Summary:
They have met before. Only briefly, but the Master already seems to have fun.
"Oh", made Roka. "You look different."
The Master took a step back, observing her curiously and after a moment his eyebrows raised, accompanied by an amused smile. "Ah, I remember. You were there when I build the paradox machine." He chuckled at the memory. "Suddenly just standing there and watching me. Like a ghost."
She remembered too. That day when he had ran inside the TARDIS to regenerate into a handsome young man, rambling some nonsense and then running off. Since she had no idea how to control the TARDIS she has had no choice but to stay inconspicuous, only to get bored of it quickly and taking a look. Another Time Lord wasn't a thing she could have just ignored.
At first it seemed as if he hadn't noticed her, but after a while he had started to laugh, strolling to the seat she had placed herself in and observing her closely.
"A shame you ran away..." The Master interrupted the memory. "Thought you were quite interesting, sitting there as if it was nothing." He came close again, putting a hand under her chin to make her look up. "Not the slightest itch of fear in your eyes... again."
That day she had just smiled up to him, telling him that he would forget about her anyway, before leaving the room and a very perplex Master behind.
"Where did you hide? It was a whole year after all and I've never seen you again."
Roka shrugged. "Can't remember." He must have activated the machine shortly after and everything after that was lost to her.
She slightly winced when he put two fingers to her throat.
"Peculiar..." He made it sound like she was some sort of experiment. "Eyes can hide fear, but not your pulse. And yours is calm as a pond..." He chuckled to himself and grinned at Roka. "That's gonna be fun. I think I like you already."
"Please don't", she stated sarcastically and got back another amused grin.
"Shall we tell the good news to the Doctor? I bet he'll be delighted." The Master grabbed her arm and pushed her forwards. "Move. And remember... don't try anything funny."
It was a short way back and not enough time to make any useful plans. She would have to wait and observe, being careful and smart to find a gap somewhere in his net.
The cell was mostly empty. Just an ordinary table and a chair stood in there. As soon as the door opened the Doctor sprang up, rushing towards the Master, wearing a grim face.
"Lucky you, Doctor. Look what I just found." With that he pushed Roka into the room. The Doctor recognized her a few seconds later. It was always the same look people had when they realized her presence. A look of surprise and remembrance.
"Oh no... no, no... don't tell me you followed me."
Roka looked away. "I thought I wouldn't get noticed."
Suddenly she felt the Master crossing his arms on top of her head, again ignoring her personal space. He seemed to have fun with that. She could feel his heartbeat at her back, calm and slow. A weird feeling since he had two of those.
"Don't dare to harm her!" The Doctor stood up and rushed towards them. "You have me, don't..."
"Her?" The Masters voice sounded surprised. "I thought you were a little boy. Why are you running around like that?"
Roka looked up as good as she could and smirked at his surprised expression. "To let people like you think I'm harmless."
He laughed. "Do you hear that, Doctor? Not an ounce of fear in that voice. And that although I could just poke a hole through her chest. Right now... right in front of you. Just to upset you."
From the Doctor's stories she knew that he wasn't just spilling out empty words. If she wasn't careful, he would make his threat reality. But then she remembered the glint in his eyes when she had suggested the deal.
"Would be quite the short game if you did." She said. "And boring."
The arms moved from hear head to her shoulder, spinning her around and pressing her against the next wall. "But I can hurt you... Very slowly and very... very carefully..." He paused, raising an eyebrow. "Still not scared? Interesting."
"My pain threshold is higher than usual." Her gaze got mean. Why had she said that? Her own mind was screaming at her, but for some reason she couldn't resist to provoke him. "Try me."
The glint in his eyes was back, mixed with amusement this time. He let go of her and turned around to the Doctor, who looked as if he was about to throw himself at the Master at every moment. Probably only not doing it to not put Roka into any more danger than she was in anyway.
"Listen to that. She's begging for it!" A mean laugh followed his words. "Doctor, I didn't know you were able to pick up interesting companions." And he explained the game to him with a happy smile as he saw the Doctors eyes widen in fear.
"No! Don't do that! Roka, don't..."
"Oh, let the girl have some fun. It was her idea after all."
Roka sat below one of the big windows, watching the rain outside, sitting in a way that made her hardly visible to the Master. In the end she just had to wait and he would forget about her, like people always did. All that was needed was a bit of patience. Time enough to think about a proper plan. First she had to find out where he stored the keys to the Doctor's cell. The rest would be easy.
Carefully she looked at her enemy, sitting at his desk, looking like he was just doing some kind of casual office work, probably plotting something. Then she looked back outside and sighed.
Being in danger was only thrilling for so long.
Now she had gotten bored and looking around she wished she could snatch some of the parts around her to build something. One of her favorite things to pass time. All those years in the TARDIS had given her enough time to refine her skills and help the Doctor with all kinds of repairs.
