Author's Note:

Thank you, thank you, thank you to all the lovely people who reviewed the last chapter, you all made me very happy:- MayFairy, Daughter of the Master, TheGreatWhite, Lost Moon, Lexy Summers, EmmaMarie, Neopolitan Dreamss (x 3), sailormajinmoon, SawManiac211, gallifrey calls now, MountainLord-92, CharcoalFaith, Ahsilaa, JessieDear13, Theta'sWorstNightmare and EDZEL2 (x 4).

To Lost Moon: Here's another quick update, aren't you proud of me? Ah, questions, questions, you shall have to wait and see. LOL, yeah, there are a few Master/OC fics around at the moment, aren't there? I remember when I first posted, I was very nervous because I wasn't sure whether Master/OC was the "done thing" or not. How times have changed! All good though - the more popular the Master is, the better the chance the BBC will bring him back, fingers crossed.

To sailormajinmoon: Thanks so much for another review! You are correct, the 'YANA' message was for Tejana to see, except that she didn't, LOL. Hopefully you will enjoy this next bit too XXX

WARNING: This chapter is a bit dark, with some mentions of violence and some Tejana!Whump. Just letting you know up front ;)

Here's hoping it isn't /too/ dark and everyone still enjoys XXX

- Chapter Eight -

"I'll become one of the Neverwere, but I'll never leave her. I'll whisper in her ear, walk through her dreams. I will never, ever let her go..."

- The Master, So Many Things Should Have Been Different

The place was like a tomb.

It was the first thought Hart had when he stepped out of the TARDIS and he couldn't seem to shake it. The air inside the cavern felt heavy, redolent with the sadness and decay of centuries, while the silence had an almost eerie quality, not just the temporary absence of sound, but as if there had never been any sound there to hear at all.

Hart's hands dropped to the holsters on his belt, automatically seeking the reassurance of his blaster pistols, only to mutter a curse as he remembered they were empty. He really had to do something about that, and soon. Warily, he walked further into the room, his eyes searching the darkness for any sign of movement. As deserted as this place seemed, someone had to have been here recently to light those flickering torches.

The grey cube sat like a watchful sentinel, dominating the rest of the cave. All around it were grouped what looked to be a garden of strange-looking statues, all of them facing inward, toward the box. Some kind of weird temple, perhaps? Hart wondered uneasily. The box was engraved on each side with complicated, circular runes. Maybe it was some sort of object of veneration. He drew closer to the nearest statue to study it in more detail. It was shaped like a man in the uniform of a Roman soldier, kneeling on the ground with his arms up over his face, as if warding off something terrifying. Curiosity winning out over caution, Hart wandered between the motionless figures, looking at each one. There were several dozen of them and no two were alike. Some were creatures he had previously encountered in his travels throughout the Universe, such as a Cyberman, a Blowfish and a Draconian. Others he had never seen before, such as the short, ugly warriors with heads that closely resembled a warty potato. All the figures appeared to be sculpted from a peculiar, grey, ashy substance.

He paused in front of a thing shaped vaguely like a pepper pot, with a bulbous, protruding eyestalk. An icy shiver passed over his skin. In the back of his head, he replayed the memory of Tejana's voice back on Mnemosyne...Have you ever seen a Dalek, Hart? Mutated humanoids encased in an armoured shell...they want to kill everything in the Universe that isn't a Dalek...ruthless, single-minded and completely beyond reason...

Was this a Dalek? Reaching out cautiously with a single forefinger, he gave the eyestalk a gentle prod. Immediately, the entire statue disintegrated into dust and fell to the floor. Hart took a startled step backwards, staring at the grey particles sifting past his feet. That wasn't ordinary dust, nor was it ash. He'd been a Time Agent long enough to recognise entropy dust when he saw it. And these things weren't statues either. They were temporal residue. Something had happened here, some sort of catastrophic glitch in the causal nexus that had wiped all these creatures out of time and space, leaving only these echoes behind.

"PRINCESS!" he yelled again. "BLONDIE! WHERE ARE YOU?"

There was no answer, except his own voice bouncing mournfully back to him from the stone walls. Making sure he didn't touch any of the other fossilised figures, he edged over to the enormous cube, hoping to find some evidence of his missing companions. He could tell nothing from the runes etched into the exterior of the mysterious box – he had never seen anything like them before. They felt ice-cold under his hand, humming with some kind of unidentifiable energy that made his skin crawl. He pulled his fingers sharply away, as though he had been burned.

