Chapter Eight
"I'm sorry Sir, but he's got quite a lot to be going on with."
"Quite a lot to be going on with?" The Doctor demanded "Like what?!"
After his conversation he'd asked the Torre who'd served them tea to take him to Amy. Not that he was worried. He just...Okay no, he was definitely worried. Leaving his companion, alone, well, ish, on a planet full of people that the Master had basically formed. Albeit seemingly friendly, not homicidal, not at all mad people. With tails. He really needed to have a good look around...
The Torre simply smiled at his question as they entered another room. "If he hasn't told you, I doubt you need to know. Keeja might tell you, if you ask-"
"Assuming you won't go poking too far into his personal business." Keeja finished for the slightly shorter Torre, who seemed to twitch slightly, bowing its...its?- Their head respectfully.
"I meant no disrespect ma'am. Just that you know more than most. Being his friend-"
"Friend?!" The Doctor muttered incredulously. Since when did the Master have friends? Aside from him of course. Not that they really had been friends since...Well, far too long. It didn't matter anyways.
"A problem with the word Doctor?" Keeja asked, after dismissing the other Torre, who left in such a hurry they might have been running from something. "The man you saw is a changed one from the man who happily locked you in a birdcage and pushed you off a tower. I would have thought, being someone who knows him as well as you ought, you'd see it." She gave him a slightly disapproving look "Perhaps I was wrong."
"No, well, a little bit. But I do want to see it. Believe me I do. I've been trying to find good in the Master since he came back...Before that really. But after what he's done-" Keeja stopped him there.
"Who cares for what he's done? What have you done that is so far below his crimes? Or is the only difference that you dwell on it and he does not?" She paused a moment before continuing, still giving him that disapproving stare, large green eyes narrowed in dislike. "And if I might continue to say that you haven't even asked me what you came here to ask. You are so easily distracted by other problems you have forgotten your friend Ms. Pond."
The Doctor couldn't find an argument for that. He had gotten rather caught up. And where was Amy? She was supposed to be here. With Keeja. And she wasn't. So where had she gone? Had she left on her own? Had Keeja sent her somewhere?
"To answer the question you still have not asked, she returned to the main hall looking for you. I have to say I'm quite disappointed. You are supposed to value your friends above most else aren't you? And yet lord Master has told us more of his past and his life than you have ever even mentioned. I wonder only if your friends envy your enemies for their knowledge of you."
...
"Oi! Your royal high whatever. Where'd you send the Doctor off to?" Amy had made her way back to the main hall only to find the Doctor gone. The Master remained, sitting too stiff to be natural, tapping idly at his teacup.
"I haven't sent him anywhere. He went to find you. Not that I can figure out why. You're unhelpful, demanding, and have forgotten something apparently of extreme importance. At least in his eyes. Actually...Never mind, I've figured out why he likes you." He barely glanced at her, staring back down into his tea as if it held the answers of every question known to the universe. "He also won't be happy when he realizes you're alone with me-"
"I can handle myself," Amy cut him off quickly "If anyone needs taking care of it's him. Big outer space ten-year-old."
To her surprise, the Master laughed. Genuinely, and she knew the difference. People had ways of laughing when they didn't mean it. But he was truly amused by what she'd said. "That at least, is true. The older he gets the younger he acts, in a constant state of wonder at everything."
"Like this planet for example?"
"Barren and less colourful than Alaska in November." The Master supplied "I will admit however, the people are far more interesting than expected."
"Keeja seems alright...They're a bit, submissive."
The Master shook his head, "Oh believe me, you haven't seen them riled up. I told the Doctor I could have an army together in minutes if need be, and I wasn't lying. Spend centuries under ground and you're dying for a bit of exercise."
Amy was silent for a moment, watching the Master carefully. Unsure as to whether she should take that as a threat or as simple statement of fact. And before she got the chance to really decide, he spoke again.
"It's not surprising really, the way he acts. Coming from a society like ours. Everything is rules and regulations and strict code. Unless you happen to be Rassilon in which case just disregard all of that and refuse to really die. Which, coincidentally, has also been my take on it. I'm just less self-centered." The chance was there, the question hung unasked but obvious.
"What was it like then? Your planet?"
"The planet itself? Beautiful. The people, considerably less so. Corrupt and horrid and apt to force far too much responsibility onto eight year olds. Which considering our life span should be akin to infancy."
"What do you mean corrupt-"
"Imagine sticking a bunch of people who hate change and love watching about a thousand different television shows at once into power. You'd get the council of the Time Lords. Sitting behind locked doors watching the turn of the universe. Never doing anything about it. Went mad when the war came. Decided it would be better to live as beings of thought. People call me insane and I wouldn't have tried it."
Chapter eight
Surprising not-horrible-conversation between Amy and Kosch
Yeah sorry I call him Koschei...Write these fics and RP long enough you get sick of writing Master...
- Jenna