"You... What?" Rose's face paled instantly at the mention of his name and her gun fell by her side. Cameron reacted instantly, supporting her with one arm and training a gun in between the Master's eyes with the other. "No! Don't shoot him!" Rose said quickly. "Where is he?!"
A look of confusion ran over the Master's face. "You're not with him?"
"Where is he?!" She demanded again, yanking her arm away from Cameron and aiming her own gun at the Master's head. "The Doctor. What'd you do with him?"
The Master's carefree expression disappeared and true fear ran over him. "I don't know where he is! I was asking you! You're definitely Rose Tyler. I've seen you."
"When? When was the last time you saw him? And where?" Rage roared in Rose's eyes and Cam rested his hand on her shoulder.
"Rose, back down," Cam said quietly to her with as much seriousness as he could muster. It was strange hearing Cameron's voice in this tone since he was usually so silly or sarcastic.
She swallowed deeply and nodded, lowering her gun. "Listen... Peter, Master, whatever your name is... Where is he? Just... What do you know? Please tell me."
The Master nodded and began reciting his story.
ONE WEEK AGO:
Marching through the streets of London and gaining a few strange glares, the Master made his way towards the police box in the middle of the city. He looked down at his arm and saw the fresh cuts, blood flowing steadily from them. Groaning a little at the sight of his own blood, he knocked loudly on the police box. "Doctor! Doctor, open up!"
The doors didn't open, so he knocked again. At this time a small crowd asking if he needed help was beginning to form around him and he moaned, "Give me a break." Luckily, though, the doors opened and he jumped inside, slamming the door shut behind him. "Doctor! I need your help. It's the Master."
The Master closed his eyes quickly, trying to detect what time it was. Good, it was before the Valiant or any of that. The Doctor wouldn't have seen him in this form yet, wouldn't even know how he regenerated. He wandered about the TARDIS console room, and if he wasn't injured he would have considered hacking the technology or stealing a piece or two. The ship was trying to tell him something, that was obvious, but he wasn't listening. At the moment he just wanted the Doctor to fix him up, then he would leave quickly. After a few minutes and more grunts from pain, he marched down the hallway.
"Stupid humans and their stupid knives. I didn't mean to blow up that house..." He mumbled as he kicked open the Doctor's door.
His pupils dilated when he saw the Doctor's room. It was usually unused, the Master knew that simply from knowing the Doctor; however this room looked more like a teenage girl's bedroom after a rough break-up. The bed was messed up, with sheets all the way on the other side of the room. Ripped pictures were on the walls and the dresser was wide open, containing no clothes. The Doctor wasn't in the room, but when the Master got a closer look he noticed glass shards all over the ground, and blood scattered about. It wasn't the Master's dripping blood, that was for sure. Also, weird piles of cardboard were stacked everywhere along with a black Sharpie pen laying in the blood. He instantly ran to the Doctor's bathroom and kicked down the door, only to see that it was empty as well and completely normal except for blood in the sink and on a towel.
As he ran back down the TARDIS hallway, he hurriedly looked through door after door for the Time-Lord, mentally begging the TARDIS to assist him. Suddenly, he stopped. Was he seriously worrying about the Doctor's health and safety? No, of course he wasn't. He simply needed help with his own wounds. Speaking of his own wounds, the Master doubled over, clutching his cut chest. The injured man practically crawled to the medical bay and fixed himself up with some old remedies that only worked on Time-Lords. As soon as he was fixed, he hastily resumed his search for the Doctor.
To his dismay, the Doctor was nowhere in the TARDIS. The Master had even gone so far as to search for life signs on the TARDIS, only to see none. He checked the records and saw the last places the ship had visited. The two most recent spots were another spot in London, and 'The Powell Estate.' Curious, the Master maneuvered the ship to the Powell Estate, even though the TARDIS wasn't extremely thrilled about being flown by someone other than the Doctor. He stepped out onto the grass, looking up at the large building. He bumped into a woman on her way down the stairs of the building and asked her if she had a list of the residents of this place. The woman looked disgusted at his question and refused to give him the list.
Stupid humans.
After some simple brain-washing, the Master studied the list of residents closely. Rose Tyler. That name rung a bell, definitely. Wasn't she the Doctor's girlfriend or something? Shrugging, he took the elevator to Rose's floor and kicked open her door, entering the empty flat. It was completely abandoned, nothing packed into boxes or even picked up. Magazines lay on the table and perishable foods were rotted on the counter. Family photos showed that Rose and her mother had lived in the flat, however there was no sign of the Doctor being here recently. The Master smirked when he saw a photo of Rose and the Doctor in her bedroom, before walking to the corner and noticing a small silver flash drive. Out of pure curiosity, he convinced himself, he plugged the flash drive into the TARDIS and a hologram appeared.
"Yeah, see, you hit this button here," The Doctor grinned, pointing towards something in front of him. "See! We're recording a hologram!"
"So that's how you do those emergency protocols, yeah?" Rose looked up at him with a mix of admiration and love.
The Master chuckled a little at the hologram, the Doctor was so much like Theta in this moment it almost brought him to tears. No, not tears, that wasn't right.
"Hello! Rose and the Doctor here!" The Doctor grinned towards the Master, his hand floating towards Rose's and holding it so naturally it was as if he didn't even notice.
"And this is emergency protocol two thousand and fifty nine," Rose teased, sticking her tongue out of her teeth at him.
"I already have one of those! This is just, like, a home video," He chuckled.
The blonde girl laughed at this and ruffled his hair with one hand affectionately. "Isn't that a bit domestic?"
The Doctor faked a pout and stared at her, "Oi! This was your idea! You're the one who was like... Oh, Doctor," He imitated her badly, making the Master laugh even harder. "You looked so amazing in those holograms I saw of you. How can I make more so I can stare at you all the time forever?"
"I did not say that!"
"This is taking a lot of energy... Say bye to our viewers," He joked, pointing towards the Master, obviously not expecting anyone to be there.
"Bye viewers!" She said happily, walking away as the Doctor pushed some buttons, turning the hologram off.
The Master sighed, pulling out the flash drive and carefully setting it back in the Tyler's flat before going back into the TARDIS. "Ship, can you speak to me using a hologram?"
Rose appeared again, her expression solemn. "TARDIS interface enabled. Hello, Koschei."
"It's the Master, to you," The Master narrowed his eyebrows.
"Please state your question, Koschei."
Koschei put his hand on his face and rubbed, "You were more fun in the other hologram, Rose."
"I'm not Rose, I am a voice interface," The hologram Rose said, staring at him blankly.
"Yeah yeah. Can you give me someone else?"
The hologram shifted into the form of the Doctor. "Please state your question, Koschei."
"No, give me someone I like."
The hologram remained as the Doctor. "The voice interface represents someone you like. Please state your question, Koschei."
The Master blushed to himself, "What happened to Rose Tyler?"
"She is in an alternate universe. The void opened and the Daleks and Cybermen fell through, and Rose was sucked into the parallel universe never to return."
"You're just a bundle of joy. Where is the Doctor?"
"The Doctor's location cannot be disclosed."
A/N: Hopefully this clears a few things up! Though obviously it doesn't clear everything up. If I cleared everything up the story would be over. I'm thinking about posting this story on Saturdays and Tuesdays since I love writing it so much! It may not be every Tuesday but just the occasional two chapter a week thing. If anyone would like that. :)