To his right, lying abandoned on the ground beside the box, a square, leather satchel caught his attention. It looked like a woman's bag. Much too girly for Blondie, but maybe it belonged to Tejana. Crouching down, he flipped it open and began to explore inside. The first thing he pulled out was a large, lethal-looking knife, which he examined with approval and then slipped inside his boot. The next thing was even better – a sonic blaster pistol, somewhat old-fashioned compared to the cutting-edge weaponry he usually carried, but still very serviceable. Whoever it belonged to, the bag was proving to be a treasure trove. Obviously someone believed in being prepared. He twirled the gun on his finger and then shoved it into one of his empty holsters.

Again, he looked inside the satchel, tensing in shock as he drew out the next item. It was a vortex manipulator. But not just any vortex manipulator. Every wrist-strap issued by the Time Agency was slightly different, each one as unique as the operatives who wore them. This one was his, he would know it anywhere. But it was battered and worn, much older in appearance than the one he had lent to Tejana, as if quite a few years had passed. The same wrist-strap then, but from some distant point in the future. How had it ended up here? Where was Tejana with the wrist-strap from his current time-line? What the hell was going on?

There was one last item left in the bottom of the satchel. It was so small he almost didn't notice it at first. But then the glint of gold attracted his eye. It looked innocuous enough, just a beautifully-engraved lipstick case, just like any woman might carry in her bag. But Hart's gaze sharpened as soon as he saw it.

Oh, you have to be kidding, he thought incredulously, it can't be!

Pulling off the top of the case, he sniffed at the carmine lipstick inside. Just as he had guessed, it was hallucinogenic. No wonder he recognised the golden case. It was the very same gift he had given her on that long ago mission.

River Song. A long, slow grin spread across his face. Well now, wasn't the Universe such a small, small place?

Thankfully, Tejana managed to get through that night's dinner service in the Refectory without any further incidents. She worked hard and kept her mind on the job, determined not to give Fionnula any excuse to complain. Not wishing to draw any more attention to herself than she already had, she purposely stayed well away from the Deca table, leaving the other servants to attend to their needs. Even Theta didn't acknowledge her as she passed by to reach the other nearby tables, which hurt a little bit, even though it was exactly what she had asked of him. A few times she thought she felt Koschei's dark blue gaze resting on her, but whenever she glanced up, he was looking elsewhere.

The only slightly unsettling thing that happened was when she was collecting the used dishes from in front of a heavy-set boy with ice grey eyes and closely-cut dark brown hair. Just as she was lifting his plate away, his hand had snaked out and grabbed her wrist in a powerful grasp, making her jump.

"What's your name, girl?" he demanded.

Instantly disliking him, Tejana went absolutely still and raised her chin, refusing to be intimidated by his arrogant stare. "Kat...my Lord," she replied coolly, without flinching or dropping her eyes.

"My name is Anzor," he told her, with a smile she could only describe as sly. "I'm Lord President Drall's son. And I'm a very good friend of Theta Sigma."

Still holding her arm in a vice-like grip, he looked over towards the Deca table. She followed his gaze. Theta's eyes were fixed on them and the expression on his face was anything but friendly. His body was tensed and it looked like he was about to jump to his feet, until Koschei's hand flew to his shoulder, apparently holding him back, while whispering urgently in his ear.

Anzor laughed, a peculiarly ugly sound, and he raised his free hand in a mocking salute towards Theta, before turning back to his own table and releasing Tejana's arm as though nothing had happened.

"Carry on with your work, little Kat," he leered. "Wouldn't want you getting in any trouble now, would we?"

"No, my Lord," she said flatly, placing his plate on her pile and hurrying off through the crowded room, relieved to be away from him. What on Gallifrey was that all about? She racked her brain, but couldn't remember the Doctor ever mentioning anyone called Anzor. As far as she knew, he hadn't ever been overly friendly with anyone outside the Deca. Then again, she had never known that he had once had a fling with the Rani either, so that didn't necessarily mean anything.

