The Master was having a wonderful day; plans running smoothly, no interference from the locals and best off all, a captured arch nemesis and his pet. He finished assembling the Omni-Transdental-Expandor and decided to take a short break from mechanics to gloat. After all, it was so rare to have an audience capable of truly understanding his genius. He simply had to show the Doctor the sheer elegance and sophistication of his latest plan. Making a token effort to conceal the smug expression on his face the Master pressed the palm of his hand against an innocuous point on the TARDIS wall and watched as part of the wall slid aside smoothly, to reveal the hidden chamber he'd stored his guests in.
The Doctor, still wearing that ridiculous outfit of his leapt to his feet as the door opened. Well, on reflection most of the Doctor's outfits were ridiculous. The human, Peri, moved to stand next to him and the Doctor reached out an arm to keep her behind him.
"Well Doctor? Awake at last I see."
"Yes. Quite." The Doctor glanced behind him at the American.
"And Miss Brown as well of course."
"She has nothing to do with this." That response came quick as lightning. Typical Doctor, always so protective of the primitives he picked up. Well, it was a useful weakness at least.
"And how would you know that Doctor? You don't even know what this is!"
"Why don't you enlighten me then, Master?" The Master blinked. The Doctor never called him by name. Not to his face at least. He must be very desperate indeed to protect the human if he was playing that hand this early in the game.
"Why don't I indeed? Follow me!" He strode out into the corridor, not needed to look to know the Doctor would have exchanged glances with his companion and then followed him obediently. So predictable. They reached the console room and the Master tapped at the controls, lowering the scanner. The Doctor stood to one side, gaze flickering interestedly around the room. Peri was too busy glaring at him to look around. He supressed a smile at her helpless fury.
An image of the seed pods flickered to life on the TARDIS screen. The Doctor stared at it, puzzled.
"These are Galeptic Pods, Doctor." The Master explained. When there was still no recognition on his enemy's face he elaborated further. Good grief, had the Doctor forgotten all his basic flora knowledge? "Galeptic Pods originate in the Kasterborus region. They have a few interesting features I know you'll appreiciate."
"Somehow I doubt that!" Peri cut in.
"Perhaps, Miss Brown. You see Galeptic Pods are incredibly virulent. Once they have matured enough they burst open, scattering tiny seeds to the wind. These seeds are virtually indestructible and grow astonishingly quickly. An exponential growth rate even, if my calculations are correct it shouldn't take them longer than a week or two to entirely cover this miserable little planet. Crushing all other life before finally dying itself as it removes all the useful minerals."
"That's monstrous!" She cried.
"More than that, it's pointless. What do you get out of it?" The Doctor frowned.
"What indeed Doctor! Well, besides the sheer pleasure at thwarting your endless attempts to protect this unworthy ball of rock, the mature Galeptic plants contain a rare mineral I wish to acquire. Unfortunately they are banned on most planets. Therefore I had to become inventive."
"And of course you just had to choose Earth for it!" The American girl was furious now, though the Doctor seemed to be holding back a bit, he kept glancing over to her.
"Where else could I gain such…satisfaction?" The Master practically purred. Peri's eyes flashed and she lunged forward with her hand raised. The Doctor moved to stop her but was a second to late as she leapt towards the dark headed Time Lord. The Master waited a beat and then, using reflexes faster than those of a mere human, backhanded her across the face, sending her flying into the TARDIS wall. The Doctor started forward at that, anger plain on his face but was thwarted when the Master calmly raised his TCE and pointed it between his foe's eyes.
"Give me a reason Doctor." The blond gritted his teeth and looked away. The Master lowered the weapon triumphantly. Peri was sitting up now, dabbing at her nose which was bleeding quite substantially. The Doctor shot a look of loathing towards the Master and crouched next to her.
"Easy, let me see Peri." He pried her hand away and checked her face. "Okay, it's not broken. That's good, resetting a nose is a painful business! Here, take mu handkerchief. Pinch your nose shut and breathe through your mouth. No, don't tilt your head back or the blood can run down your throat. I'd give you some ice but…"
Bored with his captives behaviour the Master turned back to his scanner. He adjusted it to show his seeds and their Ogron guards and froze. The seeds had reverted to their withered, dried inert state and the Ogrons were nowhere to be seen. He whirled around furiously.
"Doctor!"
"What?"
"What have you done? Where are my…!" He growled, realising he was unlikely to get an honest answer out of the Doctor and pressed the control to open the TARDIS door. Striding back to the Doctor and his human companion he grabbed her roughly by the wrist and pulled her towards the door.
"Come along Doctor. We are going to my seeds and you are going to undo whatever it was that you did. If you refuse, well…a broken nose isn't too bad. A broken spine however…"
"Threats. The refuge of a cowardly man." Spat the Doctor furiously.
"But effective. Move."
