Typical. Just bloody typical.
The Rani curled up in her cover (meagre though it was), fuming. He had left her. She couldn't believe him. No... Wait... Yes she could. He only did things for himself, and just when she had been trying to think of a way out of there without having to use the fob watches, he had run off and left her there. The Dalek Emperor now had complete control of the Crucible and the air clogged up with smoke and chemicals choked her. The Rani began to wonder. Was she now the only Gallifreyan left alive here? That scared her. She wasn't one for sentimentality and she hated her own race, but the idea of being alone frightened her to death. She found herself angrier now. She wanted him back. At least then she may be comforted by the fact that he was still there and definitely alive. She didn't want to be alone. The Rani strengthened herself. There was only one way to escape this alive. She and the Master had set the Crucible for destruction if the daleks ever came here. She had only a few minutes. She would have to run (across open ground and directly in the line of fire) towards the TARDIS.
Making her decision within a second, and without much deliberating, the Rani threw herself out from under the rock she was hiding under and ran straight across the field. She had to move fast if she was at all going to survive this. Energy blasts clipped at her heels as she almost flew across the field. She could hear her heartbeats hammering inside her head. It wasn't far; she could make it...
Almost...
"EXTERMINATE!" The energy beam aimed at her didn't quite catch her full on (if it had she would have been dead beyond regeneration). It clipped her sides and although that wasn't enough to scramble all of her internal organs it set her hearts out of sync. The right one jumped violently and then stopped altogether. The left (trying to make up for the loss of its partner) began working double-time and nearly wore itself right out. The Rani stumbled and fell forwards into the mud without even the strength to lift her head. The metallic taste of her own blood mingled with mud and water in her mouth. Well, so much for that plan. She lay still trying to ignore the burning pain in her side.
Pain is only in the brain, she thought. I am feeling this pain because my cells are dying. It is a warning. But my brain is stimulating it. Ignore the pain, Ushas, ignore the pain.
That was easier said than done. The pain was burning into her sides and with only one heart working her body's functions were beginning to shut down. She watched her fingertips turn blue as the blood was directed to her vital organs. Her now single heart was working as hard as it could to keep her vitals running and to restart her other heart. The single pulse was making her feel distinctly lob-sided. The Rani's eyesight blurred and she closed her eyes. She was dying. She knew it. Her head hurt and her single heart was slowing down. If both stopped she would die. Who was coming to her rescue out here?
THUMP! The Rani was thrown deeper in the mud as something hit her hard on the back. She spat out mud, blood and water and tried to raise her head. Someone grabbed her shoulders and pulled her out of the mud. She felt a hand at her neck, checking her pulse and then feeling for heartbeats.
"Right," she managed to say a great deal of effort. A fist was brought down on the right hand side of her chest. The Rani grunted as her lungs were emptied and the fist came down again on her chest. The heart beat once and then stopped again. The fist came down harder again and the heart jumped back into life. The Rani felt the welcoming double-pulse again, but something was wrong. They were still out of sync. The left was beating about four times to every beat from the right. Her body was badly damaged she knew. Whoever had pulled her out of the mud picked her up and folded her over his shoulder like a doll. The Rani knew then who it was and really wanted to make a sarcastic comment, but it had deserted her. She was too weak. She felt hot and her body felt heavy. Something hot and painful was pulsing through her veins. Catching sight of her own fingertips, she saw that a fait orange glow had replaced the cold blue of bloodless skin. Her cells were beginning to regenerate. The Rani closed her eyes again, and tried to block out her pain, but everything began to slip away and eventually she herself slipped away into silence.
She woke up, leaning against the wall of the TARDIS. She felt weary and moaned, raising a hand to her head.
"Ah, you're awake, Rani."
Koschei. She tried to get back up but stumbled immediately. She didn't like this. Her body didn't feel right. Oh no! She'd passed out during her regeneration. She had been too badly injured to remain conscious. Now she was stuck with something random. She would have preferred to have chosen her body like before. Her brain felt like it was pressing against her skull. At least both hearts were working now. That was a plus. She tried to focus on something: her hand. It was thin, delicate. She wouldn't have chosen it. The fingers looked brittle. Then she got up again and stumbled. The legs were thin too. The body itself looked weak-boned and small. She was at least four inches shorter than she had been. All this irritated her. It was almost as if her own biology was mocking her. She managed to take a few steps across the room and then grabbed hold of the console to keep her upright. The Master watched her efforts, looking amused by how helpless she was. She was a stranger in her own body. She glared at him.
