed the other man the most mocking look. "Maybe ask that before I've rewired half of the machine. I could have done anything in that time." He grins even wider at the Doctor's shocked face. "But right now? I'm just overwriting the water heating system. Your bloody ship has a mood again and doesn't let me shower properly."

I laughed at the thought. "What? You meant it when you said she hasn't forgiven you?"

The Master only growled.

"Yeah, she's playing pranks on him since the day he arrived," told the Doctor with a smirk. "I tried to convince her to stop it, but… well." He shrugged.

"Stop being smug about your misbehaving ship," grumbled the Master. "Do me a favour and toss my laser screwdriver to me. Should be in my jacket."

"Don't break anything," begged the Doctor and turned to grab the coat.

The Master ripped out a small metal thing and said, "In stark contrast to you-" he pointed at the Doctor, who was fetching the screwdriver. A small clunking noise was heard when something fell from the coat pocket to the ground - "do I know how the tech in here works."

The Doctor froze.

"What're you waiting for? Give the laser."

"Master…"

He grunted annoyed.

The Doctor bent down and now I saw what had fallen to the ground. He held it up by a golden chain, glittering in the dim light. Like in a daze he stood up and walked to the Master, holding the capsule out to him.

"You have one."

Something dark crossed the Master's gaze for a moment, then he proceeded to work on the cables, shrugging. "Yeah, nicked it from Lumin."

"It was in your pocket!" continued the Doctor, voice getting higher.

"Apparently."

"And you… you knew! Didn't you!" exclaimed the Doctor. The Master looked up, his eyes glinting, a dark smile tugging at his lips. "You knew it was there and you didn't say a word when I needed it!"

"Stop stating the obvious, Doctor. It doesn't suit you."

He snapped. From one moment to the next the Doctor launched forwards and grabbed the other man by his lapels, pushing him against the console with a force that made something underneath him break audibly.

"One million people! They are all dead!"

"There's still enough of them left." His grin grew and grew, malicious and wide.

I could only glare at the scene, not able - not wanting - to let the facts sink in. This couldn't be, could it? He hadn't just condemned so many people to a useless death.

"You could have said something! I don't expect you to save anyone, but at least… at least… why have you done that?!" The Doctor was fully shouting now, rage radiating from him like fire.

The Master threw his head back and started to laugh, loud and intense, shaking from the force of it. He ignored every angry tug at him, ignored the Doctor's angry words - and the pleading ones.

Eventually the Doctor stepped back, all rage and fury that had no use anymore, because the one it was directed towards wasn't taking it. Like a storm he rushed out of the room, leaving me behind with the manic Time Lord.

The Master calmed down, wiped his eyes and snickered again when he saw that the other one had left. His eyes landed on me, who still stood there frozen in place, and his grin grew again.

"That was a good one. Been waiting to get back on him for a while now. What do you think? Reason enough to throw me out of here, eh?"

"I think you just proved that he can't let you run around unsupervised," I mumbled, still unable to feel anything.

"We'll see." The Master waved my words away. "Got what I wanted, for now."

"And that was worth so… many lives?" I breathed. "You know… That was my past. I could have been one of them."

That made him freeze for a moment. The grin fell. No, he hadn't thought about that. Only a second later, however, he was all puffed up and smug again.

"The Doctor started meddling with the company, in the first place. Had they not been found out, they would have never activated any emergency protocols."

Well, shit. He wasn't wrong about that.

"But none of us let so many people die on purpose," I grumbled.

"Ah… I see. Now you suddenly have morals." The Master barked out another laugh and pushed hard against my shoulder so I stumbled backwards. "You're as hypocritical as everyone else." Again he pushed, making me stumble against the console. He followed quickly, trapped me between the metal and himself, suddenly so close I could feel his breath on my face, his body against mine. "Maybe it would have been a blessing to have you erased from this timeline," he growled. "At least I wouldn't have to wait for whatever use you might have to reveal itself already."

I sucked in a sharp breath at the intensity of his anger that washed over me. It was far stronger than the Doctor's had been, reached far deeper than what I could even imagine, even though I couldn't grasp its origin. All I could sense was that it wasn't actually directed at me, paradoxical as it might have been, given the situation. There was only his rage and the sound of his fingers tapping the rhythm of four against the metal of the console, hypnotising, lulling in my awareness like a spell.

Eventually, the Master pushed himself away. Was it my imagination or did he sway a little? The choking sensation of his fury subsided and when he sauntered out of the room with a derisive huff, I was left with nothing but the continuous hum of the TARDIS and the feeling that I had, once again, missed something extremely important.

 

[TardisGhost]

A/N: So... This chapter initially contained some light nsfw stuff... which I edited out xP But the full thing is on my AO3 account. Not sure if I'm allowed to link to it, but I'm sure you'll find it on your own. So... *hides*

Part XIII - Adjusting​

I couldn't sleep. Of course I couldn't. Too much was running through my head, too many unanswered questions, too many fears.

So I did what I always ended up doing, grabbing a hoodie and stepping outside to be greeted by a knowing hum of the TARDIS. I only huffed and smiled at the playful nudge, as if she wanted to tease me for my behaviour. The golden path appeared slowly in front of my feet and guided me through a set of unfamiliar corridors. They seemed to be made of bright wooden panels instead of the usual metal. Not the most unusual material I had ever seen in here, but definitely new and sparking curiosity in me.

The door I ended up in front of was made of dark wood, adorned with an elegantly designed petal knob. My hand already rose to knock when I made out the faint sounds of music. A piano, for sure, its tone hauntingly sad, dripping from the keys like raindrops and memories. I hesitated for a bit, then decided to simply slip in as quietly as possible.

The room was big enough to give the instrument a nice acoustic, but not huge or pompous. More like a large living room. There were shelves with books and a big old leather sofa with a small dark table in front of it. The floor was carpeted, silencing my steps as I walked closer to the middle of the room where the piano stood proud and black and with its wing opened. Candles on its case were the only source of light in the room, their faint glow keeping the corners in a hazy darkness while illuminating the middle just enough to reveal the notes on the papers.

Not that they were used, I supposed. The Master sat on the piano stool, wearing his usual attire of black and red, his posture oddly relaxed and his fingers flying over the keys in a way that was only possible through years and probably even centuries of experience. I sneaked closer, carefully sitting on the sofa and, since I didn't wear shoes anyway, drawing my knees up under my chin, simply listening, watching.

The melodies were entirely foreign to me, probably not even stemming from earth. And why would they? Each key was played with care, each note telling a story of their own, letting images spark in my mind, incoherent collections of colours and impressions, the smells of long forgotten memories.

So enchanted was I that it took me several seconds to realise that the music had stopped, its echoes still reverberating through the room. I looked up and met the Master's gaze, unreadable in the dim candle light.

"Didn't know you can play so well," I mumbled with a smile. "Sorry, didn't want to bother you."

"That's a lie," he answered, arching an eyebrow. "The TARDIS wouldn't have brought you here, otherwise." For once he didn't sound pissed about the fact, more amused.

I shrugged, drawing my knees a bit higher. "Just can't sleep. And it's nice to listen. Makes me almost want to learn it, too."

"What's keeping you?" He stroked a finger over some keys, without pressing them down.

"Mhm… no sense for rhythm. I tried it once, but..." I shrugged again. "Guess I just have no talent for it."

The Master laughed and glanced back, then slid to the end of the stool and waved me over. "It's only a matter of practice."

Hesitantly I unfurled, slipped from the sofa and walked over the soft carpet to the piano. The light of the candles gave the whole room such a cosy atmosphere that the thought of not sitting alone was rather tempting. The stool was long enough to fit us both and wide enough to sit comfortably.

"Take your right hand," the Master instructed and pointed at three different keys, "and place one finger on each." He did the same a bit further down and started to play a simple melody. Once, twice, then he looked at me, nodding at my hand.

I tried repeating the few notes and after he showed me the pattern a few more times I could actually play it decently enough.

"Not as bad as I'd expected," he mocked. "Keep playing."

"It's not so hard, this one," I mumbled, repeating the few notes until I had found a rhythm.

"No. But it's an important part, so don't stop." He grinned at me and my raised eyebrows, then put his hands on the keys.

The Master played a single note, repeating it a few times as if to attune to my (probably wrong) rhythm. Then he added a second note and a third, very slowly building a melody. It was a simple one, somewhat melancholic, like the song from an old music box. But after a while it got more complex, a bit faster. I had to focus to not lose myself in his play and to keep my part straight, even when the music got more complex. The melody let goosebumps appear on my arms, made my heart increase in speed. It was a melody full of wonder, wearing the sound of falling stars and autumn wind. His fingers flew over the keys, eliciting magic wherever they landed, weaving together both our parts to something utterly fascinating and beautiful.

Then he got slower, let the melody fade away until my part was the only thing remaining. I repeated it one last time, keeping the last note a little longer than the others, letting it hover in the air as the last reminder of the play.

"Decent enough, I'd say," the Master commented. "I would have expected you to fail spectacularly."

I snorted and poked my tongue out at him. A smile found its way to my lips. "That was… nice. Thank you."

"Thanks for what?" He let out a laugh.

I kept my eyes on the piano, struggling for words. "For… this. I mean… it really was beautiful. That's a nice thing to keep as a memory. Just a small thing, you know. A good thing."

He huffed. "You're being weird again, lil' lumin. Why are you even here?"

"Couldn't sleep."

"Yeah, you said that already. But that's not the reason, is it?"

I shrugged, sinking together somewhat and talking to my folded hands in my lap. "Maybe… I thought… maybe we could… continue with the practice. The… telepathic stuff. I know I'm pretty useless and slow and I'll probably die of old age before I can manage, but…" I glared at my hands, anxiously waiting for a response.

The Master let out a huff and chuckled to himself. "And there I thought I'd be the last person you would want to see too soon. Shouldn't you be disgusted and whatnot? Bathing in your precious morality?"

Shyly I peeked over at him, seeing him eyeing me with as much disgust as with curiosity. Or was it something else? It was hard to tell. I didn't know anymore what to expect, what to feel or to even think. After the piano play I had almost hoped his outburst from the console room would just be another of his tempers, or maybe the drums bothering him again. But maybe he had only done it so it would hurt a lot more when he kicked me out now.

"I don't care about that," was all I mumbled, in the end.

"Didn't seem like it."

Now I looked up, watching him watching me. He was waiting for a chance to strike, for an opportunity to be right and to let me know it. Right now I could pretend to not care about the lost lives, about his actions and how he treated me. But if I was going to be discarded, I could as well tell the truth.

"I certainly won't approve of it," I grumbled. "And I really don't get why you did that and what the motive behind it was. Except for simply being an arse. But… I don't know those people. They are just… numbers."

"Well, you are twisted," mocked the Master.

"And also…" I added, almost whispering from the weight of the mere thought, "It's my fault. Hadn't I shown that advertisement to the Doctor he would have never investigated."

Silence hung in the room for what felt like a small eternity. It only got broken when the Master started to quietly laugh.

"How can you be so torn, little one?" he asked, practically radiating mirth. "The outcome doesn't really bother you. All that does is the thought that you might be responsible for it."

Was he right? It certainly felt like it. I wasn't able to comprehend such a number. It was too big, too far away. Maybe that was the reason…

A bitter smile whizzed over my face. "Guess that's why I'd go and burn some planets with you," I mumbled." I can't get the size of it into my head. Nothing to do with morality, I guess."

He laughed even louder for a moment and shook his head. "You're hilarious. Really. It would be so easy to completely corrupt you."

