A/N: So, this is what the apocalypse looks like... people hoarding toilet paper, the old folks crowding cities and parks as if they were suicidal...
We might get a curfew in the next few days. Some cities already have them...

And it's not even friggin zombies!

At least I'd know how to deal with those. ¬︿¬

Anyway. Stay safe out there! And enjoy this chapter while hiding from the world.

.

The soft crackling of fire eased its way through the silence and the blackness of unconscious dreams, promising warmth and safety. It was indeed warm, and a soft touch on her head helped her back to the waking world, played gently with her short hair, until she got aware of other sounds. Soft rustling of cloth, a quiet cough here and there, and a voice.

A voice that told of the ancient, of the dark, of a schism that let one look into time itself, and of a race that once held the key to such a tear in the fabric of everything. Not the Time Lords, but...

"Beings as big as the structures these ruins are made of," the voice told. "With thick, smooth skin and leathery wings, their appearance so strange not even we could quite grasp it."

Roka listened. She knew that story, had been there to experience it herself, after all. She listened as the Master told of how he had connected himself to her mind, had been able to hear her thoughts and experience everything she did, because as a human she had been the only one perceptible to the mind tricks this ancient species was playing on them. Only through her could they open doors that were locked with mechanisms closed by madness that only affected her senses.

But he altered the story. Told how they had stolen the key and sold it for a galaxy in return, where, in reality, the ancient gods of this place had bitten themselves into Roka's mind, and therefore into the Master's, had overwhelmed them both with terrifying nightmares they had not been able to escape on their own. The Doctor had helped, had told her how to rip the connection to the Master, and had then guided her out of the nightmares himself.

She liked the Master's version a lot better, smiled to herself in her half sleeping state and only then wondered, whom he was telling this anyway.

"There you are!" River's voice called out surprised from somewhere that sounded a few meters away. "Geeze, I thought you were rampaging who knows where and then you're here... telling stories to children."

The Master chuckled and remarked snidely, "Yeah, a bit hilarious, isn't it? You hear the woman, get lost, y'all!"

The rustling of cloth and many blabbering voices followed, scattering and fading after a time. Roka had to hold back a laugh as she grasped the situation. But she didn't want to move, didn't want to be fully awake and be forced to leave the lap she was sleeping on. She remembered how he had tried to keep her away from him, recently. Now he did the exact opposite.

And it made her annoyingly happy.

The memories of the previous event crept back into her head. The red lights, the glowing figures in the dark, the screams in the air and the pain.

All gone.

They were safe now, as it seemed. So there was really no hurry.

"She still hasn't woken up?" River asked softly. "Why won't you let me have a look? I have basic medical field training. If..."

"She's okay," the Master grumbled. "You can't do shit for her."

"If you say so. Hope you're right."

Cloth rustled again, steps resounded on stone or concrete, vanished shortly after, left behind nothing but the crackling fire that strangely echoed around them, giving of the impression of being inside a huge cave. Maybe they were. Roka was curious, she wanted to know where they had ended up, wanted to know what had happened to her.

But learning all that would mean to leave this position.

"I know that you're awake, little crow," the Master uttered softly, brushing his nimble fingers through her hair once more.

Roka groaned and turned in his lap, burying her face into his site and grabbing his jacket. "Not yet," she mumbled against him. "Please."

"And that although you usually run away from me all the time." There was no accusation in his tone, maybe a little regret, but nothing else.

"'S you who's avoiding me, recently," she mumbled back and finally opened her eyes to peek up at him. "Is your headache gone now?" She made sure to let the word sound like it stood between huge quote signs.

The Master cringed a little, but nodded. "For now."

"You must have hit your head really bad, though," Roka mumbled and snuggled up on him some more. "Telling children stories instead of threatening them."

At that he laughed out. "Oh, you should have seen their terrified little faces. Besides... wasn't my idea. One of them came over and meant we folks surely have a lot to tell about the outside world."