With that the Master pushed Peri in front of him, holding her wrist firmly between her shoulder blades, causing her to whimper in pain. Tristan stared on helplessly, watching as the Master forced the poor girl out of his TARDIS and into the open countryside. He glared venomously at the black clad figure's back before following on, after all what else could he do, if the Master put only the slightest bit more pressure on Peri's arm, he would break it.
The Master glanced over his shoulder and smirked at the sight of the Doctor's anger, the meddling fool was utterly helpless with his precious human pet's life in danger. In front of him Peri was struggling wildly, desperately trying to get him to loosen his grip. This caused his smirk to grow further; he did so enjoy watching the little creatures suffer. He bent down and whispered in her ear, his cool voice sounding even more menacing "Now my dear Miss Brown, you wouldn't want to worry your precious Doctor unnecessarily would you? No? Well then, I'd suggest you stop your incessant moving or my hand shall accidentally slip and who knows what could possibly happen to your arm."
Peri looked up at him and glared. "You're not gonna get away with this you know, the Doctor will stop you," she hissed.
"Your faith is so touching," the Master replied sardonically. "Now move." He shoved her forward, not missing the desperate look she threw towards the Doctor.
The real Doctor however, had set out from the TARDIS and ran up and down the crowded Darrowby streets several times, searching for his missing companion, as a dozen different scenarios of what could've happened to her played through his head, each one worse than the last. He groaned, pushing them out of his head, Peri would be fine; after all, he had dealt with the danger, the Galeptic pods had been dealt with and their guards neutralised. She was probably out shopping somewhere or had found someone to talk to and just lost track of the time. Yes that was it. But what if she had chosen to talk with the wrong person? His worry doubled and he ran off calling her name out loud and tearing round a corner, accidentally running straight into someone. The Doctor stopped, apologising breathless "I...So sorry old chap, didn't mean it, I'm just in an awful hurry, it's entirely my fault."
"Tristan, what on earth are you playing at?" a furious voice shouted.
"I...beg your pardon?" the Doctor looked confused, Tristan, who was that and why was this person shouting at him, after all he had apologised.
"Oh dash it all Tristan, why can't you be more careful? Honestly little brother, you will never get anywhere in life by running into people like that and...Good lord, what's the matter with you? You look positively dead on your feet." Siegfried Farnon's anger disappeared as fast as it had arrived.
"I..." the Doctor began, highly confused by this man's mood swings.
Siegfried cut him off. "And where's that charming American girl gotten to? Scared her off already? Really Tristan, you must try to..."
The Doctor stared. American girl? That must be. "Peri!" he exclaimed out loud. "Where is she? Have you seen her?" He looked desperately down at the elder Farnon.
"Since you took her out to assist you with that injured cow down at the Henderson's? No I'm afraid not."
Injured cow? Henderson's? The Doctor shook his head. He had no idea what was going on, but this was the closest he'd come to finding Peri. He shot the other man a smile. "Ah, thank you. Well sorry old chap, must dash," and with that he turned on his heel and rushed off down the street leaving a highly confused and furious Siegfried behind him.
About halfway out of the village he stopped dead, staring with horror. In front of him was Peri, only she wasn't alone. Behind her, an aura of supreme smugness emanating from him was the Master, who seemed to be hurting her. He gritted his teeth; he should've known that the Master was behind this whole despicable scheme, only he would be able to get a hold of illegal plants. And he, the Doctor, had dragged poor Peri into the midst of it all.
Tristan, it seemed was just as frustrated about the whole thing as the Doctor was. If only there was some way of distracting the Master's attention just slightly, then Peri might just be able to get free and run for help, or at least run to Siegfried for safety. After all, he thought bitterly, his older brother would be absolutely delighted to protect the girl. Oh he could just see Siegfried's smug face smiling at her, telling her how she was the most beautiful girl he had ever met and all that nonsense he spouted out to the women he took a liking to. He huffed a sigh of irritation only to hear the Master's silky voice calling "My dear Doctor, there's no use in frustration, I shall let go of dear Miss Brown once you have reactivated the pods, nothing else but that will make me let go."
That coward, he didn't dare let Peri go, he needed the Doctor. 'Well', Tris thought with no small amount of satisfaction, 'that's very unfortunate, because the Doctor isn't here.' Of course there was the possibility that the Master would realise he wasn't the Doctor, and then kill both him and Peri before the real Doctor had a chance to even show his face. No, he would have to be Peri's doctor, if only for her sake, he didn't know what it was about the girl, but she made him feel, well if he was honest, she made him feel like he felt when he had still been with Alice. Which was odd considering they hadn't met that long ago, but there was just something about her that made her different from any other girl he had ever met, and it wasn't just the fact that she was apparently from the future. Peri was fun and curious, incredibly kind, witty and of course she was downright beautiful. He sighed again, now was not the time to be having this sort of inner thoughts, he needed to find a way to reactivate those pod things before the Master did much worse than give Peri a nosebleed.