I tensed, shrinking under his gaze. The Master stopped giggling and his burning stare landed on my face. "Sometimes I forget that there is more in you than shows on the surface," he said thoughtfully. "Maybe I should start remembering it from time to time."

I wrinkled my nose, not sure if I liked whatever he might mean with that. Nothing good came to mind.

The Master sighed and I glanced over at him. He was looking up, contemplating, but there was also an air of resignation around him.

"You're too scared," he eventually said, meeting my eyes. "You can't connect with another mind when it frightens you."

I lowered my gaze, a heavy lump in my chest.

"How could I not be?" I mumbled. "I don't know how to be with people. I've never been close to anyone, not really. Not in a way that meant anything."

I glared at my folded hands and let out a weary sigh. Sure, I had relationships in the past, here and there I had friends and family. But none of those people had ever felt safe enough to let them come actually close. And none of them had ever even tried. For all of those people I had been nothing but a means to an end, meant to be and to do what they expected, without giving much back. Never before had I truly connected with anyone.

"I… shouldn't have come," I mumbled, realising this wasn't going anywhere. He was right, after all. "It's probably better I leave."

There was no answer, so I slid from the stool. But then my wrist got grabbed and the Master tugged me back, made me turn around. He raised the other hand to cup the side of my face and quickly dipped his head, pressed his lips to mine before I could react. My hands shot up, wanting to push him away in shere instinctive reflex, but then I let them sink again and he retreated already from me, chuckling at my confused expression.

"Wh… wha-" I stuttered. This was definitely not what I had expected. "Why did… wha- what was that for?"

The Master still lingered close, still gently holding my face. There was mischief glinting in his eyes and something I couldn't name.

"Just felt like it," he said, the corner of his mouth twitching upwards. "Don't pretend you wouldn't like it."

Crap!

"Uh… no. I mean yes. I mean… Can we just… not?" He was so close to me, sparking the inappropriate urge to just lean in myself and… "This is so confusing," I mumbled, unable to look away.

"Because you try to force meaning to it, lil' lumin." He leaned closer, brushing his lips against mine for a moment, without actually touching, eyes burning with the flames of the candles around us. "Only important question is, what do you want?"

Always a choice, never a force, even though he probably could. And gods did I want this, no matter if I understood why.

I swallowed, shoving all thoughts aside and leaned forward slightly, hesitantly, and closed my eyes when our lips found together once more. This time it wasn't just a brief brush and I responded to his slow movements, deepening the shallow touch to a proper kiss. And that definitely did something to my guts, to the speed of my heart. He caught my bottom lip between his teeth, making my breath hitch. And then there was a brush of his mind against mine, a curious poke, a request to be let in.

I leaned in some more, grabbing his shirt slightly. His hand was on my back, gently pushing me closer and clawing into the fabric of my hoodie when I signalled him to initiate contact. Why stop when I was going that far already? It didn't matter whether or not I understood it, I only did whatever felt right in that moment and I definitely wanted that contact. All of it. I sighed out a shaky breath when our minds poured into each other, momentarily overwhelmed by the strangeness of another presence so intermingled with my own. It wasn't a rush, not a tumbling and falling like it had been the last time. The kiss intensified the connection, but the Master kept it at a controlled level, never allowing it to go too deep.

It still was almost too much to bear. My whole body was tingling and it only got worse when I felt his tongue on my lips, a nudge of his mind enough to make me gasp a breath and he boldly slipped between my teeth. I felt his mirth and couldn't help but smile and at the same time stroking my own tongue along his, not a fight, only exploring. There was curiosity on both ends, a deep sitting satisfaction at our minds being so intertwined and an ever growing urge to be close. Just close with no direction. Simply the potential of it.

I felt his hands wandering down my sides, almost hesitantly drawing me against him. He sent an image into my mind, making clear that he wanted me nearer than just standing there. One hand wandered to my thigh, giving it a tug in his direction. And I simply reacted, obeying to the growing demand for closeness that originated from us both. I shifted, broke away from the kiss just far enough to let him draw me against him, making me climb up and straddle his lap, glad that the stool was wide enough.

"What're you..." I mumbled, unsure if this was even appropriate. We had sat like this a few times already, but for him it had been only a matter of practicality, back then. Hadn't it?

"Dunno?" he muttered, sounding honestly unsure. His forehead dropped against mine, thumbs stroking over the cloth of my hoodie. "Didn't expect you to go along." The connection lessened a little, but was still squirming in ourselves like adrenaline. "Just seeing where this goes."

-----------------oOo.oOo.oOo-----------------​

Still in his lap and still cooling down I felt a light caress in my mind, a soft stroking of thumbs along my sides, together with the deep breaths that made his chest rise and fall noticeably.

Not what I had been planning, came a muttered thought. And I knew he was telling the truth. Damn you.

I huffed out a laugh against his neck. Not what I had been expecting, I thought in return.

Our minds had loosened their grip on another, still tightly intermingled, but allowing for keeping us apart with ease. I sat straight again, a little awkward, now that the heat had vanished.

"I should kill you now," came his utterance, lacking every seriousness.

And suddenly he shifted, had me in his arms from one moment to the next, completely ignoring my surprised yelp. He ungracefully dropped me on the sofa, glaring down at me as I lay there, not moving and too confused from the sudden Action to do or say anything.

Only when he sat down and gestured for me to move a little, did I react again. He lay down next to me, on his back, one hand under his head and facing the ceiling.

"Don't tell me you want to continue," I teased.

"Not going to happen," grumbled the Master and tossed me a dark glare. "That was as far as it gets."

I snickered and lay to my side to face him. "And why did you drop me here?"

"Need to think."

"And that… requires me to be next to you?"

He rolled his eyes.

"Don't want to pick some clean clothes either?" I wondered. Maybe just to annoy him.

He blinked at me, seemingly confused for a moment, but then he let out a huff. "Please. I still had that much control over myself."

"Why, of course you can control that too." I mumbled, not actually surprised.

He didn't say anything else and I wasn't sure if it would be wise to annoy him. Curiosity be damned.

"So, this was just caused by our connection?" I asked quietly and could almost feel his eye-roll.

"Yes. Now shut up."

"Didn't seem like you minded," I couldn't resist teasing.

The Master groaned and finally turned in my direction. "Why am I not getting rid of you already?"

"Because you single handedly brought me here yourself?"

It really wasn't clever to rile him up like that, considering that I was trapped between him and the sofa backrest.

"What aren't we brave all of a sudden," he grumbled, although it lacked venom. "Before, you were too scared for everything."

Well, yes. Sort of. He had a point. "I… just did what you told me. Just did what felt right." I looked away as good as it was possible. "'n it was you just kissing me all of a sudden. And then you drop me here and pretend to be all pissed about everything. I don't get you."

His glare could have been deadly, but then softened and vanished with a sigh. "You wouldn't get it."

"No?"

"Definitely no." He scoffed, but smiled, reaching out to pluck my glasses from me and place them on the table next to us. "I'm not pissed, little one. I just need to think. And you're a damper to the bloody drums, so I need you here."

"'kay," I mumbled, feeling how exhaustion slowly started to claim me. "But you can… I'm just human, yeah. But I do understand some things. So if you need a second brain…"

"I'll just dig through yours?" He snickered at the thought.

I sighed. "Just ask. It won't make you less evil to do that from time to time."

The Master raised a brow, the smile still lingering in the corner of his mouth. Then he leaned forward and breathed a faint kiss to my forehead. "Shut up and sleep. And don't you dare miss your practice tomorrow."

The grin just appeared on my lips without my assistance. When it meant to continue our sessions I could definitely wait to get all the answers to my lingering questions.

The Master turned on his back again, one hand below his head and thinking about who knows what. He was close enough and the sofa too small to really keep any distance, so I curled myself up at his side and used the lacking protest to stay like that. Shortly after, I felt the light touch of his fingers, gently playing with my hair.

It was comfortable and weird and despite it all it took me a lot longer to fall asleep than it usually would. I had no clue what to make of the situation and the Master clearly was no help with it. If only I could just look into his head from time to time, but for that to happen it would probably need a few years of practice.

 

[BRBonobo]

Whellp, I'm off to Ao3. Be back later.

 

[TardisGhost]

Part XIII (II)​

Of course I was alone when I woke up, the calming warmth of the Master beside me missing. There wasn't even a blanket or pillow to grab and cuddle in the absence, so I was left feeling maddeningly bare on the sofa and the dimly lit room. Somehow the candles were still burning and everything looked like it had before. The only thing that indicated any passing of time was the fact that I felt rested.

I turned on my back and thought about the previous evening. To call it strange was a heavy understatement, but I had no better term for it.

Unexpected. Very.

Hot. Definitely.

I grinned against the ceiling and at the same time felt a little ashamed. Maybe I should have stopped it right from the start, seeing how pissed the Master had been afterwards. But he had encouraged it, so there was that. It hadn't been me alone and I doubted that, even through our connection, my desires could have just overtaken his own. Actually… I really hoped that wasn't the case. It couldn't be, right? Otherwise he would have reacted differently… although he had sounded very adamant on assuring something like this never happening ever again.

Then again had he been the one starting to kiss me like… actually like no one ever had before. Not that I could recall, anyway. And why had he? Just to prove a point? Because he needed our connection to run deep enough so I could find the drums? Getting there the safe way was probably too slow for him and my capability of learning to navigate the psychic field was too limited.

Either way. I had to get up or otherwise my head would simply kill me with all the unanswered questions.

-----------------oOo.oOo.oOo-----------------​

Donna's voice rang through the console room as I strode in, groggily, a mug of steaming coffee in my hands. It was hard to tell what exactly she was going on about, and why was she wearing a purple dress?

"Just save someone," she pleaded, hands on the console to steady herself.

Now I saw that both of them were covered in dirt. Had they been out while I had slept? The Doctor looked at Donna as if she was asking something impossible of him, eyes hard and distant. The same look he had when he talked about the Master. About a lost cause, a vain attempt.

"Please." Her voice trembled with tears. "Not the whole town, just… someone."

The Doctor gritted his teeth and his eyes fell on me, who stood there like a mismatching sock. Whatever was going on seemed serious and for the Doctor not to jump around and trying to save every single person meant it to be something far beyond my understanding. His eyes darted back to Donna, he swallowed. And finally he pushed a lever and set the TARDIS in motion.

When it stopped he ran to the doors and reached a hand out. Light and heat and ash was suddenly pouring inside the room and next a family followed, dressed in what looked like ancient robes. Greek or Rome? I'd never been good in history and had no idea about the fashion of those times and places either. More ash got stormed inside before the Doctor shut the doors and ran to the console to get us away from whatever place as fast as possible.

Donna had her elbows on the console, head in her palms as if she was exhausted. A deep sigh came from her lungs and she raised the head again to glance at the family, who was slowly losing their panic and gaining curiosity instead. For them this place must have been even more alien that it had been to me. No one dared to touch anything, but eyes were wandering everywhere they could reach.

"We're safe," said the Doctor. "I brought us away from the volcano."

"Volcano?" repeated the older man. "Do you speak of the smouldering mountain?"

"Yes… yes, I do. Where can I drop you? Anywhere's possible."

"Just… just outside town," said the older man. He seemed to be still in shock from whatever had happened outside. "Away from the fire."

The Doctor nodded. He looked a little exhausted, dirty and dishevelled as he was. Donna was in no better shape. I had to ask them later where the heck they had been to end up like that. The woman of the family named a place to be left and off the TARDIS went, sending the boy to the floor and the others slamming into one another or against a pillar.

The Doctor and Donna accompanied the people outside and returned shortly after. I felt completely at the wrong place, being clean and well rested and still holding the coffee mug.