"'n you had nothing better to do?"

"'Cause not. Had to keep an eye on you."

Roka huffed. "You're so crazy," she mumbled. "Love that."

It wasn't her own emotion, she could tell it, as a quick rush of happiness pooled into her, making her aware of her exact words before.

The Master hummed with a slight smile and murmured almost inaudibly, "Do you, now?"

Well, she wasn't going to take it back, that for sure, but Roka also didn't answer and finally sat up to take a look around. If only to distract herself from the current situation.

Her mouth instantly dropped open.

It was no scenery she would have awaited in a thousand lifetimes. The fire sat right at the ragged edge of a broken down building, falling downwards into dizzying depths below them. But they weren't really outside. It was hard to grasp for Roka, seeing layers upon layers of broken down buildings, reaching up for miles. Something had burned or crashed a hole right through them, leaving a massive round crater, surrounded by the broken carcasses of metal beams and concrete and hanging wires. And all around the edges were small lights, some tiny, some bigger, some obviously fireplaces and others of artificial origin.

Roka realized there must be houses, or settlements, built from debris, lining the broken layers like stars. The longer she looked around the hole the more it made the appearance as if people had settled here since quite a while. There also were more of the glowing circuit patterns they had found outside. Most of them broken and many only faint or flickering, and together with the fires they bathed the whole place in a weirdly soothing eeriness.

"Wow," she let out eventually, her mental capacity not really able to get something more elaborate together.

"I wanted to get you back to the TARDIS at first," the Master tore into her thoughts, "but I thought you definitely would want to see this."

She turned to him and nodded with wide eyes. "Thanks. This is... fascinating. I've seen a lot, but... wow. Just wow. I love this. Wish I had my camera with me."

He chuckled and nodded to the edge, where the remains of a concrete wall pretended to be a banister. "You should take a look down. It only gets better."

Roka's eyes widened even more, which made him smile, and she carefully got to her feet and moved to the edge. It was mind boggling just how deep down it went. And there she also found out what probably had crashed into those buildings and left the crater. From what she could make out there sat a huge whitish-blue crystalline ball. Not perfectly round, but with jagged, spiked edges and glowing faintly in the darkness below, pulsating like the heart of a giant. It was surrounded by a net of thin veins of the same colour, diverging in all directions and spreading over the floor, debris and walls to hold the crystal in place.

The veins didn't reach all the way up to them, thinning out rather quickly, but still leaving their eerie glow behind. Roka couldn't tear her eyes off this picture. Not for what felt like a very long time. Not only because the sight was so fascinating, but because...

...it felt so familiar.

She shook her head and took a step back when she realized it. Weird. It was the same feeling that had urged her to climb deeper and deeper, even when the Master had started to act strange, even when she should have turned back with him and leave. Like a faint tugging in her mind and her heart.

It was uncomfortable.

"What exactly happened?" she finally asked, breaking away from the crater and returning to the fire. "And how did we get here?"

"Mhm... where to start." The Master waited until she had sat down again, close to him, his head lifted to glare up to the layers above them. "It seems the signal we heard, the one that sounded like screams, it probably overloaded your brain bots."

"Ugh." Roka groaned annoyed, rubbed a hand over face and then peeked at the Master through her fingers. "You could have warned me that this can happen so easily."

He only grinned at that and shrugged his shoulders innocently. "That or forgetting. But if you want, I can look into it and see if I can shield you better."

"I thought no one can access those bots."

"No. Not directly." He shook his head and thought for a moment. "But I might be able to set up some mental barriers that..." His hands waved through the air, encapsulating a small space within them. "No idea how to explain. I can't alter their function, I couldn't hack into them or anything the like, if that concerns you." A mischievous smile whizzed over his face. "But a brain has lots of energy to play with, so..." His hands dropped and he shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, if it helps. Guess if you really wanted to harm me there'd be much easier methods, anyway." Roka gave him a sarcastic smirk, that he returned.

