So as you can all remember I promised a new chapter for today because of the shortness of the previous one.
Also, I want to thank the guest reviewer that corrected me about the Eye of Orion that is actually the Eye of Harmony, if I'm not mistaken my editing should have worked and its now the correct Eye. :)
The Doctor bounced as he ran down the corridor of the TARDIS gleefully and stopped in front of the Master's room. He opened silently the door, peered in and found a sleeping Master in his bed.
The Doctor ran in and yelled happily, "Wakey, wakey, morning's here!"
The Master sat straight up, startled by the sudden noise, he looked around confused, finally locked his eyes on the Doctor and scowled, "What do you want?", he snarled.
"Today is a special day", the Doctor proclaimed brightly and added mysteriously, "You know why?"
"I'm no mood for your riddles so get on with it already", he rubbed his eyes.
The Doctor leaned closer and smiled brightly, "Today we're going to visit someone special."
"I don't-", the Master stopped mid-sentence, "Wait, you said visit?", he asked, clearly getting interested.
"Yup", said the Doctor brightly.
"You mean I get to come out of the TARDIS?", he asked and the Doctor nodded.
He practically jumped out of his bed, "Out, I need to change", he said in a commanding voice.
"Brilliant", said the Doctor and ran away to the console room.
"One whole day without the Master, that ought to make you happy, so be good and land us on the right place and time?", pleaded the Doctor to his TARDIS as he stroked the console.
Today had to come out good and if he had any luck after this trip the Master would be free from the drumming forever, but even if he didn't manage to do that he hoped to be able to relieve some of the tension that had been forming between the two the last few weeks.
The Master came into the console room, visibly trying to conceal his excitement about finally leaving the TARDIS interiors, "So, where are we going?", he began, "To some Dalek invasion, a Cyberman attack, a Sontaran space fleet?", he asked.
"No, no and no!", said the Doctor gleefully.
The Master groaned, "Sightseeing then?", he didn't sound too excited about that idea.
"Nope, but what do you have against sightseeing?", he asked as he pressed various buttons on the console.
"Nothing, where are we going then, or you going to have me guessing till we land?", he asked tersely.
The Doctor turned around, his face serious, "We are going to speak with a special friend of mine", he began, "She is a very powerful telepath", the Master's eyes widened in understanding.
"I'm not going", he stated angrily.
"Please let me help you!", tried the Doctor.
"I don't need your help!", yelled the Master furiously.
"Please, I promised you that I would, on board the Valiant, remember?", he tried to persuade the very furious Master.
"I don't want it!", yelled the Master as he paced around, fuming.
"If you look at it this way I'm not going to help you directly, since I will only be taking you to her", the Doctor kept trying and the Master only glared at him so he said softly, "Or are you going to tell me that never, not even once in all your lives you had wanted to get rid of the drums?", the Master stopped briefly to look at him and then continued to pace around, the Doctor smiled briefly, he was on the right path, "Look me in the eyes and tell me you don't want to get rid of them."
The Master glared at him but his glare faltered, he stood still for a moment, looking at his feet, "So you promise me that this telepath will help me?", he asked.
"I can't promise you that", the Master began to pace again, "But I do have many friends, if she doesn't help then we'll go to somebody else", the Doctor said determinedly.
'Come on, trust me just this once', thought the Doctor as he waited for the Master to stop pacing and answer him, finally he stopped.
"And what when we've run out of all your friends?", asked the Master, looking him straight in the eyes.
"That won't happen", smiled the Doctor, "That much I can promise you."
The Master was quiet for a moment and the Doctor could see how he had some sort of internal battle with himself, "Fine", he finally accepted and the Doctor exclaimed happily.
"Yay!", he ran towards the Master.
"Don't you dare come near me", the Master said in a warning voice the Doctor knew not to ignore so he stopped just where he was.
"Good, wonderful", he said, "You're not gonna regret this", he smiled.
The Master rolled his eyes and the Doctor ran towards a lever and yelled as he pushed it down, setting the TARDIS in motion, "Geronimo!"
"Geronimo, seriously?", asked the Master as he held to the railing as the TARDIS shook.
"What's wrong with Geronimo?", asked the Doctor from the console.
The Master stared at the Doctor for a moment, he looked up and down, as if inspecting him thoroughly, "You bumped your head when you were regenerating, right?", he asked seriously.
"Oi!", the Doctor yelled scowling as the Master snickered silently.
The TARDIS came to a halt and both of them were out of the doors in a second.
They were in a small village, most of the houses were made of wood or scrap pieces of space ships, the roads made of rock and all the people wore tunics.