"Pompej," sighed Donna and dropped into a seat. "And of course on volcano day. I should have expected it. Really should have. 'cause it was aliens. Gramps always said they were everywhere. He doesn't know how true that is."

"Must have been impressive," I wondered aloud.

"Oh… oh it was." Donna smiled. "Just that bugger over there-" she nodded at the Doctor- "really was so bold to tell me he couldn't save those people. As if."

I tossed a glance at the Time Lord, wondering. "Fixed point?" I asked, remembering he had told me about those.

The Doctor nodded, his face sombre. He looked at Donna and smiled a little. "Thanks… for reminding me."

"Oh, don't even start." The woman yawned loudly and nudged my shoulder. "Want to show me the kitchen? I need a good strong tea before I get into the shower. You do have tea here, right?"

"Yeah, sure." I sauntered towards the doors, tossing a glance back at the Doctor. He still had such a dark look on his face. "You alright?"

He glanced up at us, almost surprised for a moment. It seemed as if he had gotten lost in his own thoughts there. But then he smiled and nodded.

-----------------oOo.oOo.oOo-----------------​

"There I take a nap and you two fly off and detonate Pompej," I mumbled amused, placing a tea bag in Donna's cup and pouring hot water from the kettle over it.

"How'd you know it was us?" she asked, surprised. "Don't tell me that box has cameras following us all around. Oh, that would be annoying! It's not following me to the loo, is it?"

I giggled and slid the cup over the table. "No cameras. I simply heard enough of the Doctor's stories to have guessed right. Apparently. Did you really blow up the volcano?"

It wouldn't surprise me, really.

"Yeah…" Donna sighed. "Yeah, I guess we did. Pompej or the world… ohhhh, what a choice. That was horrible. How d'you manage that all the time?"

"M… me?" I looked up from my coffee and eyed Donna. She nodded. "Oh… I don't really. I mean… I try to stay away from any big adventures."

Donna looked at me, her dirt stained face an open picture of surprise. "So, not all of his companions are in for that?" she concluded, although it was more of a question.

And somehow her conclusion made me turn away, ashamed of how afraid I was to do what others could manage with ease. "Guess he's happy to have you here, now," I mumbled.

"Oh, he loves playing with earth girls," came a sarcastic remark from the doors.

We both turned our heads to see the Master strolling in. He was wearing all black, still the same outfit of shirt and waistcoat he seemed to like. My eyes wandered over him, suddenly aware of so many details I had never bothered to notice before. He was able to move so casually in such formal clothes, looking as if it was the most natural thing. The fabric of the dress-shirt neatly moved over the muscles and… I blinked and glared at my coffee mug instead.

"Don't come running and complain to me if he gets you into stuff you can't handle," the Master continued, contempt oozing from his voice.

Donna huffed. "And why would I even want to complain to a sourpuss like you? I'd rather talk to a wall instead!"

The Master chuckled, poured himself a tea and leaned against the counter with crossed ankles, managing to look surprisingly elegant while doing so.

Alright, stop that! I scolded myself. It was bad enough that I was, obviously, attracted to him at all. I didn't need to make it worse.

"Because," the Master drawaled, "you might think that just because I'm the same species I might also share his proclivities. So let me tell you, once and only once, that I don't." He sounded pissed, although nothing had happened so far. "I'm nothing like him and if you get your human arse into trouble, I will not come running and I will not save your planet, or any at all and I will not get myself in danger because of anyone."

Donna glared at him and then rolled her eyes. "Alright, alright. Don't get your knickers in a twist. I can't stand you anyway and I don't get what the Doctor even wants with a grump like you. Don't care, really. Stay outta my way and we're good."

The Master grinned, although it was more a display of teeth, a sneer of the dangerous kind. Donna held his gaze, however, visibly unfazed, and then slowly emptied her mug.

"I really need a good shower and a few hours of sleep." She sighed and smiled at me. "See you tomorrow. Or… I guess there aren't really days in a time machine, are there?"

"Not really. You'll get used to it." I returned the smile and watched amused how she placed her empty cup on the counter and strode outside, all while adamantly ignoring the Master's very existence.

"Insufferable species," grumbled the Master as soon as she was gone.

"You came in just to provoke her, then?" I asked with a quirked eyebrow.

"I wanted tea. I didn't want to suffer human stench and the terror of underdeveloped brains around me," he growled and was already about to leave again.

"My, someone got up on the wrong foot this morning," I mumbled.

"And you're in a far too good mood," came the grumbled reply. The Master turned back and eyed me with a dark look.

"Dunno if it's any good. Ask me after my third coffee." I yawned, actually not feeling that awake yet. "But you clearly levelled up your xeno-racism."

"I what?"

"You really don't seem to like Donna. That's okay. Just ignore she's here." Maybe the Doctor was right and I really did have some influence. So I could at least try. But his behaviour was riling me up somewhat. "Doesn't mean all humans are the same."

The Master regarded me like one would a filthy rat, all contempt and the barely contained urge to squash it under his boot. I winced at the feeling he emanated, cursing whatever empathic knack I might have. He walked to the table, placed his tea down and leaned with both hands on the surface.

"Ah, now suddenly you're better than the rest, I see," he snarled. "Let me tell you something-"

"Whoa, stop it," I grumbled. "I'm not even awake long enough to have done something to you. What the heck's your problem?"

He stabbed a finger at my chest. "You are."

I blinked at him, completely at a loss for words. This couldn't be about… could it? I narrowed my eyes and grunted. "So, you are pissed about it."

"Never said that."

I gnawed on my bottom lip and shook my head slightly. "Look, it might have been just because of the mental stuff, but I'm pretty sure I can't make you do anything against your will." I glared at him, trying to read anything from his reaction. Or the lack thereof.

The Master almost tenderly sat his cup down and bent lower towards me, his tone, as he spoke, wearing a quiet and carefully neutral tone. "What if you can?"

My eyes slowly widened in shock and disbelief, both emotions running through me like acid, burning and cold and just so utterly impossible. I swallowed, not at all sure how I managed to keep eye contact.

And then, from one moment to the nex, the Master started to giggle. "Just kidding. Stop looking at me like that."

I let out an exasperated groan and dropped my head on the table, mumbling, "I hate you. I so, so hate you."

How the heck could he do that to me? This was beyond unfair. I heard him walk a few steps closer and felt his nimble fingers ruffle through my hair until I looked back up at his teasing smirk.

"No, you don't. You wouldn't be so stupidly concerned otherwise."

"Arse," I grumbled, without really meaning it.

"That's hardly anything new, now, is it?" He stuck his tongue out and giggled at my death stare. All of his previous ire seemed to have vanished somehow. Or maybe it had never been real in the first place. However, his face became serious again after some seconds.

It still gnawed on me, though, so I had to ask again. Just to be sure. "I can't, right? Make you do stuff against your will."

The Master huffed and rolled his eyes. "Seems to be hellishly urgent to find out whether or not I fancy you."

"Wh…What? No. It's not about… I know you don't."

"And still you think it's important I want to do these things." His eyes bore into mine as he leaned closer down. "I'm not human, little one, don't you ever think th-"

"That's the point!" I snapped and shot from my chair. "This whole telepathic thing is out of my control. I don't even know what exactly I'm doing most of the time. And I certainly don't want to accidentally make you do anything you don't actually want." I took a deep breath to calm down. "So, don't even joke about that."

Perplexed, he blinked at me, mouth slightly opening as if to reply, but no words came out. The moment dragged on for endless seconds before his lips turned upwards to form an uncertain smile.

"Mhm… I see. You've been hurt, because your ex forced you," he concluded quietly. "And now you want to make sure you're not doing the same to someone else."

"Uh…" Now it was me who struggled with words for a moment. "Maybe…? Would that be so bad?"

"It's just funny," he grabbed a chair to plopp down into it, suddenly all curiosity again. "You don't seem to mind murder. Well, you do, but not really, be honest." There wasn't even a chance to answer. "But when it comes to rape… no… not even that. You find any form of force despicable. Making people do things against their will… That's it, isn't it?"

"Sometimes I think I'm nothing but a stupid puzzle for you to solve," I grumbled, not liking to be observed and my behaviour catalogued like that. "And yes. I hate that. And yes, I do mind killing. It's just…"

"Just…?" The Master eyed me curiously, stealing my half emptied coffee to finish the job.

How did we always end up having those weird conversations, I wondered. Some of it was cultural differences, that was obvious. Other things were… just plain weird. And the Master had a real skill for making me think about things I had never thoroughly pondered before.

"It's… because when someone's dead… they're just gone. It's the end. But if you do something really bad to someone… they will have to carry that around for the rest of their existence. I think that's worse."

I glanced up at the Master, waiting for whatever response he might show to this. It was the truth, or at least as truthful as I managed to be in that short time I had to think about it. He tapped against my mug, repeating his ever present drumbeat, staring into nothingness for a good minute or two.

Finally he stood up without a word, looking down at me with a quirked brow. Our eyes were locked for a moment and then he quickly moved and flicked his fingers against my head.

"Ouch, what was that for?" I protested.

"You're an idiot."

"Fuck off. You wanted to know."

"It's a stupid reason. Why would you bother if you'd hurt me? You know who I am."

"So?" I raised both brows.

The Master laughed. "I'm a bad guy and nothing will change that. You shouldn't worry."

"Yes, I know who you are. And it changes absolutely nothing." I had a deja vu. The conversation was familiar. And by now I also started to understand why his attitude was pissing me off so much. I left the chair and stood in front of the Master, glowering up at him. "Being who you are is no reason to let others just hurt you."

He glared back, holding eye contact and radiating as much contempt as he was probably able to, but I had no intent to back off. Eventually he smirked and playfully pushed against my chest to make me sway backwards a little.

"Hilarious little thing you are. See why you're so problematic?"

"Cause I challenge your worldview?" I taunted and walked to the door, turning back once before I left. Just to get a glimpse of his expression that tried to be amused, but actually hid so much more. "I'm afraid you'll have to deal with that."

 

[TardisGhost]

A/N: They are coming back! They are coming back! They are coming back! AAAAAAAAaaaaaaaa! Ten and Donna! Together! I'm dying! Please please pleaaaaaaaaaaaaaseeeeee give them a better ending! I beg you! 😭😭😭
(Sorry xD )

Part XIII (III)​

Over the next few weeks I really started to grow fond of Donna. She was loud and harsh and direct. She was gentle and caring and warm and just full of love for life. She was like a friend and a sister at once. When I was assured there wouldn't be any grand adventures I came with her and the Doctor, strolling through alien forests and having tea in underwater castles. I even introduced her to my dragon.

"That's not a dragon, is it?" she wondered aloud, watching the little creature nibble on my finger. "Thought they were much bigger, those."

I giggled and told her about our adventure with the Vikings, leaving out some of the details, though. She was astonished and shocked, but agreed that we had done the right thing in slaying the creature, despite what the Doctor thought.

"It's always the tough choices when you're with him," she mumbled. "Never thought I'd have to make those. I'm just a temp, you know. What can I possibly know about what's right and what could be done better."

Absent-mindedly she reached out a finger and fondled the dragon's head, smiling when it closed its eyes in pleasure and squeaking when she stopped. I giggled and nudged Donna with my elbow.

"You're the first besides me who's allowed to touch it. The little one always tries to bite the Time Lords."

"Can you blame it?" Donna laughed. "Sometimes I want to do that too. Especially this Master bloke. Such an ill-mannered being. Can't believe he's the same race. But, well, guess he's all the Doctor's got, now. Might be reason enough to endure him. Ohhhh, I really couldn't. No matter what."

There it was again. From Donna I had heard it a few times already, about them being the last, about a lost home. There were no details, only vague hints. Things the two of them had never mentioned.