Oh, how they both enjoyed this little game of danger and never quite knowing. Neither of them was harmless. The Master not at all, that much was obvious, but Roka, too, knew how to fight and how to be fast and lethal.

Not right now, though.

"Those people we saw," he continued, "turns out they inhabit this place. No idea how they did the glowing thing. All the lights and the signal are some kind of alarm system, as it turns out. And... uh..." He glanced to the side, suddenly avoiding Roka's eyes. "Anyway. They learned we weren't enemies and let us through."

His behaviour made it more than obvious that something else had occurred, that he didn't want to tell. She let it slip, for now, too curious to explore the place.

"Good thing they aren't bad. When I saw them I got quite the scare. Or maybe it was only because of the pain, I don't know." Roka sprang up, feeling restless and jumpy all of a sudden. "Eh, my head's fine again, I really want to explore a little."

"Sure about that?"

"My head or the exploring?"

"Both." The Master chuckled and rose to his feet.

Excitement built inside Roka like she hadn't felt in ages. This was a special place, something extraordinary, she simply knew it deep inside her heart. It went through her like a spark of electricity, urging her to move.

The same moment the Master subtly winced and looked at her in puzzlement for a second.

"What's wrong?" she asked, but he only shook his head.

The thought occurred to her that he might have felt her little spike of excitement, but right now she couldn't care less. So Roka took a step towards him, grabbed his hand and dragged him along.

It took her almost three steps until she realized what she had just done. And in that moment he closed his own fingers around hers, holding her hand firm and secure. She let a shy look wander up to his face and when he noticed it, the usual mask cracked and a faint smile graced his features, almost as if in a daydream.

Roka was too excited about this place to get too flustered over the situation, though. Her adventure senses were kicking in and she soaked in every detail of the ruins, the debris, the blue and purple glowing patterns, that moved through stone and metal like blood through veins, pulsating slightly, almost reassuringly.

People really had built themselves a kind of city here, she realized fast. All around the crater were houses, put together from debris, with makeshift windows and doors. Curtains were obscuring the views to the insides, but here and there faint lights were bleeding outside, revealing someone to be home there.

And then, finally, they met the first inhabitants. There was a place with less debris than anywhere else, leaving a bigger space towards the depths, so people could gather around a big fire. Some pillars with light-veins were erected around it, giving the surrounding an almost ceremonious look.

This species was of a tall build, at least one or two heads bigger than an average human, although their sizes varied widely. Some were only a bit taller than Roka, others seemed double her size. They were thin, although not bony, their skin had shades of light blue and purple, some almost white, and many emanated a faint, almost invisible glow. To add to their overall appearance they all wore wide, silken clothes that seemed to float around them, illuminated by their own glowing and by that of the surroundings. Their humanoid shapes, however, were contrasted by a weirdly shaped head. Almost completely round with an oval snout of some sorts. No visible nose, but therefore big eyes that ranged between bright green and light blue shades.

"Welcome, little one," one figure said and trod towards the newcomers. The voice was soothing, but a gender was impossible to determine from it, or their appearance. If they even had genders. The person bowed a little, one hand stretched out as if asking for a dance. "We are sorry to have harmed you. Our contraptions were never meant for sentient life." It then turned to the Master and the eyes took on an almost frightened expression for a moment, but then returned to their gentle smile. "Be at peace in our home, traveller. We won't harm the little one."

"Thanks for your hospitality," Roka answered and bowed her head a little. "You make me curious. What are those traps for? Is there danger in this place?"

"Not for you. Probably." The figure did what could be called raising an eyebrow, although it had none. "I don't think they will recognize your bio signature." They nodded to themselves and took out a small, octagonal shaped device that produced a hologram of a robot. It was shaped like a big eye with three tentacle-like feet it probably walked on. "They roam those ruins in herds. Millions of them. It is said they were responsible for the destruction of our ancestors' civilisation. Now they hunt the rest of us. But the lights," they waved a hand towards the glowing veins, "they keep them away, damage their senses."

