"And here is the data," the Doctor announced and pulled out a small chip from the TARDIS console. "Just put it in your tablet. Should work."
Roka took the chip with a thankful nod and did what she was told. Her device started to boot up a small window that showed numerous sets of data. Numbers, dates, coordinates, information regarding planets, life forms and the breathability of the air.
"It's extraordinarily interesting," the Doctor blabbered on, "It's a bit like dust, spread everywhere, hard to catch harder to see, makes you sneeze, though not pleasant. The dust, I mean, not the data..."
Behind him a man stepped closer and leaned over to take a peek at Roka's tablet. It was Michail, one of the brothers they were chasing at the school festival. He had fully recovered and had agreed to help deciphering the data, while his brother Steppan was about to organize some other event for the school.
"We were never able to explain those readings," he mused. "It's like a puzzle, burst into a million pieces and scattered over the whole universe."
"I think it's some kind of trace." Roka adjusted some settings and scrolled through a list of coordinates. "But if it was left intentionally or not, I can't say. Probably not." Her finger moved over a bunch of pictures. "It's so scattered, there seems no pattern at all to it."
"Oh, there might be none," the Doctor chimed in and took the tablet from her hands. "Something was probably travelling. And it leaves its energy signature at those places. It's always the same, look." He pointed a number that was present at each set of coordinates. "Oh... oooooh... wait. Can that be...?" The Doctor pulled the tablet almost directly in front of his eyes.
A pair of glasses appeared in the tight space between his face and the tablet and the Doctor looked up surprised and into the sarcastically smirking face of the Master.
"You always had bad eyes, Doctor. Doesn't seem to get better with old age, eh?" he mocked.
"And why do you have some of these?" The Doctor snatched the glasses, put them on his nose and continue to sight the data with a slightly opened mouth and actually a good bit farther away from his face now. A second later he grinned and glanced at the Master. "My, those glasses aren't the weakest. Don't tell me you need them."
The other Time Lord pursed his lips, scowling, and crossed his arms. "No, I don't," he snapped eventually. "It's just more comfortable to read with'em."
"Ah, well..." the Doctor looked back at the tablet, "you're not going to get any younger either, Master."
"Ugh! Don't do the 'I'm older' thing again!" he snarled. "It's so annoying! And there you wonder why I want to end you!"
"Shush!" the Doctor held up a finger. "This could be important."
"Don't shush me!" the Master barked and grabbed the Doctor by his tie. "I'm getting impatient with you, so watch your step."
"You begged me to take you along!" the Doctor grumbled back sourly with puckered brows.
For several more seconds the Master glared hatefully at his oldest enemy's face, then released his tie and turned away with folded arms. Roka wasn't quite so sure what to make of it. At first it had seemed as if the two would get along surprisingly well, but the more time passed the more it got evident how much the Master still despised the Doctor. Had he really endured his presence only because of... her?
The thoughts got interrupted as the Doctor continued what he had wanted to say before the fight. He pointed at a set of data he had separated from the rest.
"This is the date and the coordinates, the exact match! Remember? When we were in Edinburgh and something made you all act so strange?"
This got back the Master's attention. He unwillingly turned his head and listened.
"It's in here. Whatever was at your parents' house, it also was there that day. Maybe... even responsible. There, see? It's where the Master found Amy and Rory and this here where I found you on the roof. This can't be coincidence..."
The other Time Lord poked his head over the tablet and tapped another set of coordinates. "The day and time we found the dead body in Venice," he uttered towards Roka.
She let out a long breath. "Okay, this is getting weirder and weirder. Where do we start? How do we get a pattern from all this?"
None of the men around seemed to have any clue. Michail was at a total loss, the Master was still busy being sulky and the Doctor silently continued browsing through the mess.
Roka stepped next to the Master, poked his arm and grinned up at his annoyed face. "Actually... who of you two is the older one?"
He grumbled something, then pointed at the Doctor. "Well, used to be. Just a few months though. And with all that time travelling it's hard to say who is the older one right now."
"Yeah..." the other Time Lord made.