"I didn't know they were the last of their kind," I finally admitted, although I wasn't sure if I wanted to know more or if I wanted her to stop giving away details they didn't want me to know.

"They never told you?" Donna asked, surprised. "Well, 's a touchy subject after all, but still… Probably better I don't say more. Wouldn't be fair."

"Yeah, I agree."

-----------------oOo.oOo.oOo-----------------​

Each time I was in the TARDIS when evening neared - or whatever the ship' s inner cycle saw as evening - I continued my practise with the Master. He stayed out of the way whenever Donna was around, completely unwilling to even greet her or acknowledge her existence at all, which was probably for the better. But it also meant he wasn't coming along outside anymore, which meant I didn't see much of him at all. Which, maybe, also was for the better?

The sessions didn't take much time. He quickly found out how long I could manage before exhaustion hit me and ended them before, not without some teasing now and then, but that was all. What really bothered me, however, was that he now made sure to stay as far away from me as possible.

We sat opposite to one another on his sofa, my hands in his, swimming through the stream of intertwined consciousness, but never ever did he move any nearer, nor did he make any attempt of getting me closer as he had done so often before.

It didn't help my guilty conscience, despite his reassurance. It also didn't help the stupid desire to be closer. Having experienced how this connection could feel, how it could dispel every ounce of loneliness there was and make me forget about everything else for just a while… of course I wanted more of it. I'd even be completely content to keep everything on a pure mental level.

But as the weeks went on, I sadly accepted that I, apparently, had destroyed this opportunity.

"Something's bothering you," said the Master. His lids were closed as he held my hands, but a slight raise of his eyebrow was visible. Not much else. Our connection right now was too shallow to speak with thoughts or to sense more than dominant emotions.

"Not important," I mumbled, taking a deep breath, determined not to show any sign of my thoughts. I had to bury those emotions so they wouldn't be so noticeable. At least something I was good at.

"No? Shall I look?" There was a teasing undertone in his voice.

Almost immediately I felt a shift in his essence and I hurried to wrap my previous thoughts in a bubble. Then I proceeded to do the same with everything that popped up and also had to do with the topic. He was still probing after some time, but there was nothing left I minded him seeing and the connection was too weak to dig deep anyway.

"You've gotten faster. That's good," he commented. "Now try and read my emotions."

The sensation of him squirming through my memories receded and I relaxed somewhat, concentrating on what I picked up from him instead. This part was as easy as it was hard. Because of my slightly empathic side I had an easy time picking up emotions, but also had a hard time telling whether or not I actually read them through the connection.

"You're amused. But you always are when we do this." I poked my tongue out. "Well, thanks for that."

The Master chuckled. "It's really hard not to be when you're so bad at even doing the basics."

"Pfffff. Bugger."

I focused some more, trying to read anything but the most prominent frequency. There was… something sharp and cold, not fear and not anger. Uncertainty, maybe. A lingering question without words to describe it. And there also was… was this mine or was it from the Master? The same longing for closeness I already knew so well. But it hadn't been mine, because mine was separate and as soon as I caught the emotion they both clicked together like puzzle pieces and I heard him suck in a breath and felt my body tingling.

Neither of us moved.

Slowly I withdrew from the connected stream and separated myself enough to discern what was my own. Fearfully I peeked up at the Master, almost awaiting him to scold me. But his eyes were cast down, glued to our hands and unreadable.

"Let's end for now." With that he let go of my hands and stretched languidly like a cat, suddenly a display of casualness.

"What?" he asked, when I didn't move.

Should I ask? Maybe that would be a bad idea. But it did gnaw on me. Why he was keeping me at such distance where, before, he had always tried to get me close.

"Don't tell me you want some praise for that meagre performance." He snickered and waved me away.

The attitude let anger bubble up in me. "Stop being such an arse to me. I'm trying to help here."

The Master's brows shot up and his teeth split to a wolfish grin. "Ouh, the human is making demands. I'm scared."

I let out a frustrated growl and shook my head. "I think you actually are," I hissed. "You're telling me I can't be afraid because this won't work, but then…" I waved over him and the sofa to symbolise the whole situation.

Of course he took it wrong. Or maybe he wanted to.

"What? Want me to pat your back each time and tell you some useless praise?"

"You could at least tell me how I'm doing at all… Without any insults." If he wasn't willing to indulge me in my actual question I could at least fire back.

"What do you think?" He snickered again, both arms draped over the back rest, the ankles of his feet folded neatly in front of him. The stance of a politician.

Could all of this really scare him more than me? Even if I tried not to glue any meaning to it, would the fact not vanish that there was… something. Something that tied us together in a way I doubted any of us had control over. But also…

"I'm not a Time Lord kid," came my grumbled reply. "I know I can't be doing as well, but maybe yes… maybe I do need some reassurance from time to time."

Stubbornly I crossed the arms in front of my chest and glared at the sofa, avoiding his gaze because I wasn't sure how he would react to that little outburst. I tried not to look as he got up and slowly took the two steps he needed to tower over me.

"I haven't taken my life force back from you… yet. Isn't that reassuring enough?" The mockery was dripping from his words and I bit my lip, now glaring at his chest, because I still didn't dare to look up. But he made me anyway, tipped his fingers under my chin and wore a smile that was both mirth and challenge. "Say my name," came the sudden demand.

I blinked at him, not quite sure whether or not to indulge him. Stomping on his foot or shoving him away seemed like much better options.

"Fuck you."

There was a dangerous glint in his eyes for a moment, but then he only pursed his lips in a mock pout. "What a foul mouth, lil' lumin." Swiftly he grabbed the lapels of my shirt and pulled me close, his breath ghosting over my ear. "Say. My. Name."

Damn. This definitely should not have the effect it had. And I was still somewhat pissed and simply in no mood to play his stupid games. There wasn't even a threat in his demand. There was only the warmth of his body and the smell of his aftershave and his mere presence prickling my skin and tingling in my mind like aftershocks from our session.

I exhaled and his name slipped from my mouth, more whispered than spoken and a tiny bit more shaky than planned and the last letter had barely slipped my mouth as his lips were shutting me up already, hands still clasping my lapels. The contact let his mind bristle against mine, without intruding, but yearning for much more than he was willing to give for now.

"That has to be enough reassurance," he uttered against my lips, thumbs stroking over the cloth he held.

We parted and I had to catch my breath, unable to keep a grin from my face. "I take that as a 'you're doing great'"

The Master snorted. "Not even close. But good enough for an ape."

"Same thing, coming from you." I poked my tongue out at him and then hurried to leave the room.

-----------------oOo.oOo.oOo-----------------​

"Oh,someone's in a good mood today," said Donna as we were playing cards in a meadow of golden gras. No wind disturbed our play and the orange sun was just warm enough to be pleasant.

"I'm always in a good mood!" said the Doctor with a grin, tossing a card on the heap.

"No, not you, silly. I mean Lucy. You seemed a little down these days."

I glanced up from my cards and looked at Donna. "Uh… am I?" Stupid question. Even now it was hard to keep myself from smiling. "It's nice here. I love the colours." My nose pointed upwards, sniffing. "And it smells of herbs and flowers."

"Mhm… it really is a nice place," Donna agreed with a content face. "But we've been to a few nice places already and you're definitely happier today."

Warmth crept up my neck and I tried to hide my face behind the cards. She wasn't wrong, but this wasn't anything I could tell her. Especially not with the Doctor right next to us. What would he think about this all? Did he have any feelings for the Master? Would he hate me if he found out… But it wasn't even… anything… anything at all, actually. It had no meaning.

"Had a good night's rest, 's all. And today is a great day. The cake we had before was amazing."

"Ha! I win!" called the Doctor, tossing his last card on the heap. "Shall we go and grab dinner somewhere else or stay here?"

Donna cast a last look at me and then decided to stay for another while. "Just to keep everyone smilin'. There's enough bad stuff in the universe already." She sighed, but grinned. "We can get some of that stuff that looked like fish in the restaurant in town, yeah? That looked neat."

We agreed and spent a calm evening there, enjoying great food and an even greater view, while I did my best to stay away from thoughts I didn't want to deal with right now. Somehow I would manage to deal with the strange new situation I had found myself in. And somehow I could surely manage to let all the lose threads run together and make sense, in the end.

"You coming? We want to get back."

I blinked and tore my eyes away from the beautiful sunset I was watching from the restaurant's porch. The Doctor was still busy paying for the food - one of the places he actually had money for - and Donna stood in the fading sunlight, holding her summer hat and having her bright dress swaying in the mild breeze.

I smiled and got out the small camera I had gotten myself some time ago. "Stay exactly as you are, Donna," I told. "Don't move."

"Oh, don't take pictures of me, I always look weird in them. And sort of- Ah, whatever. Do your thing. But don't blame me if they don't look great!"

"Actually," I flipped through the images and giggled, "they look lovely."

 

[BRBonobo]

I am catching up over on Ao3. I love the misty ruins in the mountains of a once-great civilization. One of those tropes that never gets old for me.

Spoiler

My initial feeling is that it would be interesting if they were destroyed by dragons. Perhaps our baby dragon grows up and sires/mothers a whole host of dragons here in the past.

Anyway, amazing as always. I'm going to finish up the last couple chapters over there, and then wait until this catches up, so I can read a few at once on Ao3.

 

[TardisGhost]

Part XIV - Urban ghosts​

"This book mentions a planet called Isz… da…. Iszdareth," I said, trying to pronounce the name in the book I held correctly. "It's said to have had many dragon sightings in its course of history, so maybe we'll find out more about the little one, there."

"What kind of place is that?" asked Donna curiously and watched over the Doctor's shoulder to look at the screen.

He activated the controls and manoeuvred the TARDIS to our destination, wheezing and tumbling assured.

"Bet you'll like it." He shot up from where he had landed on the ground, all grin and excitement. "It's a rural area in the mountains. Lots of farm lands. A small city is nearby and they are said to have quite the impressive archive. You know, like a library but digital."

"Oh, yep, sounds awesome. Hope they'll have a few good crime novels."

"Uhhhh…. Prooooobably not. But I have an idea for that… afterwards." The Doctor clapped his hands together and beamed at us. "Alons-y!?"

"Auf geht's!" I called.

Donna looked at me. "Was that German?"

"Yeah. I lived there for a while."

"Oh. Neat. Let's go!"

"Please don't come back," grumbled the Master from his corner of the console. He was busy fiddling with a pyramid shaped device that was somehow responsible for whatever the TARDIS was pranking him with again.

"Weeeeell… actually…" The Doctor rubbed his neck. "You need to come with us."

"What?!" The Master almost bumped his head against the console when he shot up. "I'm not going to run around with you idiots!"

The Doctor took a cautious step backwards. "There's… a malfunction I haven't quite figured out yet. Can't leave you on your own with that. Might be dangerous…"

The other Time Lord knitted his eyebrows together and then grinned all of a sudden. "Ah, I see. You're scared I might break your seal and run away on my own."

"Tha… that… I never said that!"

"It's written all over your silly face, dear Doctor."

"Aaaanyway… you need to come with us. You too want that dragon to grow, don't you?"

The Master threw his wrench to the floor and stepped into the other one's personal space, tapping against his chest. "I won't help you play hero."

"Didn't demand that. Would never." A happy grin formed on his face. "So, you coming?"

"I don't have a choice, do I?"

Donna stemmed her fists into her hips. "Well, I'm not going to stay here just because of you. So you better behave yourself."

The Master rolled his eyes. "Be glad the Doctor would know it was me if you would go missing all of a sudden."

Donna's mouth fell open. "Was that a threat? Did you really just threaten me, you grump?"