"Ha, so you're protecting this settlement from those," the Master concluded and smirked. "That's... convenient to know."

Roka nudged her elbow at him and he chuckled. There probably wasn't anything to gain for him by destroying this place, but that didn't mean he wouldn't do it. Just for the fun of it. Or would he? She wondered if this urge for chaos was still as strong, now that he wasn't tormented by the drums anymore.

"Ah, there you are! Awake and well, as I see. Good, good." River's voice sounded from somewhere near the fire and as they looked over they saw the curly woman sitting amidst a bunch of smaller people. She waved and jumped to her feet to walk over. "The keleperians were so friendly to let you rest, and they told me a little of their history already."

"You probably pestered them until they did," the Master mumbled into his beard and Roka could practically hear his eye-roll.

"You know," River said and stemmed both fists into her hips, "there are people that enjoy being nice."

There only was a snorting as answer and Roka couldn't help but grin at that. She then saw River's eyes wandering over them both and down to their still intertwined hands. It was hard to tell what she thought about it, but whatever it was, she said nothing and only waved them over to the group she had just left.

"These lovely guys are actually telling me more about their local history, right now. You can join, if you want."

"Oh, I definitely do!" Roka agreed and dragged the Master along, not bothering to even ask.

Surprisingly he didn't protest. But then again, she knew about his own love for stories. After all he was as curious as he was destructive. And hadn't stories been exactly what he had demanded as payment from her for getting rid of her glitch?

"Actually..." River was still standing, watching carefully as the Master placed himself on the carpet - or was it only a piece of cloth? - legs folded, head slightly tilted. "There's something I think you'd love to see," she said and tugged at Roka's arm. "Will only take a couple of minutes."

Roka glanced at the Master, but he only raised an eyebrow and grinned, leaving it up to her if it was meant as an encouragement or as a warning. Well... He probably wouldn't go about and eat those people, she concluded, and followed River.

They didn't walk for long and entered one of the buildings. It was surprisingly luxurious, artificial lights and candles illuminated the room, a soft looking bed was in one corner, a stove carried some pots and a tea can. Carpets and curtains in pale colours decorated walls and doorframes.

"Who lives here?" Roka asked, turning around herself to take in every detail.

"No one. Not anymore." River sat down on a stool next to the only small table in the room that was right next to the stove. "The owners died outside."

"Huh, too bad," Roka muttered and dragged a finger through the light dust that had settled on the table.

"Doesn't seem to bother you," the other woman remarked coldly, which made Roka look up surprised.

"Well, it seems this is a dangerous place, after all." she shrugged, unsure what was expected of her. "Did... you really wanted me to see something? Or will this be an interrogation?"

"Ah, you're quick." A smile stretched on River's face, her eyes wrinkled in joy, but there was no doubt that she could be dangerous in her own ways. "I'm not planning on harming you or anything the like, if that is what you're concerned about." Her hand waved through the air as if to wipe away all worries. "Just need some answers. And honest, please. We both get nothing from lying to each other."

"Depends on the questions," Roka grumbled and eyed the steaming tea pot. "Is that drinkable?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah. It takes a bit to get used to, but I think I quite like it."

She made no indication of offering Roka some, so she got up and helped herself. Nearby were some small clay pots that looked like mugs, so she picked one and poured herself some of the liquid. Sceptically sniffing at it she leaned at the stove and watched the curly woman.

"Why are you with him?" River asked softly, almost with a hint of compassion. "Did he kidnap you? Is he hurting you in any way?"

"Eh, what?" Roka blinked perplex and forgot about her beverage for a second. "Who? The Master?"

"Of course him!" River stood and paced up and down a little, obviously unable to sit still for long. She looked back at Roka, observed her features and shook her head. "You're human. From what I've heard he hates our kind."

