Chapter 1
"Next stop, Tokyo!" shouted the Doctor as he pulled down several levers on the TARDIS console.
"Woohoo!" yelled Sean Matherson, giddy with the expectation of another adventure. Far beyond the days when he timidly clung to the railings while the TARDIS moved, he now held on and shouted with delight as the room rocked and jolted.
Finally, after several minutes of flight, the TARDIS landed. The Doctor ran down the walkway, throwing open the door to look at the outside world.
"Welcome! To- Oh." He quickly stopped and spun around, shutting the doors and putting his back to them, his face pale. "That- is absolutely, most definitely, not Tokyo."
"What? Oh, not again…" Sean said, recalling his first adventure with the Doctor, where what was supposed to be a trip to his apartment turned into the exploration and accidental destruction of a Silurian base on Galamar 3.
The Doctor peeked out of the TARDIS again. What he saw was an intersection of steel-lined underground tunnels that looked distinctly Silurian in origin. He quickly returned to the TARDIS and shut the doors, keeping his back to Sean.
"What- Is it? What's out there?" asked Sean.
The Doctor turned around and walked back up the ramp, his face much more serious than it often was. "You- are staying here." He ordered, pointing at Sean.
"But… What is it? Can't you at least tell me?" responded Sean, annoyed. There were few times when he had seen the Doctor act like this. He had never forced Sean to stay behind before. Any other time he had welcomed Sean to come along with him. Many of their impromptu arrivals had led to the greatest adventures that Sean had experienced while traveling with the Doctor.
"It's… Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I am going to investigate- nothing. Just nothing. I'll just do it- alone." He said, trying to reassure himself just as much as he was trying to keep the reality from Sean. He was afraid because he knew, deep down, that whatever was out there really was the one thing that he most dreaded. But, it couldn't be. That was gone. Fixed. Twice! It couldn't come back. The Universe wasn't that mad, was it?
"No, it's not 'nothing'. It's never 'nothing' with you. Since you won't tell me, then I have to assume that it's something really bad. Something that you know will only bring with it great danger. Danger apparently so great that you can't even be bothered to tell me what it is!" Sean said, returning the Doctor's stern gaze and proving once again that he was much more than some little tag-along that the Doctor had "picked up" one day in the library.
"Alright!" the Doctor shouted. "I don't know what it is! And I absolutely hate not knowing things! Because, well… the one thing that my every instinct is telling me is there is… is impossible!" Never had he been at such a loss for words. He actually wanted to just not know what was. Because not knowing was in the case quite a bit better than the likely truth.
"Fine!" Sean shouted back. "You just- Go out there and be your stubborn old self! I'll just be right here when you manage to get it through your stupid thick skull that you don't have to do everything alone!"
The Doctor stood on the ramp looking back at Sean. "I'm sorry," he said finally. "But this is how it has to be. Just this once." He turned and walked to the door, taking out his screwdriver in anticipation of whatever it was that was out there.
The Doctor cautiously stepped out of the TARDIS. In a flash, he jumped towards the wall of the tunnel as the center of the floor below him lit up and began to hum and move.
"Weight-sensitive magnetic transport path. Thanks, but I think I'll stick to exploring on my own rather than being shuttled around to who-knows-where with my feet stuck to the floor." He continued to inch down the tunnel, his screwdriver held protectively in front of him in his hand. There was another humming noise now, and it was growing louder as he went on through the tunnel. He could see a light up ahead coming from around a bend in the tunnel. Carefully he crept to the corner of the hallway and peeked around the corner.
What he saw caused him to jump out into the middle of the tunnel, pointing his screwdriver at the all-too-familiar man standing at a large, distinctly Silurian-looking control panel in the middle of the room. The man standing at the console was the Master.