The Doctor checked the scanner screen, it showed an empty room. A circular room, with a thick black pillar in the centre. Odd, the pillar didn't seem to be supporting the ceiling in any way shape or form. It was just there. Why? 'Great,' the Doctor thought to himself, 'something else I want to find an answer for.'
Half an hour later the Doctor and Rebecca were both standing outside the TARDIS. Neither of them seemed to have any idea of what to do next?
"What now Doctor?" Rebecca asked.
"I suggest we look around, there're a few doors leading off here."
"Together or separately?"
"I think it best if we stick together."
The Doctor selected one of eight doors and they both set off down the corridor it opened on to, the Doctor couldn't help thinking 'why is it always corridors?'
Neither of them noticed the small surveillance camera in the wall.
An old man watched the Doctor and Rebecca; they left the round room and carried on down a corridor. The screen the man was watching changed to the corridor and he watched them still. On his chest he wore a badge. A white badge with a Penny-Farthing bicycle on it. It also had a number on it. No.1.
Rebecca had lost count of the number of corridors she'd traversed during her time with the Doctor, mind you she didn't really think she'd started counting in the first place. She'd met the Doctor quite a while ago. It hadn't been the most pleasant of meetings as it involved a large explosion, the deaths of millions of people (which including some of Rebecca's friends and family), becoming trapped underneath a collapsed building and then being snatched up by a fierce flying monster. Things had been mostly the same since then, though there was the occasional trip to the alien seaside to brighten things up. She'd been 16 when she first met him, she wasn't quite sure how he measured time in a time machine but the Doctor had told her they'd been together for about four or five years now, and she didn't seem to have aged beyond 16 at all. In fact Rebecca was almost sure she'd aged back to 15 again. Life on board the TARDIS had seemed strange at first but she'd got used to it. She'd now acquired a collection of souvenirs from their travels (this included an unoccupied Dalek casing and Neil Armstrong's first step on the moon which they'd scooped up and sealed in an air tight vacuum, the Doctor had done something to it which made all the moon dust cling together so that they didn't lose the piece of history. She'd always been unsure about the Doctor himself; he had a very strong personality. Perhaps this was because he'd got to the beginning of his end. But he was happy to have her come with him; perhaps he just wanted someone as company when the end finally came. He didn't want to die alone.
Rebecca was jolted out of her memories and back into reality when someone ambushed her from behind and grabbed her. The man behind her was holding on tight, his left arm across her chest and a gun pointing to her head in his right hand. More men appeared and aimed guns at the Doctor who just stood there.
"Well, it's not the first time," the Doctor said to himself.
The old man looked round as the Doctor and Rebecca were both brought in to see him. The Doctor saw the badge, No.1, the Doctor knew he'd gone back into the past before he'd been kidnapped. But who was this No.1. It certainly wasn't the same one he'd seen.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"I? I am No.1," the old man replied, "But you can call me…the Master."
The Doctor froze, not him, not again, he'd had enough of the Master. The Doctor thought he'd disposed of the old has-been years ago, but no, the Master kept coming back. Each time having to pinch someone else body. The Doctor would never have dared to cheat death like that. Never.
"And what are you up to this time then?" the Doctor asked.
"Oh just starting up somewhere for people who…know too much and we think need to be silenced."
"So who are you working for, whose side are you on?"
"That would be telling Doctor."
The Doctor swore mentally, the same answer again; it wasn't like the Master to keep secrets like this. Well, not one of the old Masters.
"And I suppose now you have me you're going to carry out a spot of revenge."
"Well, you could call it that. I'm sure you've noticed that this current body is getting on a bit."
"It is a bit obvious."
"So I need a new one."
"And why are you telling me?" then the Doctor remembered No.1, his number 1, him, "No."
"Yes, I'm going to have yours Doctor. A Time Lord body would be most suitable, and they are very hard to come by these days you know."
"Well I won't last long; I'm in me No.13 now."
"So what? I can always get another one, I've always fancied having a go at a female persona," the Master sneered looking at Rebecca.
"Don't even think about it," Rebecca snarled, appalled at the idea.
"Well I'm afraid you have no choice in either matter my dear," the Master said.
"That's just like you isn't it, always thinking of yourself," the Doctor said.
"True, and all I want it to live, to survive."
And then he placed his hands on the Doctor's shoulder's, the Doctor screamed and the Master laughed. The Master collapsed, dead. The Doctor looked down at the body as it started to crumble.
"They always go quickly when I do," he said to himself, "Well this is certainly better then the last few, might gave the beard a miss this time though."
"No!" Rebecca gasped.
"Yes," the Doctor said, "Say hello to the new Master, and the new No.1."
"What do you want us to do with her?" one of the men asked.
"Oh, I might have some use for her in the future. We'll take her to my TARDIS and have her frozen for a bit."
Rebecca shuddered as she heard this and the Master just chuckled.
The Master's TARDIS was almost the same as the Doctor's, though with a slight difference in colour scheme. The Master had taken her to a room containing a set of cryogenic chambers. Rebecca was know secured in one of these, the Master had fastened leather straps around her ankles and wrists to keep her in place. Then he'd closed the chamber. Rebecca could only think of one think as the chamber filled with vapour, the Doctor was dead, and she was going to go the same way…one day.
The End