River was still alive.

Then again, Roka couldn't imagine she would have let herself be killed so easily. Not even by the Master. Both stood there, lots of space between them, and clearly not willing to exchange a single word.

For once the Master wore a coat over his usual attire. It was black in colour and ended just at his thighs. It was more a choice of style than of warmth. Suffice to say, though, the Master looked outstanding in it, not helping the previous situation at all.

Roka pinched her eyes for a second and scolded herself inwardly to get her act together. At least until this adventure would be over. It also was extremely unhelpful how River tossed glances at the two as if she sensed what was going on between them.

Not that she said anything about it, and for a good while they didn't talk much at all, too busy fighting their way through the thick snow. River used a scanner to determine a path that wouldn't let them stumble into snow-covered holes or other vexations.

After what felt like hours had gone by, they slithered down a long slope of mushy snow, deep into the belly of the once proud buildings around them. Darkness lay itself like a blanket over their heads the farther they went and Roka finally asked what exactly River was searching for.

"Just some kind of signal," she explained, gesturing towards the blackness ahead. "There is supposed to be remnants of the civilisation that used to live here, and I want to study them. They do have a rather fascinating history, from what I've heard."

"Yikes! History lessons," the Master complained with an eye-roll. "And why do you even bother with the long walk? You've got a Vortex Manipulator, don't you?"

"Uh... spoilers." River smiled teasingly and shook her head. "No, I'm afraid, right now I don't. I'd love to get my hands on one though. This would make things soooo much easier."

"Yeah... it really does," Roka seconded with a smirk, but didn't show her device to the woman. No matter what they had experienced together, so far, they still couldn't be sure River had good intentions. Hell, she wasn't even so sure the curly woman was a good person at all.

Then again... She glanced sideways and stopped herself in time from sighing. The Master also wasn't a good person. She could definitely deal with that.

While speaking they walked and climbed into and over remains of buildings, tunnels and crumbling walls of dark grey metal. The whole city seemed to be made of it. That and concrete. Everything was also weirdly "decorated" with patterns that reminded Roka of circuit boards, spreading like thin arms or tentacles over the crumbling ancient walls around them. One time they halted, so River could check something on her tablet and Roka took off one of her gloves to run her fingers over the patterns. They felt cold and let an unexplainable uneasiness settle within her bones.

"Oh! I think I found something!" River called out and waved them over with her flashlight. When they were close enough she shone the light into a hole of debris. "There is a shaft to the lower levels. We might really get to the heart of the place."

Roka got to her knees and peeked through the hole. The spare light illuminated broken concrete and stone, more circuit board patterns and wires hanging down into the depts. Her eyes didn't reach far into the darkness below, but she could literally sense the wide space in front of them.

"Yeah, sure. First we climb through all this mess and then you want us to throw ourselves into a bottomless pit." The Master grunted. "Any more fabulous ideas on how to kill us?"

"Come on, Master," Roka teased and tossed him a grin. "As if you wouldn't want to know what's down there." She pointed towards the hole. "To me it looks like they built at least as far down into the earth as they built up into the sky. There could be who knows what. Secrets, mysteries, the source of infinite power..."

He rolled his eyes and stepped from one foot to the other, his look dark. Roka knew he couldn't resist mysteries. A thing the Doctor probably didn't know about his old friend. The Master shared the same urge with him to uncover what no one else had laid eyes upon, yet. Maybe for different reasons, but that didn't matter so much.

Eventually he let out an annoyed sigh, tore the flashlight out of River's hand and crouched down next to Roka. All three were now inspecting the shaft of debris, all three eager to get down, that she sensed.

"Alright, I can't resist," he sighed again and tossed the light back towards River, before he squished himself through the hole. "I think we can use those old cables to climb down. They look stable enough."

The women followed, standing close to the wall. The space was much bigger than it had appeared before, spanning at least a hundred meters into every direction. It was impossible to make out if they were inside or outside. Above them was blackness and concrete, but it was hard to tell if there had been buildings collapsed above their heads or if they were in the belly of one such a beast.

It took a while for them to collect enough cables to dare the descent. Even the light of River's flashlight couldn't reach all the way down, got interrupted by the floor of yet another layer. But it also had cracks that might let them climb further down.

Roka felt eyes on her and when she looked up the Master was carefully observing how she secured herself, making sure she would get to the next layer as safe as possible.

"I'm quite capable, you know?" She smirked at him. "I've done my fare share of these things already."

"Well, then go ahead, you little adventurer," he remarked with an sarcastic undertone and nodded to the hole.

"I think it's better I lead the way," River offered. "The academy trained me well."

"All the better." The Master showed a nasty smile. "If anything dangerous is down there, it'll get you first."

"You wish," she quipped back, grabbed her cable and hopped down backwards into the darkness.

