Author's Note: First off, I just have to apologise to everyone for not updating in so long. As those of you who are reading my other Doctor Who story, "Returning To The Start", will know, at the end of Janruary I tore the ligaments in my left shoulder. Because of that, I haven't been able to type as normal.

Thankfully, I'm fine now, and hopefully the updates will start flowing again. I hope I haven't lost any readers because of this. :)

Secondly, I would like to thank Paisley Skies, for betaring this chapter. She's been great. ^.^

Hope everyone enjoys thie chapter.

"Just stay calm!" Jack might as well have been shouting at thin air. He and the Brigadier were pressed against the wall of the corridor, held there by the swarms of people moving out of their offices.

"You will remain calm! That is an order!" The Brigadier's shouts had the same lack of effect.

"Oh, for god's sake!" Jack roared, pushing himself through the crowds of people. "You're UNIT soldiers! What the hell are you doing?" He was once again ignored, and grabbed at a passing woman in combat gear. "What's happened?"

Her lack of movement seemed to bring the soldier back to earth, and she snapped to attention. "Sir! There's something in the bunker. It's killing the scientists."

The Brigadier fought his way over to them. "Then why are you running in the opposite direction, lieutenant? You are meant to be guarding them."

"But it's an animal, sir!" As the woman continued to speak, Jack shoved her aside, pushing his way through the crowds.

He heard the Brigadier shout "left" at him and moved through a set of double doors. He was faced with a quickly emptying staircase, leading downwards. A bloodied man in a white coat was the last one on the staircase. Jack grabbed his wrist, visually checking over the man's head wound. It wasn't that serious.

"Do you know what did this?"

"It..." The man swallowed. "It was alien."

Jack sighed. "Yeah, I got that. What did it look like?"

"I..." The man began to cry. Half of Jack felt sorry for him, the other half felt like hitting him. The bad half won, and he shoved the man out through the door, starting down the stairs, drawing his revolver as he went.

The stairs circled around themselves in a square, which made it almost impossible to see if anyone was coming the other way.

Why couldn't all the aliens who wanted to cause Earth harm just wait until he'd found and killed the Master? Was that really too much to ask?

He heard a deep growl echo up to him and crouched down, craning his neck over the stairway railing, trying to see down into the lab. The lights still hadn't come back on, and an eerie red glow from the emergency lighting spread the lab out below him.

Gun still at the ready, Jack moved down the last few steps, arriving on a metal grill platform. A short ladder led down to the main lab area, filled with large and complicated looking machinery. A doorway to his right led to what looked like a locker room, but the only other exit was the way he had come. Whatever had attacked the scientists was still here.

He could hear the Brigadier moving people out of the building above him as he slowly made his way down the ladder. As he reached the bottom, his hand brushed against the bottom rung, and came away sticky. Jack grimaced, wiping the blood off on his coat.

Now that he was at the same level as the lab, he could see two men lying beneath a work bench. One was quite obviously dead. The other was shaking with fear, a hand clasped roughly around the dead man's wrist.

"Hey," Jack whispered. "Come on."

The living man shook his head wildly from side to side. "Not leaving without Ricky. He's got to wake up."

Jack moved slowly across the floor, keeping one eye on the two men, the other on the room around them. Crouching down next to the bench they were hidden under, he glanced at the name tag of the living man. "Come on... Dr. Merdol. Ricky's dead. You've got to get out of here."

"No!" Jack shushed him quickly, as Dr. Merdol moved to pull Ricky away from him. "No. He's not dead. He can't be dead." He started rocking back and forth on his heels, crying.

Jack sighed, standing up. There was no way he would be able to move the man without alerting whatever was down here to their presence. Might as well get whatever it was, then worry about comforting the scientist.

Moving around the bench, he moved so he had his back to it, facing the lab. He had only taken one step, however, when the sound of splintering wood came from behind him, and the realisation dawned that whatever it was had just got to the two scientists. But where had it been hiding, Jack thought? He whipped round, only to be met with the bench flying towards him. Unable to get out of the way in time, it hit him full on, sending him cart wheeling backwards across the lab and into a display case, shattering the glass.