The answer was a wide, dangerous grin that made Donna look even more indignant. And as if she could hardly contain herself from slapping him - hard. A tiny part of me really wanted to see that happen and I had to suppress a grin.

"Can't you just put him in a cell or something?" Donna glanced at the Doctor.

"Like what?" spat the Master. "Like some fucking animal?"

"Certainly not like a decent human being!"

"Well, I'm not!" He glowered at the red head. "I'm far above you, as is he!" His finger snapped in the Doctor's direction. "So who should be put in a cage?"

"Stop that." The Doctor's voice was soft, but demanding as he grabbed the Master's arm. "Both of you."

The other one tore himself away with an angry stare, shoving the Doctor away roughly. "I'm neither staying in some dungeon, nor do I allow you to take me along like some dog just because you can't let go of those apes!"

"Oi! We're not apes!" complained Donna, but I held her back and shook my head. This wasn't a moment to interfere.

"Master, stop it. Please." The Doctor's voice was still soft and it seemed to enrage the Master even further. "No restraints. I promised, didn't I?" he continued, holding eye contact with his fuming counterpart. "Just come along. You don't have to do anything." Finally he averted his gaze, looking uncertain all of a sudden.

"Fine. If this is all so bloody important to you, I'll stay in the back." The Master was more sulking than angry all of a sudden, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

I carefully tugged at Donna to manoeuvre her out of the TARDIS already. We seemed to have landed somewhere in the mountains. Snow covered peaks surrounded us, but down here it was rather warm and there was a small village of wooden huts nearby. Due to the low temperatures I went back inside to quickly grab my hoodie from the jump seat. The Doctor didn't seem to even notice and stepped to the Master, taking his hands into his own.

"The fylake conductor is leaking and it's better if the TARDIS takes care of that while we're outside. That's why I want you with us."

"It's more dangerous for humans than for me," growled the Master. "It's always about them. They are always more important to you."

The Doctor sighed. "You know the fumes can get dangerous for us too. And you're wrong… You are…" He looked down at their hands. "You are important to me. More than you think."

A moment of silence hung between the two, then the Doctor suddenly let go of the other one's hands and looked at his shoes. And I could only roll my eyes at his reaction.

"Geez, Just kiss him already," I said irritatedly. "This is getting ridiculous."

The Doctor twirled around, glaring at me with a shocked expression, then quickly looked back at the Master, who seemed as perplexed, but also somewhat amused.

"Wha… what're talking about?" stammered the Doctor. "Whhh-y would I?" With that he took a step back, a hand shooting to his neck to rub it nervously.

"Yeah… why would you," mumbled the Master, venom dripping from his voice.

"Aaaanyway…" evaded the other Time Lord. "Let's have a look outside. Can't leave Donna waiting forever, can I? You coming?" And he rushed outside without another look back.

We stayed behind with the faint engine humm as the only noise in the room. The Master wore a look of contempt and fury, but there also was a hint of sadness. His head snapped around, directing all of the chaos in him towards me.

"I told you to stay out of this," he growled.

I pursed my lips and grunted, stuffing my hands in my hoodie pockets. "Yeah, but even my dummy autistic self sees he's into you and this whole running away thing is pissing me off."

With a single step the Master was at me and I backed away. He still grabbed me by the collar and dragged me to the doors, ignoring my protests. I only stopped struggling when I heard him laugh quietly.

"He's good at that, you know?" he said, dragging me outside. "Running away."

"Guessed so. Let go of me."

He finally did, not looking at me as we followed the other two who were already a good distance ahead. But a second later I felt his hand slip into mine and I glanced up in surprise, not having awaited this at all.

"'m not running away," I said.

The Master let out a snort. "You will. Eventually. Everyone does, in the end."

He wasn't wrong about that. My own life had taught me the same, so I stayed silent and just held his hand a little tighter.

-----------------oOo.oOo.oOo-----------------​

We wandered along a mountain path, green grass and hills surrounding us. The sun hung high, spreading its warmth and brightness and making me regret the hoodie fast. The temperatures were still low, but that didn't help the sun's heat. A fact I admired for quite some time. I had never been that high up in any mountains before.

After roughly half an hour we reached the small village that consisted of a collection of wooden huts. The place was far from primitive, however, as it was adorned with lots of pipes and wires and machinery with unknown purposes.

As soon we caught up with the other two, the Master let go of my hand and wore his usual look of unwillingness. I stuffed the now free hand inside my pocket, trying to preserve the nice feeling of warmth. And suddenly my heart beat faster, seemingly for no reason and startled me. A small thought like that shouldn't do that with me. Get your act together, I scolded myself, frowning at the ground.

We did the usual, asking people, snooping around and admiring everything that was foreign to us. Well, Donna and I did. The Doctor was the one questioning, whilst the Master stayed uncharacteristically silent and in the back.

We ended up at a market, sitting around a fire pit with warm drinks in our hands.

"It's always so fascinating how many species look like humans," Donna babbled, excitedly. "Just look at them. Their ears are a bit square, if you ask me, but that's it. Small, big, thin, fat, they have it all."

"Nothing fascinating about it," grumbled the Master. "Your tiny brain just isn't used to variety."

"And yours could certainly do with a bit more decency, Mister."

"Master."

"Not calling you that. Period."

They glowered at one another until an older woman joined us at the fire. She was clad in a simple dress and a hood, hair grey and face wrinkled. Her skin was a tad bit more purple than that of a human, but that was it.

"You're strangers, aren't ya?" she asked with a knowing smirk. "Travellin' folks, eh?"

"Yes! Yes we are," said the Doctor enthusiastically. "We're looking for some archives. Should be here somewhere."

"Archives? What'ya mean with that, son? It rings a bell, but…" she tapped against her head, smiling, "that old head of mine's not what it used to be."

"Oh, well, that's too bad. Can't really help with memories… I can of course, not me, but I know…"

Donna slapped his arm. "Give the lady something, stupid. Bet she'll remember then."

The Doctor opened his mouth in sudden realisation, but got interrupted by the Master, who quickly pulled out his laser screwdriver to point it at the woman's head. "Spit it out, old hag. I don't have time for your nonsense."

"Master!" exclaimed the Doctor, then turned to the woman, his hands up on a soothing gesture. "He's not shooting. Won't let him. Don't worry."

At that the old woman started to laugh with her raspy, crackling voice and everyone looked at her, perplexed. She tapped against the laser screwdriver and cackled some more.

"My time's already up, son. 'S' is only a matter of days. Ye can't scare me with that." She smiled, the expression weary. "I'm not asking for money. No need for that. But would any of you youngsters get me a nice mulled wine from that stall over there? The owner's not giving me any. Says it'll kill me." Again she cackled. "Doesn't matter now, does it?"

"I… uh… just don't have any money," mumbled the Doctor, earning himself a sigh from Donna and an eye-roll from the Master.

The latter got up, dusted himself off and wandered over to the stall, shortly after coming back with two mugs of steaming content.

"There, have it. If I have to be dragged along, at least let us get it done." The other mug ended in my own hands and my puzzled look was met with a shrug. "You looked cold. And you're annoying when you're cold."

I pursed my lips in protest, but didn't mind something warm. Sitting around made one definitely remember the low temperatures and to my delight I discovered there was mead in my mug. Or something that tasted like it, at least.

The Doctor was scowling the whole time, knowing perfectly well that the other man had used hypnotism to get the beverages - again. But, for now, he didn't verbalise his disapproval and instead turned to the elderly woman. Only Donna looked as if she was bursting to learn how the Master had managed to get the mulled wine, probably not knowing about his skills.

"So… you know anything about old archives, then?"

"Mhm… oh, this is good. I thank you, son. I needed this. My old bones feel better already." She gave the Master a smile, which he completely ignored, and answered the Doctor. "Well, there are stories. Twice as old as I am myself, probably, but who can tell…"

Another sip, a content humm. The woman closed her eyes, a half smile on her lips as if she were lost in almost forgotten memories. Then, finally, she spoke up again and her voice was firm, used to telling stories to whomever might be willing to listen.

"Once upon a thousand moons ago, or maybe many more, there was a people whose minds were strong and wild. They used their wisdom to think up ways to travel the skies and the oceans without harm, they knew of the secrets to plant food in ways that could fill everyone's plate and leave no lack. They collected all wisdom from every place they reached and learned from everyone who wanted to teach. They were collectors, curious minds. And for many cycles there was neither war nor other harm done on this planet."

The Master snorted, but stayed silent otherwise, when he got hit by several venomous looks. After a short pause and a few more delighted sips from her wine the old woman continued.

"You might wonder why we live such small and simple lives these days, and why there are so few machines left. Truth be told, we don't even fully understand a lot of them. They keep our water clean and our houses warm when the mountain's snow creeps down to us. But when they break… " She sighed and cast a wary look at some pipes and gears nearby. "One day we will have to adapt. Or maybe we will learn fast enough to uncover the secrets we need to rebuild what we once had."

"What happened?" asked Donna, voice small and eyes wide like that of a child. She was fully engrossed in the story. "Why did everything vanish?"

"Because in the blackest of nights we were attacked by the monstrosities from our children's fairy tales. When everyone was sound asleep and securely wrapped in their blankets," her voice got lower, more ominous, "they heard the sound of wings above their heads and nightmares plagued many dreams."

A cold shiver went down my spine. Instantly I remembered the night in the Viking's guest house and the haunting images that plagued my dreams for days. Those had stopped after the adventure and I had assumed they had stemmed from the atmosphere, my love for pagan stories and then the excitement. But maybe… maybe the dragon also had something to do with them.

"From this night on the people were attacked over and over again by horrid winged beasts. We call them Erdras, although most don't dare to speak of them much. It is said that some of them could spit fire and others were large as mountains, with glowing eyes and screams to chill your bones."

"How were they defeated?" asked the Doctor and I glimpsed a worried glance he tossed in my direction. "Or were your people able to make peace with them?"

"Peace? That's ridiculous, son. They couldn't speak and didn't listen. And I'm afraid this is where the stories get vague, because no one knows what exactly ended their attacks." She looked into her now empty mug and pursed her lips for a moment. "All we know is that all knowledge is now lost, burnt down and hidden in long abandoned ruins. Will ya gi'me another one, dear?" the old woman suddenly interrupted herself, falling back into her previous accent. The question was directed towards the Master.

"The hell will I. I'm not some errand boy for you, old hag."

"Mhm… petty." She chuckled.

"So, there are no archives left," concluded Donna. "Did we land in the right… place?" She glared at the Doctor and the way she had emphasised the last word made clear she actually meant time.

"Only legends, kid. Only that. But if ya wanna follow those, there's said to be one of the lost cities here in the mountains. No one's found it, of course. But no one's looking for it either." Again she cackled. "Folks are scared. Think that ghosts are livin' there. That's what we were told as children. Cause some claimed to have went there and they brought nothing but creepy stories."

With that she ended and proceeded to have a staring contest with the Master, who tried to shorten her last days living with his glare alone.

"We'll, thanks for the great story," said the Doctor with a wide smile. "We've never heard of it in the… uh… village we're from."

"Eh, don't bullshit me." The woman gave her a toothy grin that almost looked dangerous. "Yer folks aren't from this world. Look at those ears. Too round. And those clothes!" She shook her head, clearly amused and did a slight bow with her head. "Doesn't matter. Fare thee well, oh weary travellers."

With those last words she heaved herself up and slowly walked away on her cane, vanishing in the market's crowd and leaving us behind with more questions than answers.