For a while the only thing they could hear was the sliding of her gloves against the rubber isolating the cable. Here and there also was a short curse when she bumped against something, but other than that there was only silence.

"Are you okay?" Roka asked carefully in the Master's direction.

He had been glaring at the same spot for several minutes, without blinking. When he finally did, his look turned confused and he shook his head, then suddenly pinched his eyes shut as if in pain. He groaned silently, fingers reaching up to claw into his hair.

"Hey, what is it?!"

Roka jumped to him and grabbed his arm, but he roughly shoved her away with enough force to throw her off balance and let her drop to the ground. She wasn't hurt, but it still took her a moment to recollect herself. The Master shot straight again, tumbling away a few steps.

"I made it down!" came River's voice in that moment, muffled from the distance and all the concrete and metal between them. "Next one can come!"

"Or we just leave her to rot there," the Master growled through gritted teeth, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Was a bad idea to come here at all."

Roka was still too perplex to react properly, picking herself up from the ground and peeking down to see a small spot that was River. She glanced back to the Master, who had his arms folded over his chest now, eyes averted and lips pressed tightly together.

"What's wrong with you?" asked Roka carefully. "Just a minute ago you wanted to continue and now..."

The Master visibly tensed, his arms wrapping even closer around himself. "Nothing," he muttered. "Just a headache."

That was weird enough. Roka hadn't even known Time Lords could get those. It sounded like an excuse anyway. Maybe they really should just leave. After all she had her Vortex Manipulator with her. However, she found herself grabbing the next cable, attaching her security spring hook to it. There was something intriguing about these ruins. Like a whisper in the darkness that spoke to her, wanted her to continue until they would have unearthed all its secrets.

Already her feet were dangling over the abyss, her body almost acting on its own, eager to get down. She glanced to the Master, who was watching her. "I'll be fine on my own," she assured and tapped against her wrist. "If you don't feel well, just wait for me. As soon as we're done, I'll just..."

"No." His eyes narrowed to thin slits. "I don't want you to be here. Not alone."

"Wh... why?"

The Master opened his mouth, closed it again and shrugged. "I don't know. It feels wrong. You know how much I love ruins like these, but..." Absently he rubbed the back of his neck, squinted his eyes and glared back into the hole. "Never mind. Go ahead."

"Feels weird to me, too," she mumbled back and started her descent down the cable. "But more like... As if the place wants me to be here."

Without awaiting an answer, she slid further. It was surprisingly easy to get down, the debris giving enough room to rest her feet and to find hold. She had to stay focused, though, not wanting to accidentally slip and fall. Still, the Master's behaviour wouldn't let her mind rest. Sooner or later he had to tell her what was going on. It wasn't even about him being rough to her. She knew he did it not on purpose. And that knowledge bothered her even more.

"You took your time, choosing who goes first," River remarked teasingly when Roka had reached her side. "What took you so long?"

"Private... stuff..." Roka evaded, not very willing to tell a stranger about any of it. "You can come down, Master!" she called upwards.

He made a good show of easily sliding and hopping downwards to them, moving quick and skilled and a good bit faster than the two of them had. The smug expression on his face made Roka roll her eyes, but not without silently giggling about the behaviour.

"First done, another few to go." With an enthusiastic clap of her hands River threw another long cable down into the darkness and shone her flashlight after it. "I think that should be long enough. Might have to do a little jump at the end, though."

"Then I go first, this time," the Master said and already stepped towards the hole. He nodded towards Roka. "You second."

"Okay."

It was safer to go one by one. That way they didn't risk the cable to carry too much weight at once. The Master was down fast and by the sounds of it, and the curses that followed, the drop was a good way. Roka made sure he seemed alright, then followed quickly, now a little more safe in her movements. Climbing really wasn't her choice of sports.

"Just jump," the Master told, when she reached the end of the cable. It was at least two or three meters she would have to fall from here.

"You're a little more robust than I," she grumbled and inched further down, pondering whether or not to bridge the last meters with her Vortex Manipulator.

"Let go, idiot. You'll survive."

Roka huffed. "Yeah, I know that."

From this high she wasn't even risking a broken bone. She knew how to use her legs as a puffer so she would land as smooth as possible. A last time she looked down to see if there were any obstacles, then she took a deep breath and let go, the air rushing past her in the sudden fall, her heart pounding quickly from the released adrenalin.

Her feet never hit the ground. There was an impact, something squished her chest and pressed the held breath out of her lungs. And that was it. Roka opened her eyes and looked straight into a smirking face.

"Gotcha." The Master smiled happily and nodded upwards. "Won't catch that one, though."

Roka chuckled and dropped her forehead against his chest. "You're such a dork," she giggled against him.