It looked like a middle age village from earth since there barely was any technology in sight, people used old carts and carriages that were pulled by the planet's native animals. There was no other technology to be seen except from two floating car-like objects that could just have gotten out from the scrap yard if there was anything to judge from their appearance. The sky was cloudy and there could barely be seen any rays from the planet's single sun through the clouds.
The Master looked around the village in such a way that the Doctor wasn't sure whether he loved or hated it.
"The planet is near a warzone, many space ships have gone too near it and ended up falling here", explained the Doctor.
After a moment of silence from the Master the Doctor asked, "What? It doesn't look that bad, you shouldn't judge a place by-"
"Is that the rests of a Dalek ship?", asked the Master suddenly as he pointed at a merchant that was trying to sell said rests.
"I-I-think so?", said the Doctor and they both went to look closer at the merchant's merchandize.
"It truly is", said the Doctor upon closer inspection.
"How did a Dalek ship crash on a planet like this, no warzone is rough enough to do that", remarked the Master as he inspected it further, he looked up and his eye saw something new, "Is that a Sygorax helmet?", he asked and the Doctor looked up.
"No way!", exclaimed the Doctor and ran over with the Master towards it.
Almost an hour later a dark skinned woman with long black hair, yellow eyes and a long dark green tunic came walking into the market. She looked around for a while and finally found the TARDIS parked aside a small market stall.
"Excuse me", she asked the old woman that was sitting in front of the stall, "Have you seen a man with a weird outfit around here lately?", she asked.
"Yes, over there", the old woman pointed to guy that had placed on his head an overly large Sontaran helmet and tried to walk around with it.
The woman sighed, "Thank you", she said to the old woman and walked over to the Doctor, "Doctor?", she asked and he spun around.
He took off the helmet and smiled when he saw who it was, "Healte!", he exclaimed and gave her a hug, "Look at what I just bought!", he showed her the Sontaran helmet.
"How-charming", she said as she looked at the helmet.
"Oh and look at this", he said and got out a small piece of a Dalek ship, "This is neutron calibrator, vital part of any ship, except if it's a ship from Mariton 55, but never mind that, this is a piece of a Dalek ship - Dalek ships rarely crash and the war going on near this planet is nowhere near enough to make a Dalek ship crash", he explained seriously.
She smiled at him, "Doctor, this planet is known for gathering scrap from just about the whole universe, don't jump to conclusions like that", she explained to him.
"Oh-yes, yes, won't happen again", he smiled sheepishly at her.
"And your friend?", she asked.
"Oh-he's-here-somewhere", he spun around and around searching for the Master, he stepped in into one of the nearby shops and took a quick glance. Not finding the Master anywhere he began to get rather worried, "Oh dear", he finally said.
"Look at what I found!", he suddenly heard and spun around and saw the Master holding a Cyberman head, looking absolutely delighted about it.
"Oh that's wonderful", said the Doctor, relieved that the Master hadn't run away, "This is Healte, the friend I mentioned", he motioned at said woman.
The Master's shoulder's stiffened as he looked the woman in the eyes.
"Here, let me take that", said the Doctor as he took the head and the helmet and went to place them in the TARDIS rapidly.
"Ready?", asked the woman when the Doctor came back running.
"Absolutely!", he said happily and she began to lead the way to her house through all the people at the market.
"My house isn't far", she told them as they got into a street that eventually lead into narrow alley for some neighborhood full of small houses, most of them build out of scrap pieces from multiple space ships. After a while they finally stopped in front of a very peculiar looking house.
"It's this one", she said and showed them in, "It's made from a Racnos space ship", she said as she motioned at all the spider-web-like patterns of the house, "My father was the one who found it and installed it, we all thought that it looked gorgeous and that it was empty, didn't we Doctor?", the woman smiled and walked further into the house.
The house was scarcely decorated and had very few furniture, there were some toys scattered around the floor and something that smelled like chicken and was most probably dinner had could be smelled everywhere.
The Master had settled to merely stare at the house for now, but the Doctor could see that he was about to comment about something.
The Doctor gave the Master a look to prevent him from commenting at which the Master only rolled his eyes.
"Please sit here", said the woman as she came back with a chair and placed it down for the Master to sit upon. The Master looked around, as if unsure, took a deep breath and sat down in front of the woman.
Healte looked at the Doctor and stared at him.
"What?", he asked eventually.
"Privacy, Doctor", she smiled at him.
"Oh, yes, um, I'll be outside", he said and went outside, leaving the Master alone with the woman.