 

[TardisGhost]

Part XIV (II)​

We met more people and heard similar stories while the Master organised hot beverages and snacks here and there. At first only for himself, but after the Doctor grudgingly accepted that no real harm was done by it to anyone, the Master also got something for him and me. Not for Donna, though, which ended in yet another bickering fight.

"I will absolutely feed you to the first nasty monster we find," she shrieked. "And I hope it is a disgusting, slimy thing so your stupid neat suit gets dirty!"

"Pah! Before anything can even touch my clothes I'll have it burned and shredded with my laser," grumbled the Master.

"Well, maybe it would inspire you to be less business and more person."

"What, and run around so stupidly dressed like that one?" He thumped at the Doctor.

"No-hooo. You rather run around and pretend to be all superior. But really, you're just a brat."

"S'cuse me!? Who's yelling around here? And only because you didn't get your hot ghotgat."

"It looked like hot cocoa!"

"So?"

They glared at one another for a good minute before the Doctor finally decided to step in. He lightly grabbed Donna's wrist and nodded ahead so she would follow. And she, grudgingly, did. Not without throwing a last venomous glare at the Master, though.

-----------------oOo.oOo.oOo-----------------​

"Crap, crap, crap!" called the Doctor, running a hand through his hair and making a mess of them. His eyes were glued to the console monitor.

"What's going on?" asked Donna, worriedly. "You don't let us out of the room and are babbling stuff."

The Master visibly pressed his lips tightly together, obviously keeping himself from starting the next argument, or telling Donna how stupid she was. His gaze wandered to me and he rolled his eyes, nodding towards the other two.

I only nudged him, torn between being mad about his behaviour towards Donna and being amused by how much it all annoyed him. The behaviour made me think, however. It couldn't only be Donna's brash character that made him dislike her so much. Her being human definitely had a huge part in it, seeing how much he despised my species.

But what then made him tolerate me around him? There was nothing special about me, not even remotely. I wasn't brave or clever, and usually I didn't give his deeds much attention. And on top of that he was constantly annoyed by my way of thinking and my lack in being willing to indulge him in his insistence for being evil.

"... and if any of you comes into contact with that stuff it will slowly make your brain melt. Not funny, believe me," babbled the Doctor. "That's why we have to stay in here. It's safe. Security protocols and filters and all that."

"We'll then let's go and have a look at that lost city they were all talking about," challenged Donna. "I'm not going to sit around in this room for days and be bored out of my mind."

"Bored? How can you be bored while being surrounded by so much amazing alien tech?!" The Doctor's mouth hung open.

"Oh, is the human not impressed by your toys?" mocked the Master. "That almost gives her a bonus point."

"It's just stuff that makes too much noise and blinks," Donna commented, throwing her hands up. "Why would anyone be impressed by that?"

"Alright… and there goes the bonus point again."

"Oh, because you understand what all those things are doing," mocked Donna and scowled at the Master.

He grinned at her from ear to ear, although the expression looked more dangerous than happy. "Actually, I understand a lot more of it than your boyfriend."

"Boyf…" Donna mouthed the word with an incredulous look. "Listen up, you twat! No one would want that idiot to be his boyfriend!"

"Oi, that… that actually was mean," protested the Doctor.

"Just look at him!" She made a gesture to show his stature. "He's so thin you give him a hug you get a papercut."

"I… I get it, Donna. Thanks." Now his voice was a little whiny. He even forgot to continue his inputs to the console.

The Master started to laugh, holding his belly with crossed arms. "This is fantastic. You get your bonus point back." He wiped the corner of his eye with a finger. "Finally a human girl that's not falling head over heels for him. That must be a first."

"Tha… that's not… it's not truuue," whimpered the Doctor.

"Definitely not true," I seconded with a scoff.

"You don't count," dead-panned the Master. "You barely count as a woman. And you're weird anyway."

That earned him a half hearted elbow to the ribs, which he, of course, simply ignored. He rather went over to the Doctor, in a vain attempt to convince him that what he was currently doing wouldn't solve our problem.

Donna fiddled with her necklace, not at all content with the situation, so I joined her and together we watched the Time Lords bicker and fight over tech stuff we didn't understand. What else was there to do? Wandering off on our own was dangerous and I wasn't willing to get into a situation where I would have to protect or rescue Donna. I was neither particularly strong, nor fast, nor anything. I couldn't risk not being able to help, being forced to watch helplessly how someone else got hurt because of that.

I winced when I felt a hand on my shoulder and glanced up to meet a warm smile.

"You look bothered," said Donna. "I'm sure they'll fix this."

"Cause they will." I smiled up at her, hiding my thoughts as I had learned to do.

"Funny though, if they have a shared goal, they can work quite well together, right?"

I chuckled. "Yeah, amazes me every time.

"What's there to giggle about?" grumbled the Master. "Make yourselves useful at least."

Donna huffed. "Ohhhh right. Because you would trust us little humans to meddle with your precious time tech, ey? Get lost."

That threw us both into another giggling fit, much to the Master's dismay. He stormed back to the console, bumping into the Doctor's shoulder on full purpose, who tried to push back, but got swiftly trapped between his counterpart and the console table. The Master loomed over the bent-backwards Time Lord, his hands on the console on either side of the other one and visibly fuming.

Donna leaned over to me, not daring to speak so they might hear us. But she nodded towards the scene, making some questioning gestures, or what seemed like such to me. I simply shrugged, not exactly sure what she meant, so Donna poked her head in their direction again, now stroking a finger over her throat as if to ask if the Doctor was in danger of getting murdered.

I shook my head, wrinkling my nose questioningly and shrugging. Then I looked at them and back at Donna, wriggling my eyebrows suggestively. Her own brows knitted together, then her mouth opened to an O and closed again. Her head nodded to the Time Lords once more and she pointed first at the Master then at the Doctor, then quickly pursed her lips to what might have been a weird kissing gesture.

I nodded, but also rolled my eyes and made an exasperated sighing gesture. Donna's mouth hung open for seconds, before forming a clear, but silent No way!

Which I answered with another shrug and making a 'so and so' gesture with my hand.

"What… are you two doing?" came the Doctor's sudden voice, making us both jump.

I tossed a quick look behind him, finding the Master tinkering with a sulky face. He didn't pay us any attention whatsoever and, hopefully, hadn't witnessed anything. Donna grabbed my arm, adamantly pushing me towards the exit.

"We… just decided to have a bit more sunlight. This room feels a little crowded and we don't want to bother you two or disturb your repairs… You know. Silly human brains, can't cope with all this stuff here."

"Uh, hey, look, I'm sorry it came out like that. I don't mind any of you being in here or asking questions. I know-"

"It's alright, Doctor." She pushed me a little further, holding my shoulders. "We won't wander off. We're right here, in front of this door. Take as long as you need, you two. You know… bit alone time. Might do you good. Talk a little… I mean, I say talk, but…" I nudged Donna with my elbow and she let the rest of the sentence slide." Whatever. See you later."

-----------------oOo.oOo.oOo-----------------​

"They're not… you know… dating or anything, are they? Never seemed like it." Donna glared at me, wide eyed, oblivious to nature's beauty or the fact that we seemed to be stranded for a while.

"Nah, 's not like that." I shrugged. "But if you stick around for a while you'll see. They'll deny it, though."

"Ha!" called Donna, clapping her hands together. "So you try to help a little and push them here and there, right? Smart move. As long as it's subtle at least. Can't imagine them being too happy would anyone interfere. But seriously? With that bloke?" She thumped at the closed door with an incredulous look and an open mouth." I heard only a fraction of why he's not allowed to run around on his own and I'm already spooked. He's a flippin' monster, that one. No one should… sure, they are the last two. Maybe's just that. None of my business, but it's just so unbelievable. How could anyone in their right mind do something else but hate that guy?"

My stomach did a weird flip at her words, all mirth suddenly gone from my mood. Her reaction was understandable and still it did something to me I couldn't quite pinpoint. For a moment I felt the urge to defend the Master, to tell Donna that he wasn't all bad and… who am I even kidding? Everything he did was always only for his own good and the few times he behaved somewhat decently were overshadowed by all the times he was aggressive and harsh and brutal.

What type of person would one have to be to feel anything but contempt towards a man like that?

Luckily I didn't have to give an answer. The door opened and released a dishevelled looking Doctor, who ran a hand through his hair and was constantly mumbling technical terms and other stuff I didn't understand. Shortly after, the Master followed, studying some data on a small pad in one hand. His brows were furrowed and the tip of his tongue peeked out between his teeth, adding to the concentrated look.

"So, are we stuck or what's the plan?" asked Donna.

"Weeeell…" The Doctor rubbed his neck and looked everywhere but in our direction. "I guess we're staying for a day or two. Found out where the leak came from, but the TARDIS systems need a little time to filter out all the gas from the air circulation and get it out of the contaminated rooms, etc."

"He means we'll have to stay in this dumpster and deal with the locals," grumbled the Master, looking up from his data pad. "As if I have nothing better to do."

"The mountains are nice. Fresh air, blue sky, snow and sunshine." The Doctor beamed, doing his usual best to brighten the mood.

"We might learn more about this abandoned city," I tossed in, secretly hoping for more after the old woman's tale.

"Can we have lunch first?" asked Donna. "This day was already long enough and I'm not in the mood to deal with this on an empty stomach. We're stuck either way, isn't it so? Let's at least have it cosy."

-----------------oOo.oOo.oOo-----------------​

So it happened that we ended up in an inn with several rooms and a pot full of stew, a loaf of bread and even wine at our table. The Master had snatched the psychic paper and had used it together with some hypnotism to organise everything, doing what the Doctor refused to do. He seemed, however, to be somewhat okay with the other one doing it, so there wasn't any protest and we got spared more unnecessary fighting.

The stew was hearty and satiating, the wine sweet and the atmosphere cosy and warm. The room was filled with chatting and laughter from many people, the clinking of glass, an occasional song and the sound of chairs.

Later in the evening a man approached us, middle aged, a bit shorter than the Doctor and with short brown hair. He wore clothes that were suited for hiking, a knife at his belt and several pouches on his hips and legs.

"Hey there," he greeted, hand raised. It didn't seem as if he were shy, but certainly cautious, eyeing us thoroughly before he continued. "I saw you at the market before. With old Hanny."

"That half dead, insolent woman?" drawled the Master.

"Yes. We talked to her," said the Doctor. "Told us a nice story. She's really good at that. Almost got me spooked."

"Certainly spooked me," mumbled Donna.

"She isn't the only one who knows those stories," said the stranger. "In fact, my friends and I are planning to start another expedition tomorrow. Listen, before you call me crazy."

"Would never," mumbled the Master, taking a sip from his wine.

"We've been exploring the mountains for years now with the help of every old map and tale we could get a hold of and we're extremely certain we managed to narrow down the potential location of Jir - That's the name of the lost city. We also found that out. "

"And now you need help?" asked the Doctor, brow cautiously raised.

"Erm… well… The thing is, even if we find the place and return, no one would believe us. And I saw your friend here-" he nodded at me - "having a picture device. And also… the more the better. The place is said to be haunted."

"Mhm yeah… some people mentioned ghosts already," agreed the Doctor. "Wonder what those might be… But, I'm afraid we're not really equipped for a hike like that and we can't enter my… uh… we can't."

"Since when?" asked Donna with a surprised look. "You normally jump into every adventure that's waving from miles away!"

He grinned awkwardly and rubbed his neck, shooting a quick glance over at the Master, who gave him a glare back. Then his eyes wandered to me.

"I'm in," I dead-panned.

"Whot? This could be super dangerous."

It was no wonder the Doctor was so surprised when I usually tried to stay away from any too big threats. But this was something else.