Michail exchanged a quick look with Roka and both smiled. It was obvious that those superior aliens had not the slightest idea what age exactly they were at this moment in time. Roka decided to tease neither of them with it - for now - and just focused on what the Doctor did with her tablet. Eventually the Master snatched it away and also took a glance, then peeked at Roka with a somewhat mischievous half-smirk.
"Oh no," she muttered and sighed. "I won't like this idea, right?"
"Very right," the Master announced happily and waved the tablet in front of her face. "You know, this thing here is not the most advanced tech out there."
"So?" Roka shrugged. She hadn't been bothered putting her brain chip into any other device. The one Chegg had given to her was as good as any.
"And your brain is astonishingly good at finding patterns," the blond Time Lord continued with a widening grin. "For a human at least."
"Sooo?" Her gaze shot to the Doctor, who seemed to slowly get what this was about.
"Right!" he called out and beamed at Roka. "The TARDIS is great and all that, but she needs lots of energy to keep all functions upright. If we take too much, she won't work and if we take what we have, it will take ages." He happily waved a finger in front of her face. "But a human brain is like a super computer! A Time Lord's is better, of course," he rambled on, "but since you can access yours so easily..."
"We can transfer all this data right into your head," the Master concluded.
"Ooooi! What the hell are you planning with my little sis again?!" Amy called out, just strolling into the console room from outside.
She and Rory had visited her parents, while everyone else had been busy in the TARDIS.
"It does sound a little dangerous," Rory seconded, throwing an uncertain glance at Roka.
She had no idea what to do about all of this, if she was honest. The Doctor and certainly not the Master would suggest anything that would put her in too much danger. But, then again, both of them weren't quite known for having the best instinct when it came to determine the meaning of danger for a human.
"If it will help finding Josh quicker," she gazed up at the Master, then the Doctor, "I'll do it."
"It... won't harm you, right?" Rory asked carefully and sceptically eyed the tablet, then Roka.
As much as he still seemed to distrust her, he had long accepted that his wife liked Roka, and so he did his best to at least stay neutral towards her. After all she had also played a huge role in getting them all back into existence and all that. At least this was what Amy had told Roka.
Her thoughts got abruptly interrupted when a sharp sting of pain went through her head. Roka winced and almost doubled, holding a hand to her head.
"Whoops," the Master said and gave her an apologetic, albeit wicket grin. "Too much at once."
Roka groaned annoyed and was glad the pain already subsided.
"Can't you at least let me sit down first?" she grumbled and slumped down on a jump seat.
He only snickered in response and started to transfer the data under the Doctor's watchful eye. It took a few seconds before she noticed anything, but then it felt as it usually did when she was exposed to too much sensory input at once. She got tired, her eyes started burning and her head spun a little. It didn't hurt though, so it was easy to relax and wait for... something to happen.
Another few seconds went by and she felt fingers at her temples. Roka opened her eyes and found the Master in front of her, and then felt him entering her mind. The very first time he had done this it had been forceful, rough and unpleasant, to say the least. But now the Master found his way with elegancy, evading the barriers she had set up there, manoeuvring around parts she'd rather be left untouched.
Roka let out a sigh and relaxed, opening herself up to him. She knew he would not harm her, and he was no one to blame or scold her for some of the things she had locked away. He smiled when he noticed that thought and she somehow felt it without even looking.
'What are you doing here anyway?' she thought, wondering if he was able to hear it.
'You might have a good brain for patterns, but it's slow and unorganized compared to a Time Lord's.'
She gave him a mental nod, swallowing down a snappy comment about him entering without permission again. His response was a mean snickering and she couldn't help but grin back. It wasn't as if she would hate him being in her head. Quite the opposite actually. As long as he wasn't trying to forcefully pull out memories it always had been an enjoyable sensation.
'Is it?', his voice echoed in her mind.
She mentally nodded again and felt him brushing something in her mind, like fingers tracing along the edges of her consciousness. Her heart started to beat more rapidly the more the sensation travelled along her essence, carefully grazing an area she hadn't know existed. A sigh escaped her when he traced this area with his mind, teasing and nudging it playfully.
