At first, when he watched the man in the tweed jacket and bow tie run past, dragging along some redhead, he'd thought nothing of it. He was lying low, regenerating had saved him after the time lord's return. But the nature of his injuries, and the fact that he'd been dying in the first place, had made it a much slower, much more painful process. He hadn't even been able to get a good look at himself since then. Save for the fact that his hair was black again. Which made him rather happy, he hadn't much liked being blonde.

In addition to that, the drumming was no longer there. At first he thought it was just an effect of not being completely healed yet, but it never came back. He knew now that it was because the link between himself and Gallifrey had been broken, both when he died, and when the white point star had been destroyed. Not that he could remember the exact events leading to his regeneration. Everything there was vague. Cloudy. He knew he'd hit the ground pretty hard but that was it.

Since then, he'd wandered, trying not to attract attention, he didn't need the precious Doctor on his tail again. Begging him to travel with him.

No, didn't he understand? He could never be content with just seeing the universe. He had to have it….

Although since the drums had stopped, the need for that had lessened somewhat. He almost felt….Calm.

Several years later, he saw the bow tie man again. And this time, he could smell him, and he had run so close by that he had heart the four note beat of the man's hearts. His own eyes went wide, surely not. This man dressed like a schoolteacher, and wearing ridiculous round glasses….He remembered something from a long time ago. Back at the academy. The Doctor telling him why he'd shown up one day with glasses.

"Theta, you don't need glasses." Koschei said "Why wear them?"

"They look cool, and they make me look smart." His friend replied, straightening said glasses a bit.

"You're already smart you idiot-"

"That's contradictory-"

"Oh shut up, you know what I meant."

Theta grinned, Koschei always got annoyed when a conversation didn't go the way he wanted. Or whenever Theta corrected something he'd said. Which, admittedly, was a rare occasion.

"We're gonna be late, we get to go to the museum today. See the old TARDIS models."

"Boring." Koschei muttered "I just want my own so I can get off this planet."

"Oh come on! It'll be fun-"

"Can we let class get ahead of us, and sneak into one?"

Theta rolled his eyes "They keep them locked you know."

"How should I know, your the one with the smart glasses."

Apparently, this bow tie man, who he was still refusing to refer to as the Doctor, at least until he knew for sure, had heard his own hearts, or perhaps smelled him. Or maybe he just stopped because he'd seen a man sitting on the ground against a lamp post.

"Hello." The bow tie man said brightly

He looked up at the overly smiley face and glanced over the features. If this was the Doctor, then he'd been killed by something…That was obvious. His hair was longer, and if possible, more ridiculous than the porcupine mess he'd had before. Rather large nose, prominent chin, sort of greyish-green eyes.

"Hello," He replied, not making any attempt to be friendly.

"I'm-" He knew what the bow tie man-…The Doctor had been about to say. So he stopped him.

"I know, so lets just skip your introduction, shall we?"

The Doctor's face fell. Like he was remembering something bad.

"You died. I thought you were gone for good this time."

"Sorry Doc-tah," He muttered, knowing that particular pronunciation was annoying to his oldest friend. "Can't get rid of me."

The Doctor frowned slightly "Oh no, I knew that, but really, it's a little unnerving every time. Like when you were almost a ca-"

"I told you never speak of that again, or I will slowly kill whatever poor soul you've chosen to drag along and ruin the life of this time." He said sharply, standing up. "Now, I've had enough of this chatter, where's your TARDIS, get me off this horrible excuse for a planet."

"Master-"

"That's my name, I don't have the patience to argue with you, get me out of here before I set off some sort of bomb around your precious human race."

The Master would never admit it. But being back inside a TARDIS was amazing. He'd spent so long on the awful rock he'd been going insane. Actually insane this time and not just a result of the drums. He didn't want to stay, just get somewhere where he could get a ship of his own, and find some planet to blow up. He knew well enough to stay away from earth until he had a better plan in place.