"It's a lost city!" I explained, smiling wide. "A place that's probably abandoned for centuries." Out of the corner of my eyes I saw the Master smiling to himself. "I certainly want to go! Please!" I begged with big eyes.

"But… uh…" The Doctor's eyes darted towards the Master again.

Mine did too and I scowled at him. "You'll behave."

Silence spread among us and I held my breath for a moment. The comment had shot out so fast I hadn't even thought about it. But now I got hellishly aware of my insolence. Not long ago and the Master would have killed me for this without a second thought. His eyes widened, as did the wolfish grin on his face.

But he stayed put and only let out a laugh. "You making demands? This has to be awfully important." Encouraged by the lack of murder I glowered some more at him, until he stopped laughing. "I'm not coming along. I'd rather stare at a rock for three weeks." He nodded to the Doctor. "That one doesn't want my company anyway… not to speak of the human." A sneer in Donna's direction made all too clear who he meant.

"No one wants your company," came her sour reply.

"Alright, no fighting again. Please," pleaded the Doctor. "If everyone's okay with this… I mean a lost and ancient city does sound like a good adventure. Would enjoy it. Bit of hiking."

"And how do we get equipment?" asked Donna.

"That won't be a problem," said the stranger quickly. "We have enough and a bunch of the guys who usually come along aren't with us this time. You can have their stuff."

"Mhm… does sound promising. I'll see what I can fetch from the TARDIS." The Doctor now beamed, ready to jump into the adventure. "What's your name anyway?"

"Oh, right." The stranger grinned and straightened. "I'm Darwil Halgos. Leader of the expedition. And I'm also part of our local University, if you were wondering. We're doing it for the fund and the thrill, of course. But there is also a huge part of curiosity. We'd be the first to come back with actual footage!"

"Darwil, nice to meet you! I'm the Doctor and the two lovely ladies here are Lucy and Donna." We both gave a small wave and smiles.

"Well then. Let's meet in the morning. We'll have everything prepared until then and you lot have enough time to prepare. Yes?"

"Absolutely yes!" sang the Doctor and grinned widely.

I shared an exciting look with Donna. She also seemed to be all in on the idea. Only the Master still had his sour look and probably wouldn't get rid of it as long as we were around.

 

[TardisGhost]

Part XIV (III)​

"What're you looking at me for?" grumbled the Master, hand stuffed into his pockets. He was in an obviously bad mood for whatever reason.

"Haven't you heard them?" I asked. "It's said to have ghosts."

He rolled his eyes. "Every old place is said to have some."

I pursed my lips, kicking a small stone away. After a night at the inn we were all waiting outside the TARDIS while the Doctor had gone inside to snatch a few useful items for us. The leaking gas didn't seem to be too harmful for Time Lords. At least not during a short exposure. Donna had placed herself by the doors, waiting impatiently, while I tried to convince the Master to come along.

"The Doctor always insists that ghosts aren't real," I grumbled. "He'll be no fun."

"And what makes you think would make me so daft to believe in them? Haven't seen any, so far."

"Then's about time, isn't it?" I nudged him playfully. "What could you lose? And maybe you find a way to use the spirits of the dead to work for you."

The Master deigned to look at me with puckered brows. A small smile tugged at the corners of his lips. "Are you trying to play me, little one?"

I simply nodded and chuckled. "Yep."

At first, there was no reaction. The Master simply let his eyes wander over the shadows in the distance, before they landed on me. "You're bad at it. Don't just admit your intentions. That ruins the whole point."

"So… you're coming?"

"No." He poked a finger at my head. "Stop bugging me or I have to assume you'd miss me, otherwise." He shivered dramatically.

I let out a short laugh and taunted back, "Maybe I would." The deadly glare, however, made me add some more, before the Master could decide to avoid me again. "You were curious about the dragon, too. And it's psychic. So maybe we'll need your skills."

"Don't care."

"And there are ghosts."

The Master sighed loudly.

"Master of ghosts. You'd be the first to call yourself that."

"I'm master of everything," he said proudly, with a little smirk.

"I think you're just scared of them."

"They aren't real!" he said in a voice one would use to teach an especially dull child.

I crossed my arms and grinned impishly. "I get it. Seen enough horror movies, too. I know how creepy they are. You don't have to be embarrassed."

"I'm not… you know what? I'll prove to you that they are bullshit. Whatever is lurking there I'll dissect it in front of your eyes and then you can shut up about it."

"So, you comin'?" I asked with the widest grin.

The Master glared at me, realisation sinking in. But now there was no way for him to keep his dignity and get out of the situation at the same time. His face fell.

And suddenly there was rage clouding his eyes, devouring his mind, and a moment later his hand was around my throat, shoving me backwards until my back hit the TARDIS.

"What on earth do you think you're doing?!" screamed Donna. "Let her go!"

I struggled against his grip, not really scared, but surprised by the suddenness; by the pain of his fingers pressing against my bones, the lack of air that made me want to cough. He wouldn't hurt me, or would he? It never became easier to tell and with every second I barely could breathe I lost my ability for logic. So I lashed out, not with my body, but with my mind, pushed it against his and suddenly felt how I tumbled inside without a warning. We fell, without anything to hold us and with the sheer force of instinct. And somewhere in all this chaos I slammed against a kind of wall and let out a tiny scream as a roaring noise filled my head, so loud, so all encompassing and suppressing that my head would burst any second. And I knew those were the drums he was hearing for all of his life. I knew it and still was unable to understand, because the constant rhythm left no room for thoughts, left no room for fear, left me with nothing but instinctive rage and the urge to fight them back, to push them away, to drown them out, to do anything, anything, anything, just so it would go away.

The Master gasped and flinched away from me as if he had been zapped. Without his hand on my throat I sank to my knees, panting and holding my throbbing head, almost crying in relief as the pounding of the drums lessened and finally, finally faded away and left me completely after what had felt like an eternity.

Donna was still alternating between pleading and shouting and banging against the doors. The whole ordeal couldn't have lasted for more than a few seconds.

"It's alright," I managed to rasp out.

Donna stopped and I heard her say, "It's absolutely not alright. He hurt you! That bastard needs to be locked away right here and now!"

"It's okay, Donna," I repeated, this time more determined while I heaved myself back to my feet again, one hand on the TARDIS to steady myself. "But I won't stop you from slapping him, if's what you want."

I wasn't looking at her, though. My gaze was glued to the Master, who was barely a step away from me and wore a look of utter shock and confusion. He blinked and swallowed visibly, letting the hand sink that had still hung halfway in the air.

"Damn, forgot you can do that," he muttered and furrowed his brows in anger. His voice, however, was controlled and showed nothing of the hot steering rage from before. "Don't ever try to play me again. Can't stand that."

I snorted, mirroring his look. "And I can't stand being choked."

We glared at each other and didn't even stop when the door creaked open. "What's going on here?" asked the Doctor. "Did anyone attack? Was there a dragon? Did…?" He fell silent.

"That lunatic tried to kill Lucy!" snapped Donna. "I told you he's gonna do it, one day. That idiot is completely out of control!"

No. No, he wasn't. If the intensity of what I had just heard was anything to go by then he was the absolute definition of control. And I had not the slightest clue how he managed to stay so calm most of the time when this beating monstrosity was thrashing and roaring inside of his mind for every second of his life.

"It's okay," I repeated quietly. "I was being kind of a jerk and he didn't actually hurt me."

More than one disbelieving look landed on me, accompanied by silence that seemed far too loud after what had been pounding in my head for only mere seconds.

Finally I managed to tear my eyes away from the Master and looked at the Doctor and what he had managed to gather from inside the TARDIS. Donna still glared angry daggers at him, though, and I lightly touched her arm to make her stop and nodded at the stuff on the ground. The Doctor cast a last, thoughtful look at the other man, then joined us and explained with a grin what he had collected.

There were some travelling backpacks with handy strips and buckles to make the weight less prominent. There was packed food, light military rations and bottles of water. A few rolls that might be sleeping bags or ground pads. Rope, a knife, a pack of bandages and some other things I couldn't recognise. The Doctor stuffed everything into the only backpack he had apparently found and one shoulder bag that could fit at least some basic supplies.

Donna took the small one, whilst the Doctor got the backpack.

"We'll totally die with such little materials and gear," grumbled the Master, arms folded and one foot tapping on the ground.

"We?" asked the Doctor. "I thought you didn't want to come."

The other one snorted. "Yeah and leave you idiots to die and be stranded here for the rest of my lifes? Your bloody ship won't let me fly and I have no intention to get friendly with the local folks."

My eyes widened and I could hardly keep a wide grin from my face. I poked a fist in the air and quietly called out a small - "Yessss!" - then peeked at the Master with a cheeky smile.

"You have a serious problem, you know that?" he said, half bewildered, half annoyed.

"I'm well aware," I retorted.

The Master huffed and shook his head, but I was sure there had been a small smile on his face.

-----------------oOo.oOo.oOo-----------------​

We walked back to town to meet with the other group. The situation from before had us stay silent for the most part and the Master stayed in the back anyway, clearly unwilling to participate in anything.

The group we joined consisted of four people, one of them the man who had recruited us. Another, younger, man was with them, probably in his mid twenties (in case they aged similarly to humans), with light stubble on his face and tousled blonde hair. Then there were two women, one as young looking as the other bloke, the older one probably the same age as our recruiter. They both had curly brown hair, although the younger one wore them in an undercut and combed to one site.

What they all had in common were their outfits. They reminded me a lot of what people wore in post apocalyptic settings. Patched up linen and leather, brown colours and dust coats. The only thing missing were gas masks. But this wasn't the Fallout games, so of course they didn't have some. (And I had trouble keeping myself from smiling stupidly because of the resemblance to this favourite game of mine.)

"Those are Meyla and Ulkta," introduced the older man, pointing first at the girl, then at the woman. He then nodded to the boy. "This is Bor."

They all smiled and wriggled their hands or fingers in a greeting. The Doctor then introduced our own group, ignoring the questioning looks the others gave at hearing the Time Lords' names. He also said no word about where we actually came from, nor that we were different species.

"We found one spare coat, a few rations and some tools. Here." Darwil showed us some hooks, a small hammer, a shovel and a few other things that might come in handy. "The coat's a bit small, though. Lucy might be the best fit. It belonged to my son once, but… anyway."

I took the coat and eyed it with a barely contained grin. It was dark brown in colour and had multiple buckles at the front, an endless amount of pockets and it also seemed to be good protection from the weather. And yes, it actually fitted my size.

"Now you look like some scavenger from Tarellion," mocked the Master. "Only a few sizes too small and a few muscles too weak. And probably a few braincells too dumb."

"Why, thanks. And you look boring. As always." It wasn't the most elaborate retort, but the best I could come up with. Especially since I didn't want to trigger another fight.

We divided the rations and tools among us and then studied the maps the group had brought, showing all the paths they had already taken and the routes they knew lead to nowhere. One line was marked in bright green and Bor explained that a flying gadget of his had managed to shoot a single picture, before the camera had broken down. Said picture showed nothing but vague shapes that told me nothing, but they all seemed to be excited and even the Doctor nodded appreciatively.

I receded a little, not having a clue about maps, and my bad sense of orientation didn't help either. Instead I grabbed one of the smaller backpacks and emptied its content on the ground, then carefully collected what seemed to be useful and placed it back inside, mindful of weight distribution and the space things took up. Not that I had done this often, but the few times I had been on a hike with a loaded backpack had taught me how important it was to only take what was necessary and to have everything packed in a way that didn't leave you with a broken back after a few hours.

I felt a stare in my neck and looked behind me, seeing the Master watching me intently. After some seconds he walked over, dropped to his knees and wordlessly emptied my backpack again.