He sat her down and let go quickly, turning away to take some steps back, as if he wanted to get more space between them. Roka's smile dropped and she wanted nothing more but to ask what this was all about, but she knew there would be no answer, and so she stayed silent for as long as they continued climbing.

"I think that's it," River announced after what felt like hours of climbing. They could hardly see from where they had come and were only happy that their brought cables had been enough to get that far. "I don't see any way further down."

Together they searched for a new way in the darkness. This part still belonged to the buildings as there was concrete and metal all around them. But now there were also plants, delicate veins in greyish colours that sparsely snaked around the debris lowest to the ground.

Roka found a set of doors, although it took her a moment to identify them as such. It were thick metal plates with lots of circuit board patterns all over them. The plants didn't touch those and one of them sat loosely enough to be opened. Roka peeked her head through it and shone her flashlight into the darkness ahead. A long corridor unwound itself there, surprisingly free of rubble.

"Here!" She waved the other two over and together they entered and continued their strange journey into the belly of the ancient city.

"I really hope for you there is some treasure at least," the Master grumbled. "So far, all tech we stumbled upon is absolutely useless. And I want to get at least something out of this."

"Well... The academy that sent me here taught us, the previous civilisation was high advanced when it comes to that. They say they were able to do things we would think of as magic. But not much detail is known about it all. It's as if nothing ever left this planet. Including the species itself, although they certainly could have."

"Yay, we're chasing ghost stories!" The Master threw his hands up in the air and let them drop, together with his mocking smile. Then he turned to Roka and glared venomously at her. "And you dragged me into this."

She just shrugged it off. "Haven't forced you to anything. You could have stayed."

"And leave you alone with..." He gestured towards River, behaving as if she could not hear him.

"Well, I'm sure the girl is a lot safer with me than she'll ever be with you," the curly one retorted sarcastically.

To Roka's surprise the Master didn't give a snide retort. Instead she felt a pinch of hurt shooting through her, and she knew it must come from him. It had felt almost like guilt. Again she had to think of his weird behaviour, how he avoided her and tried to always keep a good distance between them, as if... he feared to hurt her against his own will.

Roka stopped dead in her tracks and glared at the Master, who was gradually vanishing into the darkness ahead. Quickly she caught up, but now her worry gnawed even more on her than before.

Something was very wrong.

"How long do you intend to bore us with these ruins?" the Master drawled towards River.

"You can always go back and ease us of your lovely presence, deary," River remarked snidely, but sweetly.

The Master only grunted annoyed and kept astonishingly quiet throughout the rest of their way. It got darker with every step and it felt as if the surroundings were swallowing every desire to speak, as much as they devoured all sound around them. Roka knew places like those and usually they were filled with moaning of ancient metal and the sounds of crumbling and falling stones, wind howling through holes, small noises from nocturnal animals that had gathered in niches and whatnot.

Here, so deep below the surface, there was only silence.

Eventually they followed a slightly brighter way and left the tight corridors to find themselves in a weird kind of clearing, half outside, half buried under debris. The whole place was absurd, astonishing and almost impossible to grasp for Roka's mind, how this was even real, as deep into the ground as they were. It was hard to tell where inside started and outside ended, but here and there they could make out stars, blinking through the humongous structures that pointed into the air like ageless trees. The buildings were crooked and partially sunken against each other or completely broken, covered in snow and countless thick wires that almost looked like vines in the darkness.

Roka stared up in awe, feeling incredibly small and insignificant at the sight.

It was then, that she got aware of the faint glow. It started almost unnoticeably, spread in the corners of her eyes through the weird circuit board patterns she had noticed before, as if it was blood pumping through metal veins, bright blue and purple colours rushing upwards all around them. The glowing shot to the stars as if to embrace them, accompanied by millions and billions of tiny glimmering particles of the same colour that filled the air like the magic of old stories.

"Look at that," the Master spoke next to her, eyes glued to the extraordinary sight. "The universe is still able to impress me."

"It's... beautiful," Roka ushered breathlessly.

"Yeah..."

She felt it. Somehow, in a way she couldn't comprehend, she knew it before it actually happened. She felt it in the same moment the Master spun around, like a thought that wasn't her own, rushing through her mind. She turned to see what was startling him and came face to face with the sight of an ocean of glowing creatures on the other side of the clearing.

They were tall, thin, ethereal and hard to actually see. She could make out robes of light and spears of purple glowing metal.

And then pain.

Like the screeching of a million voices at once a sound filled her head, so foreign and unprocessable that she instantly fell to her knees, clutching her head in agony. It was like the dying scream of an ancient metal creature, clawed at the walls of her mind, tearing painfully at her consciousness she so desperately tried to retain. But it didn't help.

The moment her world faded into oblivion, she yet was able to see how all the lights from before turned a bright, blood-promising red, pulsating through the glowing particles and the patterns alike.

And then they died out all at once, leaving nothing but darkness behind.