The Doctor came outside and began to wriggle his hands as he began to pace around nervously.
He walked in circles outside the little house, hoping with both his hearts that everything went well.
"Mother, mother!", he spun around and saw a little girl that looked just like Healte run towards him.
"I need to talk to mother!", said the little girl urgently.
"She has been for ages in there with my friend", said the Doctor exasperatedly and glanced at his watch only found that six minutes have gone by since he went to stand outside, "Six minutes-ages!"
The little girl kept looking anxious, "Mother!", she yelled, "Mother the volcano is erupting!"
"What?!", yelled the Doctor and began to look around, but couldn't see a thing due to all the houses , "Where?!", he asked the girl urgently.
"Over there!", she said as she pointed at a point in the sky where the smoke was rising, "All the ashes are falling towards the other side of the mountain, just where aunt Heratle lives!", she exclaimed urgently.
"What, why is she still living near an active volcano?!", the Doctor asked exasperated, this was like Pompeii all over again.
Healte came out of her house and asked the little girl urgently, "Is it true?!", the little girl nodded urgently and she turned to the Doctor, "I'm sorry Doctor, but my sister's live is in grave danger."
"What?", asked Master as he came out of the house and for the Doctor he looked pretty shaken.
"Its volcano day", said the Doctor grimly.
"I have to go for my sister, I promise that when she's safe we'll finish", she said and ran away with her daughter.
He stood still as he watched wordlessly how Healte and her daughter ran away and out of their sight.
The Doctor glanced at the Master, "Wanna go see?", he asked excitedly.
The Master shrugged, "Why not", and they set off running after Healte.
They were already half way up to the other side of the mountain, road coated with ashes they had to climb out of the bus they had used to come to the mountain miles ago and where now walking hastily up the road.
"Remind me again what kind of stupid person stays to live on an active volcano", grumbled the Master.
"Oi!", exclaimed the Doctor, "He didn't mean what he said Healte", the Doctor tried to cover up for the Master.
"Yes I did"
The Doctor gave him a weak glare and made a cut throat motion with his hand.
"Don't worry Doctor, I myself have called her stupid", she smiled at him.
The Master gave a 'told you' look to the Doctor.
"My sister and I were born on this mountain, years later my father found the space ship pieces and build us a proper house, my sister always loved this mountain so she came back here as soon she could and promised she would never leave it-and she intends to keep her promise."
"Wonderful, a madwoman", said the Master as he rolled his eyes.
The Doctor was about to say something to the Master when the earth trembled and they all almost lost their balance.
"We better run", she said seriously and began to run up the mountain road.
They hadn't gone far when a chasm tore open before them, Healte took a deep breath and jumped over it, "Come on!", she exclaimed and motioned them to also jump over.
"Geronimo!", yelled the Doctor as he lept over, the Master hesitated for a moment and then jumped over.
"And my daughter wanted to come with us", she gave a laugh and walked on.
"We are going to kill ourselves", said the Master as he looked down the road where more chasms were opening.
"What, wanna go back?", asked the Doctor as he came to stand by him, "Healte says that near her sister's house there's another road", he said and began to walk on. The Master stood looking at the volcano and all the ashes fall, he shook his head and went after the Doctor.
As the Doctor looked back and saw the Master still far back he took his opportunity to talk with Healte, "Can you help him?", he asked her quietly.
Her face became grim, "I have never seen anything like this", she said almost sadly.
"Yes, neither have I."
"I heard the drums", she said seriously without looking away from the road.
"But can you help him, can you take them away?"
She glanced at him, "I can, but it won't be easy", she answered.
The Doctor smiled, there still was hope.
"I know it isn't my place to ask, but –", she trailed off.
"How did he get, right?", he finished for her and she nodded.
"Terribly evil people exist in the universe Healte, terrible people", he said grimly and quickened his pace.
The earth kept trembling as they all ran up the mountain road, chasms began opening up everywhere and rocks of various sizes rolled down the mountain.
"This way!", yelled the Doctor as they eluded another chasm opening up beneath them and ran up the road.
"Halt!", yelled Healte as some rocks rolled down the mountain in front of them.
Fortunately enough for them the rocks kept rolling down and didn't get stuck on the road so they kept going on.
Things were looking and bad and the Doctor knew that if they didn't quickly get to Healte's sister house it might be too late to save her life.
Not long after they got to see Healte's sister's house from afar, dangerously near the sides of the mountain, small rocks already were falling near her house.
With several small chasms opening up on the road, they had to jump several times before they got near the house.
"Just like hopscotch!", said the Doctor gleefully to the Master as Healte went for her sister.