The thing that had thrown the bench reared up and roared. When it saw that Jack was unmoving, it dropped its two front legs back down to the floor. Shrugging out of the white lab coat draped over its shoulders, it padded towards him, stepping first on Ricky, and then the name tag that had fallen off of the coat that it had just discarded, which read Dr. Merdol.

Rhys walked up the steps towards the Tourist office, having completely failed to figure out how to work the lift. He was tired and his head hurt. He just wanted everything to sort itself out so he could take Gwen and their baby home. He had been working up the courage for months to ask her about quitting Torchwood. Anything that could put their baby in danger wasn't worth doing. He'd had a whole speech planned, but every time Gwen had come in from hunting an alien, or having a drink with Jack, she had seemed happier, more full of life.

He didn't understand her love of this life, the need for the chase. Why couldn't she simply go back to her job with the police?

He reached the top of the stairs, and stepped out into the rock covered corridor, which ran the length of the Bay. As he reached the door that led out to the Tourist office, he heard a voice from beyond it. Pausing to retrieve a worn twenty pound note from his jean's pocket, he picked up small snippets of the pizza delivery boy's conversation.

"Yeah, I'm............. the package is......... right now. Yes............... sir, I................."

Rhys frowned. Was it normal for a delivery boy to phone his boss and tell him he'd got to the right place? It had been so long since he'd ordered pizza he couldn't remember.

He pushed open the rock door just as the boy on the other side put the phone down, who then turned towards him. "Hey, mate." The boy smiled. He was holding a signal pizza box, which Rhys thought was strange, seeing as the boy had asked for £20.

"Hi," he replied, internally grimacing as he thought for the first time about his grubby pyjamas.

The boy nodded at him, setting the pizza down on the desk, reaching out to take Rhys's money. "I'm sorry 'bout this," he drawled.

Rhys was only half through processing the sentence when the boy shot forward, impossibly fast, and curled a hand around his neck. Rhys automatically threw a fist, but his hand bounced uselessly off the boy's face, which began to ripple. The skin slid back, revealing the red muscles and veins. Rhys tried to pull himself away, a look of revulsion coming over his face, but the boy was strong, and held on.

The muscles began to move, becoming shiny, but not with blood. They were unknotting, twisting into a smoother surface.

When they stopped, the boy had plates of red armour covering his entire body, still shining. It's free hand had morphed into a blade, long and deadly looking. Two small black dots stared out at Rhys from beneath the red helmet.

"You will tell me of the alien," the boy's voice had changed, and was now deeper and more dangerous.

Rhys tried to pull back again, but failed. "What alien?"

The boy tightened his hold. "The alien that owns my quarry."

Rhys coughed, nails digging into the boy's hand in a vain attempt to get him to release his throat. "What... alien?"

The boy frowned, eyes narrowing, before raising the hand with the knife coming out of it, slowly moving it towards Rhys's head. "This won't hurt..." The boy grinned. "Much."

The Doctor turned towards the tree line, where the voice came from. The woman pointed the torch towards the trees, while the man did the same with the gun.

"Whoever you are... come on out," the man with the gun said.

"Oh, yeah!" The voice from the trees dripped with sarcasm. "I'll just come out with my hands up, shall I?" There was a pause. "Actually... that might give a good chance for 'reaction of the year' to take place."

There was a rustle of branches, and another man suddenly appeared on the path.

The Doctor felt his breath catch in his throat as he recognise not only his coat, that the man was wearing, but the man himself, hair still dyed blonde, hoody still drawn tightly across his chest. "Master." The Doctor's voice barely carried to the three people standing with him.

The man and women glanced at each other, uncertain, while the Master grinned. "Tada!" He spread his arms wide.

The Doctor, having only recently regenerated, couldn't seem to make sense of what was happening. His eyes were telling him that the Master was standing in front of him, but his brain was telling him that it wasn't possible. It was all very confusing.

The Master's grin remained. "Found ya."

That was the straw that broke the camel's back. The Doctor, seeing the only other of his kind in existence, not only come back to life once, but twice, over a twenty-four hour period, die once, plus his own regeneration, was all too much for him. In the circumstances, he did the only thing that seemed logical.

He dropped his physic paper, burst into tears, propelled himself across the forest floor straight into the Master's arms, and clung to him.