'What's there?' she wanted to know.
A small laugh was in her head and the sensation vanished from the spot. 'You wouldn't understand.'
'Try me.'
"Got something!" the Doctor called out interrupting their unheard conversation. "Oh, this is magnificent! Brilliant! There's... oh, still lots and lots of coordinates. But they cluster at certain points in... time actually. Interesting. We're dealing with time travellers!"
"Obviously," Amy's voice tossed in. "Otherwise they couldn't have rewritten part of Roka's history, could they?"
"More time travellers," Rory sighed. "That's... uh... not a good thing, right?"
"Riiiight," the Doctor said in thoughts. "It's nothing Time Lord at least."
"Of course not," the Master growled and retreated from Roka. Not without giving her a last mental nudge.
"Hey," the Doctor protested, "you escaped the Time Lock, after all. Who says no one else has? And why can't you tell..."
"Shut it," the Master demanded sourly. "You're not supposed to know yet, and I'd be damned to risk this future... and this present, just so your daft mind doesn't have to be curious any longer."
"Yeah, yeah, alrighty, no need to get angry, Master."
They removed the data from Roka's head and she got up from the seat, however, still feeling tired and dizzy. Yawning she stepped to the Master and glanced at her tablet.
"So, what did we find?"
The Master shrugged and showed her a map of space-time coordinates. There were clusters of dots, showing the most activities there.
"Wait a bit," he mumbled and let a few algorithms run over the data. "There... that narrows it down to the first appearance of this entity or whatever in each cluster. If we go and take a look at a few, I'm sure we'll find something."
Roka took her tablet and scrolled through the list. It was still a lot of data and a lot of places to cover.
"This'll take quite some time," she mumbled and scratched her neck, then slowly looked at everyone. "I... Well, I think it might be time for me to leave."
"Oi! No way!" Amy protested immediately. "You can't go on your own! We promised to help!"
"Yeah... that you did." Roka rubbed her tired eyes and let out another yawn. "Listen, I really appreciate the offer, and everything y'all did for me. But this might take years, decades even." Roka gestured to the data clusters. "And I've got a lot more time than you do, Amy. I won't age."
"That's not a reason! Let us at least-"
"You're still not immortal, idiot," the Master tossed in with a frown.
"And you're not my protector," Roka stated, sighing.
The wrong type of response, she concluded at the sight of the dangerous glint in the Time Lord's eyes.
Finally the Doctor trod in front of Roka and dramatically placed his hands on her shoulders, the boyish face graced by seriousness that didn't quite fit him. There was also a warm light in his eyes, a soothing pool of time and the assurance that all would be well.
"I meant what I said," he stated calmly. "You're always welcomed here. We're friends. Well... I am yours, that must suffice." He winked and a warm grin spread. "Ah, we had a great time together, didn't we? We were awesome, you have to admit!"
Roka huffed. "Yeah, we definitely were. Means you're not gonna try and stop me?"
The Doctor took his hands back and shook his head. "'Cause not. You're an adult and certainly capable enough to make your own decisions. But..." There he held up a finger and glinted at her happily, before he slid a piece of paper into her fingers. "Promise this. If you ever get lonely, if you ever feel lost, if you ever just want to drink a cuppa tea in the library... my TARDIS will welcome you. Just call me, okay?"
Roka blinked at the number, folded the piece of paper and put it in her trouser pocket. Then she rushed forward and hugged the Doctor tightly.
"I will, promise," she mumbled while he rubbed her back.
Amy joined the hug a second later. "I don't want you to leave," she whined. "I'm going to miss you!"
"Hey, I'll visit" Roka laughed. "Could bring you some souvenirs, how about that?"
"Bah, I'm getting sick," the Master complained from behind. "Stop that nonsense already. The sooner we start this, the sooner it's done."
They all released each other and the Doctor eyed the Master with slightly tilted head.
"You're leaving too?"
