"This way." The Master pointed at an archway that seemed to lead outside.
"You sure?"
"No."

The two sneaked through the archway and found themselves on the streets of Skaro. The Master smiled wide.
"This is fantastic! The homeworld of the great Kaled Society. Add the pear..."
The Master took out one of his pears and munched on it. He then continued.
"... and you equals one, excited Time Lord."

Rose hit his shoulder. "We're here to find the Doctor, not sightsee."
"And how are we gonna find the Doctor? Exactly, by sightseeing."

The Time Lord and his companion wandered around, remaining completely unnoticed by the Kaled squids in their rolling water tanks.
"Master?"
"Hmm?"
"Is there a terminal where we can get into the Kaled network?" asked Rose.
"Sure, they're all around. See?"

The Master pointed to what reminded Rose of a library. They went in there, waited until the Kaleds had cleared the panel and then the Master took out his laser screwdriver.
"What are you doing?" questioned Rose.
"I don't know Kaled controls, do you? I'm using the screwdriver to translate it into terms that Gallifreyans such as myself can telepathically comprehend and operate. Oh, this is fantastic stuff."
The Master babbled on, taking no notice of Rose tugging onto his jacket.

"... the folks back home would love this, it's literally the entire knowledge of the Kaled race. And I'm going through it!"
"Master."
"... I mean, it's not as if we don't know about the Kaleds, we do, but this is enormous. I never knew Kaleds liked poetry so much!"
"Master!"
"... William Shakespeare, what are you doing in this computer?!" The Master laughed to emphasize the point.
"MASTER!" said Rose loudly.
"WHAT?!"

The Master turned around to face his fellow Time Lord.


Rose had only once seen the man in front of him before and that was during the deja vu incident in the TARDIS. He looked a lot older now, almost like a corpse.

"Doctor?" asked Rose weakly.
"Ah, I see that you've spreaded my fame, Master." said the Doctor in a diabolical tone. His voice was withering, but controlled.

"Nah, actually we came here to find you. This fantastic girl here..."
The Master moved behind Rose.
"... is from a parallel universe."

"And you brought her here? I thought you were better than that, Master. Becoming a hypocrite, are we?"
Suddenly, Rose turned towards the Master behind her.
"You can travel between parallel worlds freely?!"

The Master looked embarrassed. "Well, technically I can't, I'm not in favor on Gallifrey, but... yeah."
He looked away from Rose's Jackie Stare.

The Doctor laughed. "What other lies has he told? Perhaps that I'm insane? Or dangerous? My only purpose is myself, miss. All I'm trying to do is survive."
The Master's expression darkened. "You tried to steal other lives to save your own."
"The missteps of a panicked individual. Besides, they were no better than me."

Rose took a step towards the Doctor. "You're the Doctor."
"Quite right."
"Fine, stay with him." said the Master angrily. "He's nearly dead anyway."
"What?"

The Doctor lowered his eyes. "I am at the end of my final regeneration. Close to death. Thank you for the reminder, Master." he wheezed.
"Always welcome to make you feel worse, Doctor."
The Master raised his laser screwdriver and turned it towards the Doctor. "In fact, let's speed things up a little, shall we?"