The Master's Game (Doctor Who)

Epilogue

A/N: I highly recommend listening to this while reading:

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Night spread over the land like a cool velvet cloak, the darkness only infused by faint sounds of a crackling bonfire and waves, calmly caressing the sands beneath them. A nearby forest embraced the bay, but without even the slightest breeze its branches and leaves made no noise, giving the scene the appearance of a painting, cut out of reality and frozen in time.

Somewhere, not too far away, the silence got broken by the wheezing and woofing of engines. Moments later a stone formation appeared, faded into the landscape and placed itself there as if it had been part of it since the beginning of time. On its front a door opened, letting out some faint green glow and a man, clad in a long black travelling coat. For a while he simply stood there, breathing in the calmness and cool nightly air with closed lids, before he let his gaze wandered over the place, until it finally fell upon the small bonfire, that gleamed a bit away.

With a slow pace the man stepped towards it, his blond head heavy, the hazel brown eyes tired from all those years of fruitless wandering and aimless searching. Then he stood still, watched the figure that sat there in front of the dying fire, arms lazily clutching her knees, and obviously sleeping soundly.

The traveller closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then muttered, "There you are."

Carefully he kneeled down next to the woman, watched her face that hadn't changed at all. And although he hadn't made a single noise, her bright green eyes opened, just a tiny little bit, blinked, wandered over the man, without actually being awake or conscious.

A small smile played on her lips, her voice quiet as if she were still sleeping, "You came for me at last, my Grim Reaper." And her eyes fluttered shut again.

The traveller stretched a hand out, but didn't touch her, as if he was afraid she could be just a dream. Finally he picked up a stick from the ground and drew some coordinates into the sand, before he rose to his feet and vanished back to where he had come from.

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Roka awoke from a cold shiver. The fire in front of her had long burned down and it was still cold at this time of the year on this planet. A vague image haunted her mind. That of a face she had hoped to have forgotten a long time ago. It must have been decades since it had last haunted her in a dream.

Shaking her head Roka brushed it off, as she had learned to do, but then she laid eyes on the sand next to her and froze. Something was written there. Numbers and symbols. The same ones her Vortex Manipulator used. Why would she write into the sand while sleeping?

Without another thought she typed them in and the device told her that they lead to a large asteroid near a black hole. Coincidence? A second thought came to her mind, but that wasn't possible. It simply wasn't. And even if... why would he leave those coordinates and not say anything?

No... no. Not again. She wouldn't let her own mind fool her this time. It had happened too often that she had thought to see a glimpse, a shadow that looked familiar, a voice that she thought she knew.

It wasn't possible.

And yet she didn't delete the coordinates from her device, nor from the sand.

It was still cold, no wind or other noises filled the air. Just the gentle waves.

With a last look around she opened her backpack and took out some hard and not at all tasty nutrition bars. Perfect for travelling and somehow she had even gotten used to the stale taste. Food was scarce on this planet, so she hadn't been able to hunt or fish for a month. After the sparse mea she then searched for the space suit she had stolen decades ago. It was only a thin layer and fitted neatly underneath normal clothes. Perfect for inspecting dangerous locations. There also was a slim collar that she now activated. It formed an almost invisible sealed bubble around her head, supplying her with oxygen for at least two hours. Good thing she had found this backpack, although she had always been left wondering if it had been made by Time Lords or another species that had discovered transdimensional engineering. One way or the other, it was bigger on the inside and didn't increase in weight much. Otherwise she wouldn't be able to drag those oxygen tanks around.