Putting the plates inside the transmat cabinet, she risked another glance in Theta's direction. He had his head down and Koschei was still speaking rapidly to him, as if trying to talk him out of doing something stupid. A frown creased her brow at the sight. She was going to have to find out what the deal was between Theta and Anzor. She couldn't afford any unexpected surprises right now.

However, she had no chance to speak to Theta before he left the room with the rest of the Deca. Anzor left a short time later, laughing and joking coarsely with his own friends. He gave her a wink as he passed, but she pretended not to see it. Soon the room cleared of students entirely, leaving only the servants to tidy up and make the hall ready for breakfast the following morning. Outside the enormous windows, velvet night spread across the mountains, heralding the end of another day.

Tejana drew in a deep breath, staring out at the magnificent starry sky with something very close to contentment as she wiped down the last of the tables. It was so lovely, so very peaceful. But then something odd occurred to her. Some of the constellations seemed a lot less brighter than usual. And where was the Eye of Orion? At this time of year, it should be clearly visible from the Citadel, shining through the night sky like a beacon. She turned to Dyoni, who was busy using a small, hand-held sanitation device to clean up a spill on the floor.

"Dyoni?"

"Mmmmm?" the other girl responded distractedly.

"Does something seem different to you about the sky tonight?"

Absorbed in her task, Dyoni raised her head to look, gave a small shrug and went back to what she was doing. "No. It's the same as always."

"You haven't noticed that some of the stars seem to be...missing?"

Dyoni looked at her blankly. "Sometimes I worry about you, Kat. How can a star go missing? Of course they're all there, same as always."

"What about the Eye of Orion? And the Flame Nebula?"

"I've never even heard of those," Dyoni replied. "Is this some kind of strange Shabogan legend?"

"No, I..." Tejana's voice trailed away as a cold blanket of fear seemed to envelop her. Frantically, her eyes searched the night sky, trying to find something...anything...to prove that she had made an error. But there was no mistake. The stars were going out. Everyone on Gallifrey knew the Eye of Orion, even the tiniest of children. Now it was gone and Dyoni didn't even remember it? "I'm sorry...it doesn't matter, just forget it."

She managed to finish the rest of her tasks almost on auto-pilot, her mind in turmoil. The presence of the cracks had been alarming enough before, but she had never for one moment thought that things could be this bad. The anxiety of not knowing what was going on was immense. She had to speak to Theta. She had to get her hands on whatever data he had been able to gather. He was not strictly a time-traveller yet – a few short training trips in a TARDIS hardly counted. Would he be able to remember the stars that were lost? Or would he, like Dyoni, have forgotten they ever existed?

The idea of waiting until the next day to speak to him made her want to scream with frustration. So when she got back to the room she shared with Dyoni and found the crumpled note under her pillow, it filled her with nothing but relief. It said: "Kat, I need to speak to you. Meet me back in the Refectory at midnight. Don't tell anybody." And it was signed θΣ, the traditional symbols that represented the name Theta Sigma.

She was so busy puzzling out exactly what she was going to say to him that it never occurred to her to question whether or not the note was genuine.

The Refectory was still beautiful after hours, but it was a bit spooky as well. Everything was quiet, all the noise and the clatter of the day having disappeared with the crowd of students. Tejana stood in the doorway and extinguished her lamp. She hardly needed it in here. Selenista Gallifreya was riding high above the mountaintops like an amaranthine galleon, casting a sparkling cascade of violet moonlight down through the Cadonflood Valley until it streamed through the huge windows to envelop the room.

The sight was beyond magnificent, but it still made Tejana stir uncomfortably. She would never be able to see purple moonlight again without thinking of the Chaos-Master on Mnemosyne.

So...tell me, Ana...have you ever danced with the Devil in the pale moonlight?

Resolutely, she pushed the memory away. The creature was gone. It had shattered into a million pieces on top of Mount Boreas and she never needed to think about it again.

She stepped forward into the room. "Theta? Lord Theta, are you here?"

Her voice seemed thin and small, as if it was being sucked into a vacuum. Nobody replied and she could see no sign of Theta in the big, empty room. Slowly, she began to walk, listening to the soft sound of her own footsteps on the stone floor. Her internal chronometry told her that it was well past midnight already.

He's just a bit late, she told herself, determined not to give in to the uneasiness whispering up her spine. Maybe he had trouble sneaking away from the others.