"You heard right then. But I'm with him on my own volition Although..." She cocked her head and chuckled a little. "...he did kidnap me at first. No need to worry though." She took a first sip of the beverage and wrinkled her nose at the strange, not-really-describable taste. It was somewhere between sweet and bitter. "We share some history, you know. It's a rather long story and I'm not in the mood to tell all of it."

Finally River stood still, her back straight, hands folded behind it and eyes as sharp as that of an eagle. "Are you like him?" Her voice was cold now, almost threatening. She stepped to Roka, close enough to have a slightly menacing effect, but not so close to enter her personal space. "Do you want to harm those people?"

"Whoa, whoa, slow down!" Roka held up her hands for a few seconds, balancing the mug so nothing would spill. "We didn't even plan to come here and we knew nothing about there being people at all. And if you don't give him a reason, I'm rather sure the Master also won't do anything too stupid. Right now at least."

Her words didn't seem to calm River much, but she retreated a little and got herself a mug. "He didn't tell?"

"Tell what?"

River huffed and leaned next to her against the stove. "No, why would he..." Her head turned sideways, facing Roka in a thoughtful way. "He was the one who killed the inhabitants of this house." She watched carefully how Roka winced a little, how her eyes widened. "No, he hasn't told. Of course not. When you passed out he used this mockery of a screwdriver and shot at least half a dozen of the keleperians without even blinking... Each time they tried to step forward he killed another one."

"Oh..." Roka only made, able to imagine all too well how that had happened.

"One of them tried it with reasoning then. Explained that it hadn't been their doing and that they would look after you." Still she was observing, her voice laced with something that could be disbelieve, shock, and a hint of hatred. "His answer was a laugh and two more dead bodies. Only after that did he pocket his damn device and picked you from the ground to follow them."

Roka swallowed and glared into the golden liquid, before taking another sip. How far would he go to protect her? Although it seemed his actions were not only lead by concern. He never minded hurting or killing people. Almost never. She had accepted it, had agreed not to interfere, although she at least tried to influence him a little. Sometimes it worked...

She smirked and glanced sideways at River. "Seems like you shouldn't anger him. And the people here obviously forgave him. Or knew he acted to protect me."

A humourless laugh came from the other woman. She spun around and stabbed a finger at Roka's chest. "Over ten people are dead! Because of you. And that is your only answer?"

"Can't bring them back to life, can I?" Roka snapped. "And I did nothing to them. Besides... 'S not as if I like what happened. Don't think that. Just learned not to cry over things I can't change anymore." She took the last sip from the beverage, unsure if she really wanted to have more of it or not. "I'll ask them if there's anything I can help with in return."

"You're cold as an iceberg, girl," River muttered and shook her head.

"Maybe," she mumbled in response. "It's what you learn to be when you live long enough."

The curly one huffed, her face returning to her usual sarcastic look. "I know a man who surely is a lot older than you. And he is kind and never cruel."

Roka blinked. Once, twice. She wasn't sure what to answer, wasn't sure how much River actually knew about the Doctor, about what he did, about what he was able to do. Sure, he chose to be the good one over and over again. He always found a way to save the day and as many people along the way as possible. But... No. She decided not to say anything.

Instead she slowly nodded, closed her eyes and sighed. "I'm not as strong as the Doctor. What he is able to do... I'm not sure anyone else would be. I... don't think I'm even that much of a good person... I mean... considering whom I chose to travel with."

"Oh dear, oh dear," River mumbled and, surprisingly, smiled warmly. "Well, none of us can choose to whom our heart belongs."

Roka winced and pursed her lips slightly. "That's not... not how it is," she closed stubbornly.

"No?" River gave her a sarcastic little laugh. "Well, it's none of my business." She winked and turned away, leaving the house and Roka behind.

Sourly she glared at the floor and decided to ignore the nagging feeling in her stomach. It really wasn't like that at all. Or maybe she only tried to convince herself that it wasn't. Everything else still just scared her too much.