The Master's Game (Doctor Who)

Lost

There was neither light or sound, nor any space around Roka. Nothing indicated how much time had passed, if any at all. It might have been a minute... or eternity, before a sudden jolt went through her essence, and once more the feeling of being slammed back into her body shook her awake from the weird space her mind had been in. Memories rushed back to her and she shot up, only to get dizzy immediately and slump down to the cold ground again. When she finally opened her eyes, Roka saw that she was still in front of the giant carcass.

But she was alone.

Silence pressed against her ears as if it were a living being, each and every movement of hers sending small noises reverberating through the spherical room. Here and there the dead leather above her - Inaudible on its own, but amplified through the space around - creaked, moaned, cried out into the void.

Where were the Doctor and the Master? And had she managed to cut the connection to him? Why were they gone?

She took a deep breath and decided to wait. They were probably getting the TARDIS down here.

But as time passed and neither the two Time Lords nor the blue box appeared, something dawned on Roka. The nightmares must have overwhelmed the Master as much as herself, so he probably had been either unconscious or at least not far from it when the Doctor had gotten back with the TARDIS.

And the Doctor...

She tapped the ear stud, although she already knew what it would show. Her visible time was up. He hadn't been able to remember her.

They were gone.

Slowly the weight of this thought sunk in, but then she shook her head violently. The Master still remembered and would tell the Doctor to return. Although... a nasty voice in her head told of another possibility. Something she had never thought about and had never had the chance to test. Did she have to be present for people to remember her, or was mentioning her enough? Because if not... the Doctor would think she was only another hallucination, something he would thought of as made up, like the drums, or something to trick him.

Time passed. Roka curled herself up to a ball on the ground and didn't even feel how cold it was. The entity didn't speak to her anymore, no matter how often she begged. It was useless. Only the creaking leather answered uselessly.

If mentioning her would be enough... they would have returned by now, right? The Doctor would jump to a moment where she hadn't been in here for hours... or days. But the longer she waited the more she felt time passing, though only because through growing hunger and thirst. But she couldn't leave. What if they returned?

Her stomach twisted, her throat was dry. Carefully she took a small sip from the water inside the pond, but spit it out immediately. It tasted bitter and not drinkable at all. She had to get back to the stream.

Roka slept. More out of exhaustion than tiredness, and the cold and her own body made it impossible to get rested well. She had to get out of here before all strength would have left her. There was a small stone... she took it up and scratched a few words into the ground.