Again she sighed. She shouldn't make herself noticeable again, but...
"Hey..." she said carefully, waiting for the Master to look up. "Care if I use some of that stuff?" She nodded towards the components.
He tilted his head, observing her for a moment, before answering, "What for? There's no weapon hidden in that junk."
"I'm... just bored."
She shrugged and saw him raising an eyebrow. For a few moments the Master just stared at her, cold and mildly curious. "Repairing the TRADIS, eh? I don't believe you. But there, go ahead, impress me." He chuckled to himself and attended to his work again.
Roka sprang up, eager to take a look at all the stuff around her. There were some really interesting gadgets and broken parts. Some were completely alien to her, others seemed at least vaguely familiar. She had seen some of the things on various planets, others in the TARDIS. Lot of the stuff was broken or taken apart. An idea sprang to her mind when she saw a still functioning quantum stabilizer.
"Done!" Widely and satisfied grinning she observed the result. The chip had gotten really small and the magnetism wouldn't destroy it's functionality like the first time she had made something like that. A rustling of cloth made her look up and she saw the Master stepping towards her, a cup of steaming coffee in his hands. She stared at it with craving eyes.
"You... cut out some plastic", he looked down to her, taking a sip. "And there I hoped you would be interesting."
"The plastic is just the hull." Roka stood up and, before he could stop her, let the chip fall into his cup.
"Hey!"
"Don't mourn, wait a few seconds. I combined a quantum stabilizer with some basic carofrum wires... had to take apart one of the Fh'smarg devices, but..." The Master stared at her with cold eyes and she hurried to explain, "It keeps every liquid it comes into contact with at a stable 60° Celsius. Perfect drinking temperature. And since it powers itself via heat..."
He burst out into a laugh, then grinned sarcastically at her. "Seriously? You spent hours for something useless like that?" He raised the cup.
"Uhm, stop! Don't drink that!"
Lowering the cup again he stared at her with amusement. "Let me guess... it's not safe? What a surprise."
"Oh, the chip itself is", mumbled Roka. "But I don't think you want to risk swallowing that thing. Unless of course, you want your blood boiling."
"You're stupid." He laughed.
"I'm not!" She protested, but the Master just laughed louder.
"You warned me... and there you had the chance to kill me in the most ridiculous way ever. With coffee..."
Roka stared at him and bit on her lip. "Why should I want to do that...", she mumbled and took the cup from his hand to put a flat magnet at its bottom. "There, now it'll stick to the ground." But she didn't think of returning the coffee. Instead she turned around and took it with her.
"Oi, don't just keep it, cheeky human!"
"At least I can be sure it's not poisoned." Satisfied with herself she took a sip. "You can thank me later."
"For what?"
"For never having to endure cold coffee again." Glancing over the rim of the cup she gave him an amused grin.
For a moment he just coldly stared at her and she feared to have gone too far. It was so hard to tell what he was up to. There was just this constant feeling of threat around him. Or was it just the knowledge of the stories the Doctor had told her about him?
The moment faded and the amused glint came back into his eyes.
"Not very impressive... technically. But creative, I admit." He turned around and grabbed a strange gadget from the pile. "Here, look at that." He put it into her free hand.
"What is it?"
"Tell me."
A test, thought Roka. She turned the thing around in her hand, carefully observing the parts. At first glance it looked complicated, but the wiring and that...
"That's... a very fancy remote detonator. Doesn't make much sense this way though. If you want it to go off by rusting away... you should change that part here with another kind of metal. This one takes ages to oxidize."
She hadn't even ended the sentence when he ripped the thing out of her hand and shoved another device inside it. "How about this?"
"Uhm..." She had no idea what it could be. It looked like a thick metal bracelet. But as she took a closer look Roka could see fine veins going through it. Glowing very faintly when held into the light at the right angle. What could be its purpose? It looked and felt vaguely familiar... She closed her eyes, trying to let her brain solve it. Somewhere in this net of information should be an answer.
It was hard to let her mind wander with the Master's cold stare on her, but eventually...
"Ohh..." She opened her eyes and looked surprised at him. "It's a portable translation device! Probably very limited in its capacity, so you can only choose one or maybe two languages. Although... With your Time Lord technology you could probably fit in a storage chip that is way bigger than the device itself."
"Alright... you're not so stupid after all." Tilting his head he observed her curiously. "Maybe I'll use your brain for one or two... things."
"Ha! Told ya!" She grinned proudly.
He looked amused at Roka. "I guess you already know what I want to do to your planet. Aren't you a bit too eager to help me with that?"
"As long as you let the Doctor stay alive. Earth has never done any good to me, humanity neither." She shrugged and sat down next to the window again, taking another sip from the coffee.
The amusement in the Master's eyes got even bigger. "Seems like we're going to have lots of fun together." He leaned down to Roka, stealing his coffee back.