The Master gave the Doctor such a glare that made him make a mental note to double check that his door was locked when he went to sleep that night.
"What is taking that woman so much time?", asked the Master after a while as they stood waiting for her to come back.
"I think I better go check", said the Doctor and went into the little wooden house. He found Healte tagging madly at another woman that looked a lot like her, the main exception being that the other woman had a red tunic.
"Please listen me, we have to leave!", pleaded Healte urgently as she tried to drag her away with her clothes.
"I'm staying!", yelled the woman as she clang desperately on a table, "Nobody is going to make me leave, nothing that you say is going to make my mind change!"
Healte gave the Doctor a pleading look, so he did the only thing he could think of-he swiped her off her feet and carried her out in bridal style as she screamed madly at him to let her go while she tried to hit him with her hands.
The Master stared at him as he came out with the screaming woman, "Don't tell me you've got another yourself another wife?", he asked sarcastically and snickered when he saw the Doctor blush and stutter.
"I-I-no-I-Healte, hurry up!", he said urgently.
"I'm gathering her things, I'm on my way!", came a yell from inside the house.
"Good", said the Doctor as the woman kept screaming.
"Shut up!", yelled the Master and surprisingly enough, she stopped.
"Who're you?", she asked.
"A-a-friend of mine", said the Doctor a bit unsure.
"Am not", said the Master dryly.
"Acquaintance?", said the Doctor unsurely.
The Master rolled his eyes and was about to answer him when the earth trembled violently and the Doctor had to set down Healte's sister.
"Healte, hurry up!", yelled the Doctor and then saw a slide of rocks roll down the mountain, he dashed for the little house but barely could walk straight with all the trembling.
A big chasm with steam coming out of it opened up in front of the house, preventing him from getting near the house.
"HEALTE!", he screamed desperately, but it was already too late as all the rocks rolled over and fell on the little house.
The Doctor stood still watching what remained of the house catch fire from the chasm that had opened from which extremely hot fumes came out, barely hearing the telltale sounds of the volcano about to erupt and Healte's sister's desolate screaming.
He would have stayed there if the Master hadn't grabbed him by his jacket and started to yell at him, "Where is the damn road down?!"
The Doctor suddenly remembered the road and began to look around, "What about following her?", he pointed at Healte's sister as she ran down a road like hell itself was after her, but then again with the volcano about to erupt, it probably was.
The Master spun around and as soon as he spotted her, ran after her, the Doctor just behind him.
The road down was much more easier than the road up, before they knew it they had gone already half way through the road.
Due to being on a volcano on some places the ground of the road had become steaming hot, steam rising from the ground itself and all the plants beginning to catch fire, before long the whole mountain would be on fire and the Doctor wanted to be as far as possible by the time that happened.
The first of the many major explosions came from the volcano and both the Master and the Doctor halted, ducked and covered their faces as several fiery pieces of rock of various sizes fell everywhere.
As the rocks diminished they both stood up and tried to run away. Tried because both their shoes had melted to the ground.
"The hell?!", yelled the Master as he pulled and tagged at his legs.
"Great, first acid soil and now steaming volcanic soil!", grumbled the Doctor as he did the same while wondering if the universe had something against his boots.
The Master was quite further away from the Doctor and apparently his shoes hadn't melted too much to the ground as he got them both free after moments of tagging and pulling.
"Great", said the Doctor animatedly, "Come give me a hand", he said as he pulled at his legs.
The Master only stared at him as he began to walk slowly.
"Not literary", amended the Doctor, "Only a bit help."
"Why?", asked the Master blankly.
The Doctor's smile fell, "Why what?"
But before he could wonder any further about the Master's true intentions he almost fell down when his side of the road gave a jolt and sank in about half a meter.
Seeing clear signs that he was going to sink further and sweating from the intense heat that was coming from the ground made him yell at the Master, "Help!"
"Why should I help you?", he said nonchalantly, as if nothing at all had happened.
The Doctor bent down and hissed when he accidently touched the ground with his fingers.
"As I see it Doctor, you are not going anywhere", smiled the Master evilly.
"You're not being serious now are you?", asked the Doctor tiredly, feeling like he was in some steaming pot.
The look on the Master's face told him otherwise.
"You are being serious", said the Doctor finally, "Why?", he asked, "If it's about Healte, she said that she could help you, she gave me hope and if she said she could so would any of my other friends be able to!", the Doctor tried to reason with him.
"Sure", the Master snarled at him.