"So," she said in an unfamiliar voice. "You came back."
"I never left," he said. "Really, you don't think highly of me, do you?"
"No," she said, rubbing her forehead. The Master laughed.
"I was looking for our usual interesting arguments. Is that all I'm going to get? 'No'?"
"Yes," mumbled the Rani and rubbed her forehead and realising for the first time that she was now blonde. That wasn't a bad difference she supposed. The Rani groaned again and rubbed her head harder, as if that would make her headache go away.
"You'll get used to it," said the Master.
"I know. I have been through regeneration before," snapped the Rani back.
"Temper, temper."
"Sod off."
"Point proven."
"Just leave me be. I'm..."
"Confused? Ill? It's call post-regeneration sickness, Rani. We've all had it."
"Just leave me alone!" she yelled. "I need to get used to this."
"Something tells me you're not happy with your new body," the Master mused. The Rani gave him a look of poison.
"Really?" she asked sarcastically. "This body's too thin. I feel every time I move I'm going to break a limb or something."
"That's because it's new," said the Master. "Just walk about a bit." He took a couple of fob watches out of his pocket. The Rani looked at them and then at the Master.
"You're really set on that aren't you?"
"Well, they think we're dead; and if they find out we're not they'll try to kill us again. If we're going to get out of here I'd say now's the best chance." The Master looked back at her. She was ignoring him, too preoccupied in her own regeneration to be of any good company. Now she was flexing her fingers and wincing as she did it. She seemed to be trying to block out anything else going on around her. The Master sighed. This was no fun. He wrapped both his arms around her waist. Yes, she was right. She was thinner than she had been. The Rani gave a curt reply.
"Do not touch me or I will kill you." The Master laughed but didn't let go. He brought his lips right up to her ear.
"You never change," he whispered to her. "Regeneration after regeneration and you are still so cold."
"Cold?" she asked. "That's the way I am."
"Mm," he said, running his lips down to her neck. He felt her whole body tense.
"Let go of me," she repeated, now sounding quiet dangerous.
"Why should I?" he asked, turning her around to face him, their faces barely an inch apart. "It'd do you good too." The Rani attempted to take a step backwards, but hit against the console with a muffled bang. Her upper thighs now felt sore and the residual energy remaining from her regeneration rushed to repair the split blood vessels. The ache of the bruises vanished almost as soon as she had noticed it. The Master brought both hands down on the console each on either side of the Rani. Suddenly she felt caged, and clenched her fists.
"Why?" she asked. "Pray explain, Lord and Master, why this is good for me?" The Master smiled.
"That body's new," he said. "Hardly used." He took hold of her thighs with a vice-like grip, and brought his face right up to hers, their lips almost touching. "It'd loosen you up a bit," he grinned, squeezing her leg slightly. The Rani snarled, pulled her own head back and brought an elbow quickly into his face.
The Master let go of her and stumbled backwards, hand to his mouth and then laughed. When he lowered his hand the Rani saw that there was blood dripping from his lips. He was still laughing.
"Women," he laughed. "You are so fickle. A few hours ago you couldn't have wanted me more; now you won't even let me touch you. What is it that makes you do that?" The Rani pulled herself away from the console and stared at him, watching him laugh.
Why are you laughing, you psychopathic creep?
"Excuse me?" she asked, more angry than anything else at the moment. The Master wiped a trickle of blood that was building up in the corner of his mouth away, leaving a red smear across the back of his hand and his lips. He gave her an almost hungry look when he replied.
"You didn't mind so much earlier," he smiled. The Rani kept her eyes glued on his.
"That was different," she said. "We were both breathing in emotion-enhancing gasses, and I thought I was going to die. Now I know I'm not dying. Just asking is not going to make me open up my legs to you. I'm not that desperate."
"Who saved you?" asked the Master, raising his eyebrows.
"Stop changing the subject!"
"I can change the subject all I want. There don't seem to be any rules to this conversation. Who saved you? Who was it who risked his own skin to pull you out of that battlefield and allowed you to even attempt regeneration? I did that. You owe me, Rani."
"I don't care how much I owe you. You're not getting me into bed just for that."
"So fickle."
"Stop it!"
"Oh, come on," said the Master, looking vaguely disappointed. "What possessed you to think that I would just let that go?" The Rani glared at him.
"You are twisted," she said flatly, and turned away from him. "And don't even think about it," she added.
"What?"
"You know what?"
