A/N: Another slightly more somber chapter... I like writing these occasionally to remind you that our bois are growing up. They can't stay the same forever :) don't worry, we'll return to our customary humour next time - hope you enjoy!
The Master sat alone in the TARDIS, both feet up on the console, one hand tapping out a steady rhythm while the other caressed a cup of warm tea. He took a sip and sighed in contentment.
The Doctor was out.
Not only that, the Doctor had trusted him to remain in the TARDIS, unsupervised and unrestrained - the isomorphic controls had not been activated for months.
The Master smirked into his teacup. He had evidently been a good boy.
But what to do with his newfound freedom?
The TARDIS was currently drifting through the Andromeda Galaxy. The time rotor slid lazily up and down, and the only sound apart from the ambient humming noises of the ship were the occasional, echoing squeaks of a gerbil named Humphrey which the Doctor had lost inside the mechanisms a few days ago. The Master idly wondered if Humphrey had been nibbling at the TARDIS's inner workings and would one day emerge, glowing and radioactive with the ability to time travel.
Draining the last of his tea, the Master got to his feet and pulled across the scanner screen to see if there were any interesting planets nearby, muttering his way down a list.
"Coscos, too swampy… Kard 7, nearly died of boredom there… Birthday? Who would name a planet Birthday? Plus I'm pretty sure it's inhabited by cannibals."
He paused, half-expecting the Doctor to pop up from under the console with some interesting trivia about Birthday and an extensive recount of his adventures there.
The Master shook himself. He was certainly not missing the Doctor.
With a sigh, he flicked the scanner to random selection and waited as the Gallifreyan symbols on the screen rotated and began to interlock.
"Eallo?" He raised an eyebrow. "Never been there before. Let's see… rocky planet orbiting a white dwarf star, uninhabited, no atmosphere… doesn't sound very thrilling, does it?"
This question was half-directed at the TARDIS, who made an indignant wheezing sound, as if daring the Master to question her choice of planet.
"Fine, fine, I suppose we can check it out." The Master copied the co-ordinates on the screen onto the nearest set of flight controls. "Just remember to extend the air shell, please. I'm not in the mood to suffocate."
Eallo was deathly quiet. With no atmosphere to cushion the crushing silence of outer space, the Master could hear his own double heartbeat in his ears as he stepped out onto the dusty ground.
The planet reminded him of every other barren moon or asteroid he had ever visited - rough, untouched terrain that stretched to the horizon with a depressing monotony. Everything was bleach-white, lit from the distant dwarf star which blazed in the sky like a helicopter searchlight, throwing stark shadows behind any lumps or deformities on the planet's surface.
"I am thoroughly underwhelmed," said the Master, squinting into the distance to see if there were any interesting craters. Finding none, he turned and frowned back into the TARDIS.
"What are we doing here?"
The console room glowed softly, and the time rotor shrugged up and down as if to say, Nothing to do with me.
The Master scoffed. "Don't give me that - there's no such thing as random selection when it comes to you."
The insult was only half-hearted, and a smile crept onto his face as he leaned back against the doorframe. Despite the Doctor's TARDIS being stubborn, unpredictable and downright impossible to fly sometimes, he was slowly getting to like her.
He glanced up at the air shell which was keeping him alive - invisible to human eyes but registering to his Time Lord eyes as a slightly fuzzy haze. As he watched, it ballooned outwards, giving him thirty feet or so.
"You want me to go explore?" he sighed. "Alright."
Checking his pocket for the laser screwdriver - you can never be too careful - the Master strolled away from the TARDIS, looping around in a lazy circle to see if there was anything more interesting behind it.
He was pleasantly surprised.
On the other side of the box, the planet's surface was pockmarked by tiny holes. No - not holes, the Master realised as he drew closer. The black spots were actually shadows, cast by small piles of smooth rocks which were spaced and stacked carefully on the dusty white ground.
"Cairns…" muttered the Master, the Earth word springing to his mind unbidden. Bloody Doctor.
Drawing out his laser screwdriver and glancing up to make sure the TARDIS's air shell was still covering him, he stepped slowly between the stones, cautious not to knock any of them.
The cairns were small, none taller than knee-height and all precariously balanced - some even looked impossible, with tiny pebbles supporting larger stones at weird angles.
Crouching down, the Master scanned one of the mounds.
There was nothing technically unusual about them - according to the screwdriver they were simply normal stones. However something about them made the hairs on the back of the Master's neck prickle.
Straightening up, he looked around again, trying to figure out what felt off. The cairns remained innocently still, like neat little piles of smooth eggs.
Something ticked like a clock in the back of the Master's mind, and he realised what was wrong.
"Smooth rocks on a planet with no water," he murmured. "So somebody brought them here."
Behind him, the TARDIS made a rumbling noise. Turning, the Master noticed a large, flat stone which was wedged into the ground like a menhir directly behind the TARDIS. She had parked up against it, as she often hugged walls whenever they landed in a city.
Stepping up to examine the rock, the Master saw that words were carved into it. He tilted his head and waited for the translation circuit to click in, too lazy to decipher it manually.
Slowly the words shifted into pleasingly fluid Gallifreyan circles, and the Master read.
'Here are the dead of Ótola - may their souls rest undisturbed.'
