The Master's Game (Doctor Who)

One of many

There had been an error in the calculation. Roka knew it immediately when she materialized back on earth and saw that the sun hung in the sky again. The clock on the Vortex Manipulator told her it was the next day, so at least she wasn't too far off. This second jump had been not less straining on her body though, and for a few minutes she leaned against the wall of a house to get her rebelling - and luckily empty - stomach under control.

"I ran out. Everyone was changing!"

Roka looked up, recognizing Donna's familiar voice.

"Gramps, can you hear me? Are you there?" Her voice sounded troubled, slightly panicking. "Can you hear me?"

Moments later she ran around the corner, almost bumping into Roka on her way. In her hand she held a phone to her ear. "What do I do?" she whimpered and skittered to a halt.

Roka was already about to come over to her, when suddenly another figure appeared in front of them both.

The Master!

But, he wore strange clothes, that didn't even seem to fit him.

"What the..." she let out surprised and blinked confused.

There were two of him! No, three! Why were there three Masters?

"There's more of them," Donna mumbled. "They are everywhere!"

"Oh, I'm starving," one of the Masters said with a way to happy smile. "I'm still hungry," added another one with the same expression.

Perplex Roka moved closer towards Donna when she saw even more clones appearing from all around. "Don't harm her!" she called out to them, but they didn't react.

"It's not just them," spoke Donna into the phone. "I see those things again. Those creatures! Why can I see a giant wasp?!"

Oh no, this wasn't good! She wasn't allowed to remember! Roka tried frantically to come up with some idea to get her out of the situation, for now ignoring the fact that those Master copies didn't seem to see her.

"It hurts," Donna cried. "My head. It's getting hotter, and hotter, and hotter..." she repeated over and over again.

Roka reached out to grab Donna's hand and get her out of there, but she couldn't even do a step when Donna's head suddenly started to glow golden, before a shockwave knocked her off her feet and let the world faint into blackness.

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The Master stood there, upright and still feeling incredibly small in his oversized, tattered clothes. He had taken over the whole planet of Earth and still it felt as if he had gained nothing, when he looked into the eyes of his oldest enemy.

His oldest friend.

The glint in them only growing as the Master approached to loosen the straps around the Doctor's mouth.

"Ah, that's better, hello," the Doctor greeted as if nothing had happened. "But really. Do you think I'd leave my best friend without a defence mechanism?"

The Master only answered with a pouting smile that could barely hide how it actually amused him that his favourite opponent did indeed have something to wield against him. Everything else would have been a bit boring anyway.

"Doctor! What happened?" came Wilfred's worried voice.

"It's alright, she's fine. Promise." he assured. "She'll just sleep."

A bit impatiently the Master moved between the two men, cutting their line of sight to each other.

"Tell me." He smiled. "Where's your TARDIS?"