Out of sheer habit, she crossed the room and sat down at the table she had always shared with Damon, during her own time at the Academy. She kept her eyes averted from the window, not wanting to see how wrong the stars looked. Somehow they were going to fix this. Somehow, crack or no crack, she would manage to re-write her name into the Song of the Universe. These days she had far too much to live for to just let it all slip away from her. Kat, the Shobogan maidservant would disappear, and one day, Tejanakaturadilena of the House of Lungbarrow would sit here with her best friend Damon and dream of travelling with her father among those very stars.

Suddenly she heard an odd, off-key whistling that raised the hairs on the back of her neck. She tensed, every muscle tightly strung. Someone was in the room with her, someone who was whistling the same three notes over and over in a monotonous, spine-chilling travesty of a tune.

"Who's there?" she called, turning her head in an effort to distinguish which direction the noise was coming from. "Theta? Is that you?"

But even as she said the words, she knew in her hearts that it wasn't her young father. The sound was specifically designed to make her afraid and Theta would never do that. Slowly, she rose to her feet, her eyes travelling swiftly over the nearby tables, all of Jack's Torchwood training automatically clicking into gear. Her laser screwdriver was still back in her room. She needed another weapon and she needed it now. Anything at all would do. But the maidservants had done their job much too well. There was absolutely nothing to hand, no knives, not even a spoon, which could at least have been useful for gouging an enemy's eye out.

The whistling stopped abruptly, to be replaced by a high-pitched, demented giggle. She had heard some mad laughter in her time – the Master himself was no slouch in that department – but she had never heard anything quite that horrible before. Whoever it was had clearly passed beyond insane into whatever weirder and murkier realms came next.

"Ka-at!" a male voice sing-songed. "Oh, little Ka-at!"

"You might as well show yourself!" she said coldly. "I'm not afraid of you."

"Oh, but you will be, I can promise you that!" the voice responded, with another flood of crazy laughter. A dark figure stepped forward out of one of the purple-tinted shadows. It was tall and muscular and appeared to be swinging a long, blue stick of some sort, back and forth nonchalantly like a clock pendulum.

"Ta-da! Don't fret, here I am!" the newcomer exclaimed gleefully. "You girls are always just so impatient, aren't you?"

Tejana took a wary step backwards as the moonlight fell across his face, revealing the familiar features of President Drall's son. "Anzor!" she breathed, very aware that he now stood between her and the only exit from the room. Going by the manic glitter in his eyes, she somehow didn't think this was going to be a pleasant little chat.

"That's Lord Anzor to you, little Kat! Waiting for my good friend, Lord Theta, are you? I'm afraid I have some bad news for you. He's not coming."

Worry for Theta crawled up inside her. "Why? What have you done to him?"

"I haven't done anything to him. Yet," Anzor smirked. "That note was from me, not from him. Why should he get all the fun, hmmmm?"

Stupid! I'm so stupid! Tejana berated herself angrily. After all she'd been through, and she'd still walked straight into a trap and hadn't even seen it coming. It wasn't the first time someone had tried to use her to get at the Doctor and it probably wouldn't be the last. But she was damned if she was going to make it easy for him, whatever he had planned.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she said, in a voice like ice. "And I'd like to leave now, please."

"Oh no, I couldn't possibly let you do that. We're just getting started. We're going to have lots of fun together, the three of us."

She looked around sharply, but there was no-one else there. "The three of us?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, how remiss of me. I haven't introduced you to my friend yet, have I?" He raised the rod he was holding in the air. "Kat, I'd like you to meet my galvaniser." As he spoke, coruscating snakes of white-hot energy ran up and down the length of the blue rod and the tip glowed with a sick orange colour. Tejana drew in a shocked breath as it began to dawn on her just how much trouble she was in. Anzor laughed evilly at the look on her face. "My father has an estate near the Lune Forest on the Continent of Absolute Beauty. Sometimes the lynx come down out of the mountains and worry the livestock. We use these to hunt them down and slaughter them." His nostrils widened, his face a picture of savage pleasure and bloodlust. "You have no idea of the excitement of it, Kat, the incredible feeling you get from the hunt, outwitting the prey, cornering it so it can't escape, then the thrill of subjugating it. Every time I came back to the Academy I missed it so badly. But then, you see, I realised, just because I was here didn't mean I had to give up my passion. There are still animals to be hunted, even in this place. I may not be able to kill them – Father might object, you see – but there are other outcomes just as enjoyable."

