The Master's Game (Doctor Who)

Keep running

With a way too loud creak the big heavy, wooden door opened and Roka stuck her head inside the dark room behind, before strolling inside. A wide smile spread on her face when she found the Master there, sitting against a stone wall, hands chained together and a look on his face as if he could burn down the whole universe right now.

"You know..." she roguishly grinned down at his angry face. "When you look so scary I kinda want to just leave you here."

"You wouldn't! You can't pilot the TARDIS!" he hissed, tearing at the chains.

Roka got out a bunch of keys and kneeled down next to him, while she tried to find the right one. "And I would totally miss getting insulted every few hours."

The chains sprang open and the Master was up his feet faster than Roka could react. Not even a second later she found herself pinned against the wall, his arm pressing against her throat.

"I could do a lot worse than just insult you, you know... might even do that when you let me wait for so long ever gain."

Roka grinned at him and poked out her tongue. "And who gets you out, when you get yourself caught next time?"

With a growl he let go of her and they sneaked out of the cell, past the unconscious guards in front of it. Roka had put sleeping powder into their water. Outside they climbed over the wall of the fortress. But before the Master followed, he turned around and shot his laser at a stash of barrels full of black powder. The explosion ripped out a good portion of the prison and with a gulp Roka looked away. Most of the time she could somehow prevent him from doing things like that, but it was almost impossible when he was angry. And getting caught by a bunch of medieval half-lizards had made him furious.

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But all anger and all travels and all trouble couldn't completely swipe away one thought from Roka's mind.

The Doctor.

Her thoughts wandered aimlessly around the question what would happen to him as soon as her timeline would vanish. Had she ever done anything that had influenced him in a way that had lead him to get captured by the Master? Or would this have happened anyway?

And even if everything would be exactly the same, the thought of him being still imprisoned while she had fun with his enemy... it hurt. Of course, they were in a time machine and when they would come back not even a minute would have passed for him. But that somehow only made it slightly better.

"Can't you... just let him go?" she asked the Master as they were eating sushi on an asteroid so small they could let their feet dangle.

"And then what?" He threw one of the rolls out into space and seemed to know exactly what she was talking about. "Being stranded on your planet again? For the rest of my regenerations? No way."

"I'm sure he would let you... come along," Roka objected carefully.

He laughed out loud, throwing his head back.

"Yeah, he probably would. But as what? As prisoner, bound to his will? Or..." He threw a look at her. "As one of his pets, like you?"

"How about... as friend?" She glanced back.

"He's too scared of me for that." He shook his head. "Justifiably. But I bet you don't believe that, right? He is the 'good' one after all."

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Next time Roka stepped out of the TARDIS she was startled for a moment. It felt so surreal that, for a few seconds, she forgot to breath. Everything was exactly as they had left it, the crates with the scavenged devices still sitting on the floor, a still halfway filled cup of coffee next to one of them. It felt like all of this belonged to a completely different life. Only a few minutes could have passed since then and somewhere they would also be outside right now, and an earlier version of herself would reveal the location of the same blue box that now filled a part of the office.