The Oncoming Storm rears her head when the Master steps into her life again.

This is basically what I want to happen the next time the Doctor meets the Master. As much as I love this incarnation of him I want to punch him in the face for what he did to Gallifrey.

The day had started as unremarkably as any other as Graham, Ryan, Yaz and the Doctor explored a new planet. It was dry and dusty like the African savannah, sunny but not unbearably hot and a gentle wind blew through the tall trees that dotted the landscape. Taking bites out of these trees and striding across the sparse grassland were creatures that looked like giraffes but had antlers and tiger stripes.

"They originate from your Earth giraffes," the Doctor said, hands waving in the air as she talked. "They've been genetically altered by the rich over the centuries for their amusement. Irresponsible manipulation at its finest! But the species has now been given protection and they now all live on this sanctuary." Ryan bumped his shoulder into Yaz's and rolled his eyes but said nothing. She grinned back, not completely enamoured with the wildlife that towered over them but kept quiet to not dampen the Doctor's joyous mood. It had been lacking a bit lately, not that she would tell them why. "In fact the whole planet is a sanctuary for all manner of creatures victims of unethical genetic alteration. Take for instance the Fother's peng…"

The Doctor trailed off, halting in her tracks, limbs rigid.

"Wha..." exclaimed Graham, who had been watching a nearby bird and had walked into the Doctor's back. He looked at the tree that held the Doctor's attention. "Doc?"

A figure stepped out from behind the tree. A familiar, hated figure.

The Doctor sucked in air between her bared teeth.

"You."

"Hello, Doctor" said the Master with a Cheshire cat grin. "Visited home yet?"

The Doctor's face hardened to stone and went pale. Her body seemed to vibrate with tension.

Suddenly she lunged at him, fist raised and punched him in the face. He fell, unresisting, and she followed him down.

It was as if something had snapped inside the Doctor - gone were all traces of the happy-go-lucky woman everyone had got to know and she had been replaced with a stranger. Not even against Tim Shaw had she been like this.

The Doctor managed to land a second and a third punch before her friends had shaken off their shock and pulled her off the Master. She fought them, snarling and shouting incoherently and ignored their pleas to calm down. They didn't know what else to do, this show of unrelenting violence was unexpected from a self-confessed pacifist!

The Master laughed as he picked himself off the ground as the Doctor continued to struggle against her friends. He wiped his bleeding mouth with a hand, grinned at the red on his fingers then licked them clean. Yaz and Ryan shivered in disgust. Graham ignored them all, attention focused on the shaking Time Lord in his arms. There were tears running down her face and her fists, now tainted with red across the knuckles, were still clenched in tight balls. He turned to the Master.

"You tried to kill us. Tell me one good reason why we shouldn't let her go to give you the thumping you deserve."

"Cause if you do she won't get any answers. You still don't know what they did to us, do you Doctor?"

The Doctor snarled at him. The Master grin got wider.

"It's tearing you up from the inside, isn't it? The sheer pain of not knowing. If I knew that this would cause you this much anguish I would have done something like this centuries ago, not chased after your pathetic ape friends." He laughed. "But why? Why has the destruction of where you have not willingly travelled to for centuries caused you so much pain? You hated it, even when we were children."

"After the Time War I thought they were dead for decades." The Doctor's voice was thick and rough. "Centuries! Do you know how I felt, alone in the universe? I thought I was the one that had killed them. That guilt weighed on me for regenerations. But then they were alive and safe, in the bubble universe I created. As much as I hated it I had a home again.

"But now you have taken that away again. And now there is the guilt that I wasn't there to stop you. I have saved galaxies but I can't save my own home planet. You destroyed everything, killed everyone, even the children." She broke off into a sob.

The Master looked at her sadly.

"That's your downfall, Doctor. You shouldn't have a conscience. Especially not towards them."

He reached out and tenderly stroked her cheek as she flinched away then jerked towards him, teeth bared, barely held back. He laughed.

"Goodbye, Doctor." A flick of the wrist and a flash of light and he was gone.

The Doctor lunged forwards after him and her friends let her go. She stumbled for a few steps then fell to her knees, kicking up dust in her wake. She hunched over, arms across her chest, hair brushing the ground.

Silence fell.

"Doctor?" Yaz was the first to find her voice. "Are you ok?"

"Do you think she looks ok?" Murmured Ryan

"Well what else am I supposed to say?" Hissed Yaz back. "I'm sorry your friend committed genocide?!"

"Children," admonished Graham. "That's not helping." He stepped forwards towards the huddled figure on the ground. "Doc?" She didn't reply. "Doctor?" He went to put a comforting hand on her shoulder. She flinched at his touch, shrugging off his hand when he tried again. Defeated he stepped back, shrugging at Ryan and Yaz. They shrugged back, hearts breaking at the Doctor's anguish but not knowing what to do to comfort her. How could you comfort someone who had lost their entire planet?

Beneath the Doctor's bowed head, hidden behind her hair, a few tears dropped off her face and intermingled with the few drops of Time Lord blood that spotted the ground.

Silence reigned, only broken by baboon-like calls in the distance.

Suddenly the Doctor drew in a deep breath and swiped at her face with the back of her hand, using the other to stand up. She didn't look in her friends' direction as she passed them, face hidden behind a curtain of hair.

"Back to the Tardis." Her voice was hoarse. They followed wordlessly, eyes barely straying from her back as they traipsed back through the savannah.

She still didn't utter a word once they were back in her box. She just stood at the controls and calmly piloted them off the planet, movements efficient and flat.

She still didn't look at her friends once the rumble of flight smoothed under their feet.

"Doctor," started Yaz. "How…"

"I need some time alone."

The Doctor stomped off into the depths of the Tardis. Yaz stepped to follow her but was stopped by Graham's hand on her arm.

"Leave her, love. She needs time to grieve. I'll take her a cup of tea in a bit, it's the least I can do after she helped me with losing Grace."

Yaz nodded sadly.

"Do you think she'll be alright?"

"She's the Doc. I don't think her well of optimism will ever run dry. She just needs time to process everything but she'll be back to her old self in a while."

"I wish we could do more."

"What can we do? She'll come to us when she needs us. And if she doesn't we'll drag her out and make sure she knows that she is not alone."

Yaz nodded again, unconvinced but satisfied for now. Ryan nodded his head in the direction of the corridor.

"Fancy thrashing me at Mario Kart?" That elicited a small smile.

"Sure. But I'm not going to be able to best ya for long, you get quicker with every lap!" They retreated down the corridor and Graham listened as their gentle banter faded in the distance. He found himself the last one in the console room.

He took one last look at where Ryan and Yaz, and before them the Doctor, had disappeared and murmured one last comment to himself that would not stay unsaid.

"I hope she'll be ok."