His mouth suddenly felt dry, and he closed his eyes. Of course. The TARDIS always had a reason.
Ótola had been a peaceful planet on the edge of the galaxy. Its native species were harmonious and wise - the Doctor often delighted in telling people that the Ótolans had invented WiFi before weaponry.
The Master had razed everything on the surface of Ótola.
It had been a long time ago, as part of a morbid initiation test which had ingratiated him with a group of interplanetary mobsters. The Master had only needed their allegiance for a few hours in order to rob the Bank of Karabraxos, but at the time, the destruction of an entire planet had not seemed a particularly high price to pay.
Thinking about it now, he just felt sick.
The Master opened his eyes and turned, staring out across the surface of Eallo.
The cairns went on for miles on the barren ground, the black dots of their shadows disappearing into the distance. Millions and millions of people.
He wondered how many cairns there would be if this was a graveyard for all the people he'd ever killed. They'd certainly need a bigger planet.
"Why did you bring me here?" he asked softly. The TARDIS remained silent, but he knew the answer already. This was her way of reminding him that he could never be forgiven.
The past was in the past, but not for her. For her it was all still happening - past, present and future all colliding at the same time across the universe. It must be so frustrating for her, he thought, travelling with creatures who experienced events linearly.
Of course Time Lords were far more in tune with the temporal schism than practically all other species - but they still had memories. Memories still faded, and became less important, and left them feeling better about things they had done long ago, and eventually they forgot and moved on. Time was the great healer, but not for the TARDIS.
The Master looked up at the blue police box, with its panelled sides and its stubborn blue paint. Each time he'd stolen her from the Doctor, or sabotaged her to prevent his escape - and especially when he'd cannibalised her into a Paradox Machine, he'd pushed aside the fact that TARDISes were psychic, alive, awake - she had been a machine to him, nothing more.
Now he felt, properly felt for the first time, her presence in his mind. He reached out and touched the wooden box, and felt a sudden rush of… was it sadness?
Concentrating, the Master moved closer and pressed his forehead against the TARDIS, willing her to hear him, and said two words without speaking.
I'm sorry.
When they returned to Earth to pick up the Doctor, he found the Master sitting in the pilot seat, sipping another cup of tea and looking for all the world as if nothing had happened whatsoever.
"Everything alright?" queried the Doctor, hefting some delicious-smelling shopping bags into the room. He liked to regularly stock up on human delicacies - although the TARDIS could replicate most foods accurately, nothing could beat freshly baked French croissants and bread, in his opinion.
"Grand," said the Master, watching the Doctor lifting baguettes out of the bags.
"Didn't miss me too much?" the Doctor looked up, a playful smile on his face. The Master chuckled.
"Didn't even notice you were gone, Doctor. Me and the TARDIS have been getting to know each other."
"Really?" the Doctor tucked the baguettes under his arm and hopped up to the console to check the scanner screen. The Master was suddenly on his feet, pulling the screen away from him.
The Doctor blinked, a frown creasing his brow.
"What? What's wrong?"
"Nothing."
"You're a terrible liar," the Doctor sighed, tugging the screen back around. "Where have you been, Master?"
The Master didn't reply, just watched as the Doctor checked the scanner.
A few seconds passed, then the Doctor took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Oh. She took you there."
"Not my ideal first date, if I'm being honest," muttered the Master, turning and heading towards the Doctor's shopping bags to forage.
The Doctor turned, watching his companion. "She forgives you, you know."
"Does she, now?" said the Master with disinterest, withdrawing a sticky pastry from the bag and biting into it, spilling crumbs onto his hoodie. "She has a funny way of showing it."
The Doctor absentmindedly ran his hand along the console, tracing the ridges and cracks in the rough coral with his thumb. The TARDIS hummed softly.
"I think she knows you've changed. She knows you're trying to be better. She's just reminding you where you came from."
"Hmm," the Master said through a mouthful of pastry, stepping back up to the console and glancing up at the glowing time rotor. "I'm not convinced. How do you know she's not just trying to make me feel bad?"
The Doctor laughed, and turned to spin a dial on the console. "Because I know her. Amazing thing about the TARDIS - she always takes you where you need to go. You needed to see the dead of Ótola, Master." He continued talking as he moved around and set up some flight patterns. "She's not reproaching you for what you've done - she's just showing everything you've still got to make up for. Besides," he smiled at the Master, who had now joined him at the controls. "Nobody can make you feel bad. That's not how it works. All she did was show you something, and the feeling came all by itself."
"I really wish you hadn't come back," said the Master sadly, pressing a few buttons as the TARDIS whirred into life. "It was so peaceful without you."
"I brought pastries though."
"That is true."
The two Time Lords had now settled into a routine when flying the TARDIS. The Doctor took the left hand side of the console, and the Master took the right. They moved around until they met in the middle, simultaneously reaching for the takeoff lever.
"By the way," said the Doctor, grinning as he got there first. "I forgive you too."
"Well, I knew that. You're a great big pushover."
And for the first time, the Master placed his hand on top of the Doctor's, and they both pulled the lever down together, sending the TARDIS spinning into flight with a rasp of engines.
A/N: Two references for you today! Coscos, a minor planet in the Andromeda Galaxy, and of course the Bank of Karabraxos :)