The Doctor took a deep breath, he didn't like at all how things were looking right now, the Master was being completely serious about just leaving him behind there to die in some horribly painful death, he had to try something, "Koshei I-"
"Don't you dare call me that!", yelled the Master furiously, "You don't have the right", he snarled, turned around and ran away.
The Doctor couldn't do anything as he watched the Master run away, he was trapped and the only way to get out was going to be very painful.
He turned to look at the mountain top, lots of smoke coming out of it. He took another deep breath, 'Well, I better set to work then', he thought and began to untie his shoe laces.
The Doctor came after about an hour walking into the market of the village, most of the people had already run away and the few that were still there were all packing up and leaving in their carriages that were pulled by what looked like the cross between a horse and goat, but in light green.
The Doctor cringed as he stepped on the uneven rocks that made up the road with his bare, burned feet.
After stepping out of his shoes and getting burned by the steaming soil he had to climb back up to the road, burning his hands as well.
"When I get back he's gonna hear me whether he want it or not", grumbled the Doctor as he turned another corner and saw his TARDIS just where he had left her, the Master sitting just in front of her.
"Wouldn't let you in?", asked the Doctor smugly and the Master jumped up, startled.
"You didn't lock her, I never saw you do it."
"Oh, I have my ways", the Doctor waved it off and then turned serious, "We need to talk about why it is bad to abandon your travelling companion when a volcano is about to erupt."
"The volcano is erupting", said the Master seriously as he stared at the volcano behind the Doctor.
"Yes, erupting, just as I said", said the Doctor.
"No, it's erupting right now!", he said and pointed at the volcano.
The Doctor spun around and saw a mushroom shaped mass of cloud above the mountain. The sound and shockwave from the explosion finally arrived at the market, the shockwave being so powerful it knocked them both down as well as several other people. The loud bang from when the volcano erupted coming with the shockwave made them all cover their ears as best they could.
Ash immediately began to rain on the market as the Doctor and the Master tried to stand up.
"We can continue our talk later", said the Doctor and snapped his fingers making the TARDIS' doors fly open.
"What", said the Master perplexed.
"We can discuss that later", said the Doctor as he ran inside, "Unless you want to stay, that is", he added as he poked his head out.
The Master stood up and ran in after him into the TARDIS and shut the doors quickly, "Get us off this damn planet!", he yelled at the Doctor.
"Moment", called the Doctor as he pushed various buttons and pulled or pushed some levers.
"How did you manage that?", asked the Master.
"And why did you just leave me there?", asked the Doctor as he looked up from the console, "I asked first."
"I knew you would get yourself out of your dilemma, you always do don't you?", he said coyly, "Now answer my question."
The Doctor just stared at him for a while, he checked the screen and saw they were already in the Vortex, "I don't know why I even ask", he pressed another button, "Why don't you like to be called Koshei anymore?"
The Master's face contorted up angrily and the Doctor spoke again, "Because when we were at the Academy everybody called you Koshei", he commented.
"That was then", said the Master, a little bit less angry, albeit still angry.
"Oh, come on you're just trying to be difficult", said the Doctor grumpily and walked away, he suddenly turned round for a moment to speak with him, "And we're going tomorrow to another friend of mine, whether you want to or not!", and continued to walk away.
The Doctor limped down the corridors with his sore feet downheartedly, today had not quite come out as he had planned. The very first person he presented the Master who not only didn't hate him but also gave hope had died in a horrible way. He truly felt bad for what had happened with Healte, he had known her since that day when they discovered that the space ship they used as home was still actually inhabited and would have wished to talk with her sister, but she and her family would have fled the village by the time he managed to walk back.
And to make things worse the Master had tried to steal the TARDIS from him and let him burn his feet and hands and loose a pair of comfy boots.
"Why did we have to land there on volcano day?", he wondered loudly, "Where am I going to take him now anyways?", he continued. He had taken him with Healte with a reason, she was one of the most patient and less judgmental women he knew, she also was a great telepath.
Suddenly he heard a female voice yell his name, "DOCTOR!"
"From all the days she could come she had to choose this one", he said exasperatedly and ran back as fast as he could with his burnt feet, to the console room.
When he came into the console room he found River and the Master engaged in some sort of glaring contest.
"River!", he said happily, "What brings you here?"
So I'm finally bringing River in, so expect her to be in the next chapter.
Also, since this is my version of how things happened I'll be trying to include stuff like the Cyberman head the Master brought. Just in case you wondered, the Cyberman head is supposed to be Handles - before he became Handles that is. They never explained how he got the Cyberman head so I thought this would be a great explanation.
Please Review!