"Anyway," the Rani continued in an attempt to steer the conversation away from these dangerous waters. She picked up a watch. "What do we do with these?"
"Follow the instructions."
"Don't make me lose patience." The Master sighed.
"OK, you win for now. I stole a chameleon circuit before I left Gallifrey. That'd work."
"You have no idea how much I don't like this idea."
"Then don't do it."
"The lesser of two evils," she said. "I'd prefer to be human than dead." The Master smiled.
"So I win," he said.
"No," she replied, turning back to him. "You know I'd never let you win." The Master gave her a look of mock-hurt.
"You'll hurt my feelings, Rani," he said. "But you forget. We both know that you have lost." The Rani laughed. It was an unfamiliar sound on her new vocal cords and she quickly stifled it behind her hand.
"How?" she asked. "How have I lost to you?"
"Because I know you," he said. "And you've been losing for centuries. I know your mind. I've seen your mind when you can't hide it behind your cold rationality, scientist. You're not as devoid of emotion as you like to think you are."
"What are you talking about?" she asked, almost at once wishing she hadn't. The Master grabbed her wrist and pulled her back to him.
"I know how you really think," he said. "There's no use hiding it. You can lie to your aliens, the High Council of Gallifrey, the Doctor, even yourself, but you can't lie to me. I know you too well for that, Ushas."
"So tell me what I think," she whispered malevolently to him. He smiled.
He's enjoying this.
"Here?" he asked, placing his free hand on her head. "Your science, your hatred of the Time Lords, your discontent for me, your dominion on Miasimia Goria: everything you show. Here?" He removed his hand from her head and laid his whole forearm across her chest so that he could feel the steady beats of both her hearts. "Now that's a lot more interesting. Here we have what you really think. You've managed to convince yourself that you hate me, and I'm not saying that that's not true, but did you ever wonder why? I know you disapprove of me, my actions, my plans, but you hate me because you don't want to admit you still like me. Am I right?" There was a very pregnant pause. The Rani bowed her head.
Tell him he's wrong, her head was saying, but now she wasn't sure. No, that's what he wants you to think. She looked up at him.
"You're wrong," she said simply, no trace of emotion in her voice. "I don't like you: at all." He grinned.
"I knew you'd say that," he smiled and picked up the remaining fob watch. "It's a pity though. I'll miss you." The Rani stood in silence, watching him. She looked at the watch.
"Where will you go?" she asked.
"Where no one will look for me," he responded. "The End of the Universe. No one would come looking for me there." He looked at her. "Are you coming with me?" She shook her head and smiled.
"A lifetime with you? I'd rather die. I'm taking the Twenty-First Century. So much happens there."
"Twentieth and Twenty-First Century?" asked the Master. "That's right under the Doctor's nose."
"So obvious nobody would consider it," she smiled. "I was once told I was a brilliant tactician." The Master gave her a sideways look.
"The Doctor told you that, didn't he?"
"How did you...?"
"It's the kind of thing he would say. I know him." The Rani was highly tempted to say "Like you know me?" but thought against it. She really didn't know what would be the best thing to say. The Master folded up the chain and pocketed the fob watch. Then he made to leave the room.
"Koschei." Why in Rassilon's name did you just do that? You should have just shut up. The Master turned to look back at her.
"Yes."
"Koschei, I..." Now what? "You..." Now she felt uncomfortable. "Just forget it." She turned away then felt his hands around her waist again.
"Just say 'yes'," she heard him say. She stayed quiet. She didn't dare say "yes" because she didn't know what she would be agreeing to. The Master turned her back round to face him. She wished he hadn't. Those hypnotic blue eyes were rather entrancing. She closed her own eyes to hide him from her. It would make it easier.
"What you said," she muttered. "I don't know what I think anymore. I wish I'd never been dragged into this War. I..." She felt his lips brush against hers and let herself fall into the kiss. How did he do that? How could he make her so weak? When their lips finally parted she heard him speak again.
"Say it. Just say 'yes'." She opened her eyes again and heard herself say the word before her brain had a chance to stop her.
"Yes."
That predatory smile was back.
"Perfect," he said, and pushed her backwards. Off-balance she fell backwards but broke her fall with her hands. Before she could get back up, the Master was down at her level, pressing his body down on hers, pinning her down, although this time she made no attempt to struggle.
"Don't think I'm just going to let you have your way," she said, grabbing at his hands.
"Just how I like it," he said, running his hands down her side. "But you know I'm still going to win, don't you?" The Rani grinned.
"Come and try," she laughed and he kissed her again.