The blond Time Lord smiled viscously and crossed his arms. "Not planning to tolerate your ugly face one second longer than necessary. Got what I came here for." He shrugged and eyed Roka, then glanced back at the Doctor. "No idea how things'll be in the future. Might be your enemy again next time we meet, might not. Don't think I'll be all whiney and thankful for the ride. Not me!"
The Doctor sighed, but smiled widely nonetheless. "Already thought so." He stepped in front of the Master and Roka could barely see what they were doing, but she saw the amused twinkle in the Master's eyes, when the Doctor said, "I'm looking forward to whatever you'll have in stock for me, old friend."
The only answer was a mean snickering.
"Where will you go?" Roka asked the Master and her heart made a jump when a warm smile met her.
"Didn't you want to travel with me again?" He offered her a hand and the smile widened. "There aren't any proper plans right now. I'm still searching for a purpose. Might as well give you a ride."
Without hesitation Roka took his hand and let him draw her flush against him, the other arm snaked around her waist and his forehead dropped against hers. Nothing more, but the proximity made her heart beat so much faster than it should.
"Or did you already change your mind?"
"N... No... didn't..." she mumbled.
The two got interrupted by a cough from Amy and finally the Doctor.
"Anywhere I can drop you two off?"
"Uh..." Roka looked questioningly at the Master and blushed a little at his charming smile. Gosh, why the hell did he have to be so handsome? She loosened herself from his grip and turned away. "Doesn't matter."
"Nope," the Master seconded and gave the Doctor his sweetest smile. "Remote controllable TARDIS, remember?"
The other Time Lord groaned and rolled his eyes. "Not gonna miss that."
He got the TARDIS moving and landed them in London, back at the place where they had first started this journey. It probably even was the same day, maybe only a few seconds after their past selves had left. There still stood the advertising pillar that was the Master's TARDIS.
They stepped out and Amy and the Doctor hugged Roka a last time, making her promise to visit here and there. Rory shook her hand and Michail also waved good bye, wishing her look with the search for her brother.
It all felt surreal somehow, when the door to the advertising pillar opened and the Master stood next to it, nodding inside. The same way he had done on the asteroid.
One last time Roka waved at everyone and entered into the greenish light, soaking in the atmosphere of the Master's TARDIS. There still stood her emptied-out backpack, there still was the dragon egg sitting on the sofa, there still lay the once broken glass marble on the console. Roka picked it up and held it into the light, watching the tiny specks dancing around in it.
The Master stepped in front of her and took the marble, a smile twitching the corners of his mouth, when he closed his hand around it.
"Let's fill that thing with new stars, shall we?" he asked.
Roka chuckled and nodded. "Yeah. But don't break it this time." She took his fist into her hand and opened his fingers. "Although I wouldn't mind breaking a few other things." Her eyes met his and she gave him an inviting glint, when she poked the marble. "There's lots of stories I haven't told you yet. I was no saint in the past century."
"Oh?" He returned the gaze and there was new hunger in his eyes. One for adventure and danger, one for a little chaos. "Guess I might have an idea or two how to spread a little madness. In case your brother can wait another few days, that is."
"Isn't this a time machine?" Roka asked grinning.
The Master only laughed and moved to the controls, where he placed the marble on a small socket, with much care and as if it was the most precious thing in the universe.
Roka knew they had a long way ahead, but she hadn't lied. She hadn't been a saint, and she surely wasn't about to become one. But now she had a purpose, a goal, and a man at her side, who would protect her from not only the danger ahead, but also from the loneliness in her mind.
This time she was no prisoner here. And when she strolled to the sofa to inspect all the spilled memories from over a century, she couldn't help but smile.
Because there was so much more to come yet.
.
A/N: And there it happened. They are on their own again... or should I say, properly for the first time.
Is this really chapter 31 already? Geeze... and there are still so many ideas in my head... you won't get rid of this story too fast... xD
Anyway... we'll get back to the Doctor and Amy eventually. But for now I think the Master and Roka have some things to clear. And they really need some alone time... *cough*
Thanks for reading! Don't forget to fav, follow and comment! ❤⃛ヾ(๑❛ ▿ ◠๑ )