"Oh gods, you're talking about the servants, aren't you?" she gasped in horror as his meaning became clear. "They aren't animals, you monster, they're people!"

He chuckled sadistically. "Oh, you're animals, all right, all you servant girls. Maybe a bit prettier to look at, maybe a bit softer to touch, but animals nonetheless...nothing but little bitches in heat, just waiting for me to play with you." His smile widened as he looked her up and down. "And this time it's your turn. Theta Sigma's hot little girlfriend. How many times have you given it up for him, Kat, eh? How many times have you been in his bed? And what about his friend, Oakdown? I saw him looking at you too. How many times have you pleasured him? Or maybe you did them both at the same time?"

"You're sick!" she spat.

Anger darkened his face at her contemptuous tone. "I'm going to enjoy using that smart little mouth for anything and everything I choose when this is over. I'm going to teach Theta Sigma and his little gang just what it means to cross me. You're going to beg me to stop before I'm through, servant girl, and I will relish every single one of your screams."

He began to walk towards her, the galvaniser held lovingly in his hands. All her options began flashing through her mind in a continuous blur. She could fight him. She'd learned enough of unarmed hand-to-hand combat both in the Time War and also during her time at Torchwood to put up a decent struggle. But that had been in her previous incarnation, when she had been taller and stronger. Now that her charge of excess regeneration energy had worn off, her new body wasn't exactly built for sustained aggression. She could call for help, using the psychic link. Theta would come, perhaps even the rest of the Deca. But if she called to him, her cover as a maidservant would instantly be blown. And he might not be the only one who would hear, bringing the wrath of the Time Lords down not only on her, but possibly on Theta and Koschei as well. She couldn't do that, not only because she loved them both, but also because it might change history in ways she couldn't even begin to imagine. Things were bad enough already without that.

Her last option was to run, but that involved trying to get past Anzor to the door, giving him the chance to hunt her down through the room with his galvaniser, which was exactly what the bastard wanted. She had no doubt that he planned to incapacitate her with the device as painfully as possible, before sexually degrading and raping her. Who knew how many other servant girls he had done this to before? Minya... The name jumped into her head like a firecracker going off. Was this what had happened to her? Of course, it had to be. And Dyoni knew about it – all the maids did – that's why they were so scared to work alone. But no-one dared to talk about it because this psychopath was Lord President Drall's only son.

"Don't worry, Kat," he crooned, as if he was reading her mind. "I'm a fair man. Let's do a deal. You get past me to the door and I'll let you go free, I promise. All you have to do is reach the safety of the doorway. So come on now, little one...make it fun for me...let me see that spirit...RUN!"

So she did, but not in the way he had expected. Lowering her head, she charged straight at him like a bull at a gate, head butting him savagely in the stomach. Unprepared, he went down, with her on top of him. She tried to twist aside so that she could get up and run to the door, but before she could make it, he brought the galvaniser around and thrust it at her shoulder. A bolt of pure agony shot through her, flinging her backwards across the floor like a physical blow.

Anzor sat up, breathing heavily. "I knew you'd be a fighter," he said, the psychotic grin still plastered across his face. "I can always tell."

Tejana's right arm was twitching madly from the shock. Get up! she told herself fiercely. You're a Time Lady of Gallifrey. You're the Doctor's daughter, you're the Master's wife. Don't you DARE give in!

She could hear him coming, his footsteps sliding over the stone. So she lay still, pretending to be stunned. "Come on, little Kat, is that all you've got? You disappoint me," he mocked, stepping closer to her supine body.

Spinning around with all her strength, she lashed out with a scissor kick that swept Anzor's feet out from under him. He fell to the ground, grunting as his head struck one of the tables on the way down. Tejana was up and running in a second, only to feel another searing blast streaking up her leg. She screamed in agony and collapsed, the injured leg giving out under her. Somewhere under the avalanche of pain, she knew with a cold certainty she couldn't take too many more hits like this without risking the life of the baby in her belly.