"Oi, it was ready to go," I protested.

"You won't need those pots. The Doctor already has the cooking gear on his. And you should take the other sleeping bag. It's lighter." He grabbed a small, brown bundle and attached it to a loop. "Also, can't be bad to have some first aid with you. Just in case. And rope. Rope is one of the most useful things you'll ever have on you."

I nodded, listening to everything he explained, obviously having lots of experience with these things. And, strangely enough, he was good at explaining, too. Way better than with explaining the psychic things. But maybe that was because packing and survival was a lot easier in general. To my surprise he also packed a bag for himself, even though I had awaited him to leave it to the others to carry everything around.

"I'm trusting the Doctor to get out of whatever lies ahead. But not those others. And if I have to come along, I want to be prepared as well as I can."

 

[TardisGhost]

Part XIV (IV)​

"So… you're not mad at me for what happened before?" I carefully asked.

We had hiked through the mountains for the better of three or maybe four hours and the way had been steep and also contained a few passages we had to lightly climb over. Nothing so bad we would have needed ropes, but still difficult enough to stay silent and concentrated. Now we were on a smoother path through a patch of forest, the sun already about to set.

The Master was staring into the air, seemingly lost in his own thoughts. It took him a few moments to look down and towards me, and another few moments until he seemed to even remember what I was referring to.

"I'm evil, not dumb," he grumbled. "There's a difference, although you might not be aware of it."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm a stupid ape, I get it," I drawled, sighing.

Some metres ahead the Doctor was chatting with one of the women, excitedly gesturing with his arms and showing no signs of exhaustion. He helped them navigate with his Sonic Screwdriver that had picked up a promising trace a few hours ago. Donna was a few steps behind, keeping up surprisingly good, considering that she didn't seem to type for long hikes. The other two men were also having a quiet conversation, Bor holding the map and pointing at it sometimes.

"I heard them again," I muttered, not daring to look at the Master.

At first there was no reply and I already thought he would dismiss it, as always. "I know," he eventually replied, almost speaking as quietly as I had. "It reverberated loud enough. Must have been… unpleasant."

Now I did look, surprised and also relieved. "So, they aren't that loud all the time."

"Ha! Noooo! I'd properly go insane." He laughed and then sent a grin my way. "Loud enough, still. Sometimes it gets close." He shook his head and then lightly bumped his fist against my shoulder. "But this time I can be certain you heard them. That's good news. It means you might actually have a chance."

I smiled at my feet. At least there was something I could do. And he didn't hate me, not more than usual, anyway.

"We're almost there," called Darwil and we all gathered around him. He pointed at the map, then at a steep mountain ridge in front of us. "Just over there, if that device of yours is right. The location matches with a valley, although… Well, we'll have to see. We predicted the city to be in a slightly different direction."

"Over there?" asked Donna, glaring at the ascent. "Who'd hide a city behind that? It's insane to even consider climbing up there."

"Och, it's not that bad," said the Doctor. "We have ropes and hooks and everything. You'll be alright."

"Alright? Listen up, spaceman, I've never climbed anything! Up to Gramps' hill, yeah, but not…" She gestured to the ridge.

"You'll manage." The Doctor nudged her playfully and grinned. "I'll help and the others will have an eye on you too."

"Yeah, doesn't look that bad," I agreed. "Do we even need hooks? There's enough juts and nooks. I've climbed worse without gear."

The Doctor looked at me, surprised, as did the Master.

"What?" I laughed. "I've been hiking quite a lot in the past. Nothing too bad, but a few of the trails were a lot worse than what we did today."

"So, you're going first and tell us if the way is safe?" teased the Master.

I grimaced, but shrugged. "Sure."

"Not so fast," laughed Meyla. "I'm the best climber of us. I'll lead."

"Yeah," agreed Bor, "she always gets us everywhere, don't you?" He winked at her and she turned her head away, blushing slightly.

So, Meyla ended up leading our group up the ridge, although it really wasn't that bad. It made me remember a few hikes with a former friend, where we had ended up climbing quite a lot without having expected it. And with me being completely unprepared and clumsy and having no proper shoes. Somehow I had still managed and had been as proud of myself as seldom before. It was nice, being focused on what to do with your limbs, moving forwards slowly and deliberately. Something like that frees your head in a way nothing else is able to.

For a while I lost myself in the climb. The dim light didn't help much, but I had a good perception of where I could stand and where I could grab the stones. The ridge was maybe twenty or thirty metres high and it took quite a bit of focus to keep safe. Meyla threw down some secured ropes as soon as she reached the top. We joined her, one by one, Donna being the last and obviously exhausted by the procedure and also shaking slightly.

"Have never been great with heights," she admitted quietly to me. "Couldn't even stand on my uncle's balkony for long and that was only the third floor. 'N now look at me…"

I grinned at her and she returned the expression. She must have felt as proud as I had back then.

There was another, smaller segment to climb, just steep enough to walk bent, but not so much that we had to actually climb again. The sun had set completely now, leaving us with only a diffuse light on the horizon as we looked down an enormous valley. At first I couldn't make out much, because everything was hidden behind a thin fog and the sparse light. But as my eyes got used to the dark, I could clearly make out shapes that were too straight to be natural.

"There it is," breathed Darwil, awe in his voice. "The lost city of Jir."

The Master stepped next to him, squinting into the distance. "Definitely an artificial structure. Damn, that's a huge place. You didn't lie when you called it a city."

"You can make it out?" asked Ulkta.

"Enough of it to tell that we found what we came here for," answered the Doctor, instead. "But maybe we should make camp here for the night. Don't wanna go down there while it's all dark."

"Why?" mocked the Master. "Afraid of the ghosts?"

"Naaah. Just not eager to fall flat on my face cause I don't see anything."

"Wouldn't mind," drawled the Master. "I'd watch and laugh at you."

"Then I'd give you a kick in the butt and make you fall right along," came a jibe from Donna. "That would certainly make me laugh."

"We'll stay for the night," decided Darwil, voice louder than it needed to be to distract the bickering group. "It's better if everyone is rested when we get down. Who knows what will lurk there, after all." He glanced down at the vague structure in the distance, his words sending a chill down my spine.

If only I could see what lay there, but the darkness and the fog swallowed almost everything. Even after my eyes adjusted, there simply wasn't enough light to identify much. In front of us could lie nothing but a collection of strangely shaped hills. But the Time Lords had made out more and by now I trusted their heightened perception enough to assume that there really was a city.

We set up our sleeping bags and Darwil made a fire. It was small, but would still be obvious from the distance, however, definitely preferable to the darkness that had settled around us. We ate some rations that tasted like some indefinable whatever and Donna told about a school trip from her childhood, where they had similar rations and everyone had hated them.

The others also started to tell a few snippets and I learned that their civilization truly was built on top of ruins, their technology consisting only of what they found in rubble piles and with no one around, who understood enough anymore to rebuild them. What the devices they found were for was found out by testing and experimenting. The Doctor showed them a few extras on one of their navigation devices and especially the women were eager to soak up every piece of knowledge they could gather.

I mainly listened, not in the mood to do much else. The hike had tired me quite a bit since I wasn't used to it anymore. And the Master had wandered off, using his laser screwdriver as a light.

Eventually, I crawled into my sleeping bag and glared up at the stars for another while, drifting into sleep with the cosy noises of fire and chatting around me.

What I didn't expect was to dream.

Vague shadows were sneaking over the mountains, slowly creeping up on us to watch the group sleeping, their form constantly shifting and shaping themselves anew. They stood there, watching, waiting, glaring into the sparse light of the dimming flame and dying slowly with its light.

What remained was darkness and darkness alone.

I shot up, heart thudding wildly in my chest. It was almost impossible to make out anything in the night, but a ray of morning light already peeked over the mountain tops, calming my nerves for only seconds. The sound of rumbling pebbles made me jump.

But it was only the Master, casually climbing up to us from who knows where. He probably hadn't slept much, if at all. The Doctor was also sitting around, reading on a device that looked like an ordinary e-reader to me.

My eyes wandered over the scenery that was slowly fading to vision in the emerging sunlight. A light fog was still obscuring most of the view, but it wasn't nearly as thick as yesterday. And my eyes widened in wonderment at what was revealed in the far distance.

The valley was no valley, but a deep crater, dug into the mountains by some ancient meteor. The impact had toppled smaller peaks and crashed through stone and wood, burning its surroundings with a heat that I couldn't even imagine. The remaining mountains were charred black and half molten, pooling at the ground to weird formations.

And as if that wasn't enough of a sight, the ancient people had used this crater to place an enormous city inside of it. Buildings high as skyscrapers filled the pit, thousands of them in different shapes and sizes, often connected by thin bridges high up in the air. Many buildings had fallen victim to time, had crumbled or fallen over, crashing everything beneath them.

And in the middle of it all, massive and forebodingly dark, sat the meteor. Its colour wasn't to make out in the fog, but the city's lost inhabitants had surrounded the colossus with countless thin, round arches, all bending in different directions. Rings within rings within rings, once maybe even spinning, now standing still forever.

"Fascinating, isn't it?" mumbled the Master and dropped to his haunches next to me.

I closed my open hanging mouth and nodded. "That's definitely the top one of all abandoned places I've visited. Will visit. We're really going down there…"

"I start to reconsider my regret coming here."

I looked at the Master. A small smile was playing on his lips, eyes firmly glued to the crater. "What do you think you'll find there? A way to break the TARDIS' seal? Something to rule the universe?" I playfully nudged him.

Instead of answering, however, he kept glaring at the city, the smile fading into a thoughtful look. Something sad was suddenly in his features, or maybe he radiated it slightly; I could never quite tell.

Since he wasn't going to answer, I crawled out of the sleeping bag, rolled it up and reattached it to the backpack. The others were also getting up one by one, getting aware of the sight before them. Excited chatting filled the cold morning air with life. Ulkta reignited the fire and rolled up some dough that she stabbed with sticks to bake them. Meyla and Bor were sitting together, him holding the map while she pointed at it sometimes, both giggling and shooting glances here and there.

"Blimey," I heard Donna as she joined me by the fire, plugging some of the stick bread out of the ground to taste it. "Last time I had to wee outside was at least twenty years ago. Just glad I have enough tissues with me."

I giggled and also tried one of the breads. They didn't taste like much, but filled the stomach quite well. "I can't wrap my head around this place," I said. "It's so huge!"

"I'd say, it's roughly the size of London," added the Doctor. He picked up a pebble and scanned it with his Sonic. "The impact scattered quite some minerals around. Still in the ground everywhere. Bet they built the first houses to mine the meteor. Rest came later."

"We never heard of a meteor," told Darwil. "The crater also was only a theory. We thought it was just a normal valley. But this…" He weaved a hand through his hair, his voice dropping to almost a whisper. "This is Jir. It has to be."

While they were talking I plugged my camera from the backpack and walked around our camp to get the best angles at the scenery. The Doctor had promised them the pictures afterwards and I would have used the opportunity anyway. You don't get to see something like that very often. Not even while travelling all of time and space. It was hard, however, to capture the sheer size of the crater, the conversion from three to only two dimensions ruining the effect. I scowled at the preview, but it was the best I could do, especially since I was by far no expert.

"Photos," mumbled the Master, glancing over my shoulder. "Always felt like cheating to me."

And without further explanation he strode away, joining the others as they started to pack up. The hike down would probably take a good part of the morning, if not longer and everyone was more than eager to finally enter the place they only knew from legends. For us it didn't have the same meaning, but their excitement was rather contagious. The day was bright, the mood high and the goal promising.

Only the memory of my strange dream cast a small shadow over it.