Child of the void (Doctor Who)

Part II (III)

"The plucky young girl who helps me out?" Donna repeated the Master's words from moments ago, her tone clearly indicating that she didn't agree with the statement.

There had indeed been a murder. The professor lay on the carpet, blood on his head, obviously stemming from some blunt force. Nobody had a clue and everyone was babbling and screaming and hectic! The Master had to pinch his eyes shut for a long moment to rein back the drums and had then sent them all to the sitting room with a burst of authority no one had expected. He didn't even need to use hypnotism, they just blindly followed the only person who hadn't lost their head in this situation. Which was him, of course.

And, much to her credit, Donna. She watched the whole scene with shock, but stayed interestingly calm and focused. Which was pretty much the only reason he had decided to keep her by his side, rather than shooing her away like the rest.

"No policewomen in 1926," the Master answered late and with a shrug. It never helped to introduce things humans weren't familiar with yet in their time period. "Right now they are so primitive that they need to separate their own kind into every category they can think of."

Actually, now that he had spoken it out aloud, it made a little more sense that humans were so weird about who slept with whom. If you had a compulsion to separate then it was only logical. Especially since they also only ever had a single body and it wasn't that long in human history that they managed to rise above a level of survival that allowed them to put the priority for reproduction behind a little.

Which didn't mean that it was utterly stupid and unnecessary.

Donna snorted. "I'll pluck you in a minute. Why don't we phone the real police?"

"Cause I need distraction? Cause they are dumb as bricks?" He grinned at Donna, already expecting her eye-roll. "It's true. Both," he emphasised happily. "They'd just bury the whole case under paperwork and I'd miss out on all the fun."

"Which means you're going to play the detective? Actually solving the trouble 'nstead of causing it? That'd be new."

"Love me a good puzzle." The Master chuckled. "Also, I do like order. But to get it, you often have to tear down whatever is there and throw everything into chaos, so you can arrange it anew to something... mhm... spectacular." He ended with a dramatic wave of his hand.

It was a true miracle that her eyes hadn't fallen out of their sockets already from all the rolling. Donna stemmed her fist into her hips and assumed a scowl. "If you think you can kill those people one by one, you're in the wrong company, mate. Whatever you plan it better not involve making the situation worse, you hear me? I'll be out otherwise and I will get the Doctor to drag you back to the TARDIS like some disobedient dog. "

The Master burst out into a laugh. What a ridiculous human being! Although... "I would love to see him try putting another collar on me." He gave Donna a wink and knelt down next to the dead body.

But she wasn't shocked. If anything, maybe a little amused. "Again? Okay, okay, I don't want to know what you two've been up to the past years."

"Definitely not what you think." The Master huffed and inspected a small spot on the floor. Didn't he have some tweezers somewhere? Right, pants pocket. He got them out and scratched the spot. This was decidedly better than to think about his non-status with the Doctor right now.

"Maybe's about time you ask'im out then," Donna joked. She obviously couldn't stay away from the topic, even as unknowing as she was. "And whatcha doing on the floor anyway? Come on, let's get the police. I wanted some books, not a disaster."