She could hear Anzor groaning behind her. He had hurt her, but she had also damaged him, maybe even seriously. Gritting her teeth, she pulled herself to her knees and began to crawl, every atom of her being concentrated on reaching the doorway. The next bolt caught her in the back, punching her into the ground. Everything inside her head flashed bone white in pain as her spine seemed to shear in half. Dimly, she realised that the howl of unutterable anguish she could hear was coming from her own mouth.

Anzor stood over her, unsteadily rocking back and forth on his feet, blood dripping from his head injury. "That's it, Kat, scream for me!" he hissed, his hand swooping down to tangle painfully in her hair. "I like to hear my prey scream!"

With one swift movement, he flipped her over until she was lying on her back. He stared down at her, his eyes bright with triumph and rampant arousal. "Feisty little thing, aren't you? Had enough yet?" he sneered. "Because I haven't. How about a little shock here?" Tauntingly, he brushed the glowing orange tip of the galvaniser over Tejana's full lips, parted as she struggled for breath. "Or here?" The rod moved downward, tracing a path down her neck until it settled on her right breast, intimately circling the small, firm mound of flesh. "Or, even better, what about here?" Again, the instrument of torture moved downwards, until it nudged at the apex of her thighs.

"Go to hell!" Tejana gritted out, appalled at the realisation of the suffering she was about to endure, but still unwilling to yield anything to this madman.

"On the contrary, that's just where you're going to find yourself, little Kat," he promised. "The last girl I did this to...well, let's just say, her sanity gave out before her body did." He giggled wildly. "I looked into her eyes and I watched her mind break from the fear and the pain...snap...just like that. But I don't think that will happen to you. I think you'll fight me, right to the end. Let's test my hypothesis, shall we?"

Reaching down, he tore her dress open from neck to waist.

Drax didn't know why he kept on playing the board game Sepulchasm against Koschei. He always lost, every single time. He supposed he lived in hope that one day his luck might change. What he hadn't expected was that it might be today.

It was very late, after midnight. But Time Lords didn't need a lot of sleep and often kept irregular hours, unless some form of physical exertion made them particularly tired. They were sitting in the Deca common room, facing each other over the Sepulchasm pedestal. Drax wasn't sure where everyone else was. Koschei and Theta had apparently had a disagreement about something – the something being the new servant girl, he presumed – and Theta had slammed off to his room. So, ever the peacemaker, Drax had suggested a game of Sepulchasm to distract Koschei. Usually, it was just the thing to smooth things over. Koschei was so competitive that when he got involved in any sort of contest, he tended to forget everything else until he emerged victorious. But tonight he seemed to be finding it difficult to concentrate and, for once, Drax was actually winning.

"Your turn, Kos," he prompted now, after waiting fruitlessly for his friend to make his move.

Koschei blinked, as if his thoughts had been far away, and then reached for the eight-sided dice. But before he touched it, his slender, long-fingered hand froze, hovering in the air over the game board.

"Drax," he said in a tightly-controlled voice. "Is there someone standing behind me?"

Drax glanced up in surprise at the question. He hadn't heard anyone come in. Sure enough, no-one else was in the room except the two of them.

"No," he answered, wondering if this was some weird sort of joke.

"You're sure?" Koschei said through clenched teeth.

"Of course I'm sure. Are you feeling all right?"

Suddenly Koschei stiffened and fell forward across the game board, as though something had slammed into his body with enormous force. Most of the miniature game pieces went flying, scattering around the room.

Horrified, Drax reached out and shook him by the arm. "Koschei! KOS!"

Almost immediately, Koschei hurled himself upright and glared at him. Drax recoiled backwards in shock at the change in his friend's eyes. The outer edge of Koschei's navy blue irises were ringed with vibrant chocolate brown.

"Ana!" he rasped.

Then he threw back his chair, leapt to his feet and ran for the door as if all the devils of hell were after him.

"Kos, wait!" Drax yelled. "Who's Ana?"

But it was too late, the other boy was long gone. Relieved that his friend appeared to be healthy enough after all, Drax gave a long-suffering sigh, wondering how on Gallifrey Koschei had managed to pull off that weird thing with his eyes changing colour.

Honestly! he thought crossly. That guy will do absolutely anything to avoid losing.

Bending over, he began to pick up the scattered game pieces from the floor, already putting the strange incident out of his mind.