Soul's Shadow (Doctor Who - SI)

Part XVI (VI)

"That's not mood light, is it?"

Donna's question was obsolete. We all knew it. Those criss-crossing red lines that filled the whole corridor were clearly laser beams. And, after having watched too many movies in my life, there also was no doubt that they were deadly.

The Master glared at the beams with a wrinkled nose and pursed lips, seemingly wanting to obliterate the obstacle by willpower alone. In the end, he picked up a small, loose scrap of broken machinery from the ground and tossed it between the beams.

To absolutely no one's surprise, it got obliterated before it even touched the ground. The stench of melted plastic was all the incredible heat left over. That and a tiny pile of black ash.

"Well..." Donna stemmed her hands into her hips. She didn't look too happy.

Jenny said nothing. She had been rather quiet since a while; not sulking, just... quiet. Maybe she was in thoughts, maybe she contemplated her role in this world she had been tossed into. A world she didn't seem to know much more about than we did. For a brief moment I thought about talking to her, but I had no idea about what exactly. I seldom knew what to talk about with people. Only with Donna and the Time Lords didn't it feel like an effort. They didn't mind me being myself, talking about nonsense, sometimes, or about any random topic. But regular smalltalk? I just never got the hang of it. So I left the strange girl standing and decided to keep the Master some company while he tinkered with a nearby console.

"Can you hack it?"

"Mhm... Think so. I just wish I had my screwdriver, that would make everything so much easier." He grunted and tapped some symbols on the display.

"If anyone shows up I can shoot them." Jenny came to join us, showing off a rifle she had found earlier. The place had them lying around almost everywhere. "It's still loaded."

"Oi, no shooting no one," protested Donna.

The Master rolled his eyes. "Ineffective. There's too many to kill them all. But go ahead. It doesn't matter how many of you bunch die. You can always make more within seconds, can't you?"

Jenny pursed her lips and turned away, positioning herself at the corner to guard it. Somehow it was unfair how he treated her, but then again did he treat everyone with contempt. Usually.

"There's more of these." Donna walked along the walls, notepad in hands and observing the small metal plates while she moved away. "Always eight numbers, counting down the closer we get."

Soon, everyone was out of hearing distance so I stepped next to the Master, nudging him. "Two hours, huh?"

He threw me an annoyed glance, but then seemed to get that I referred to his estimation of how much time we would have in the prison cell. "Well, I wasn't wrong. Although it's a shame they got out earlier. I had plans."

"The sort you wanted to bore me with?"

He stopped tinkering and hooked a finger in my collar to drag me closer, grinning and leaning down to my ear. "I was actually going for round two. But now that needs to wait until you can shield your mind properly."

I coughed and grinned back, poking my tongue out. "That's not necessarily negating my question."

"I can still taste your hormones, little one, you can't tell me you were bored." Swiftly he dipped forward, stealing my opportunity to answer with a kiss.

I smirked against his lips and playfully pushed him away, but he only tugged firmer on my collar until there was an indignant squeak from nearby.

"Oh, I just knew it," gasped Donna. "Having a scratch." She air-quoted the sentence with her fingers. "You slept with him."