"What'ya mean, gone? Can't you take a hold of your mate for one second, Doctor? And where's he supposed to go anyway? Aren't we in the vortex?"

"Uhm…. actually, no. I parked near a rift to refuel." The Doctor rubbed his neck with a crooked grin. "We're on the planet Herith, thirty-seventh century of their time. Nothing too remarkable about the place, really. Bit like earth. Ups and downs."

Donna sighed. "Well, then he can't be too far. Maybe just out gettin' groceries? You know, since he started cooking, the ridiculous idiot."

"Mhm… hope so. 'S just… I'm sure he would have told me."

"Why can he even leave just like that?" I wondered aloud, playing with the rim of my coffee mug. "Guy like him probably shouldn't be running around on his own."

The same moment the words had left me, I realised that something about them had been incredibly stupid or wrong. Both, Donna and the Doctor, stared at me as if I had told the unspeakable, as if that question had shattered their world into uncomfortable little pieces. They exchanged a look with one another, making me feel even more stupid.

"It's just…" I muttered, "The stuff I read 'bout him. And…" I made a vague gesture and shrugged.

"Weeell…" The Doctor seemed at a loss for words. For roughly five seconds, that is. "It's all true, that. He can be… uhh… challenging." Immediately his hands shot up. "But that's not all he is. Not always. He's changed the past few years, I'm certain!"

Of course. That was possible. People could change, I knew that.

"Even I have to admit that there's more to him than meets the eye," said Donna. "Insufferable a twat as he may be."

"Let's just take a stroll outside," the Doctor suggested. "Maybe he'll be back until then."

.

Herith was not a bit like earth, as the Doctor had called it. The city we had landed in was as big as a quarter of the whole planet, as I soon learned. Their industry had spiked some hundred years ago and since then their growth had never stopped.

But it wasn't how you would picture a place as enormous as this. Yes, there were pipes and machines and buildings so tall they vanished inside low hanging clouds. But there was also an incredible amount of green. Trees stood tall and ancient between houses, shrubs peeked out from corners and side walks. There were entire streets with long flower beds and climbing roots that coloured the walls in shades from green to red and everything in between.

And still, the Doctor was right too. Somehow the places reminded me a lot of earth and it wasn't only because the inhabitants looked human. It took half a day of wandering the city, visiting different shops and snacking on various street foods for me to put a finger on it. And even then it was hard to describe. Because, you see, the place felt like earth; the people did. The way they talked and walked, the way they hung up advertisement posters for products and elections. The slogans were the same ones you'd find in earthen cities.

Not everyone was happy with how things worked here. Not everyone welcomed the decisions of their government as enthusiastically as they should. Here and there we heard people chat about politics and it seemed to be on everyone's mind.

Those people seemed to have been through a rough time just recently. But I stopped paying attention to it. None of this was any of my business, after all and my mind was occupied by more recent events. Donna tried to cheer me up by dragging me into a shop that sold cute pets. The Doctor tried the same with candy and stories about the past of the place.

None of it worked.

And then everything went to hell.

A loud explosion rattled the glass windows along the whole street, the shock wave blowing forcefully against us in an almost successful attempt to sweep us off our feet. Donna grabbed my arm, the Doctor pushed himself against a wall, only to immediately pull out his sonic screwdriver to scan the environment as soon as the wave had passed.

We followed him quickly through a mass of disoriented and shocked people. Rubble lay strewn all over the streets, children cried, two men clung to each other whilst another one shook the shoulders of an older lady, begging her to open her eyes. The stench of burnt metal made it hard to breathe; it created a strange mix with the smoke and the smell of street food that still lingered.

I held onto Donna's hand as we stumbled forward, half running, half climbing and evading whatever lay on the ground. It wasn't even a long way, but it felt like I had run a marathon when we finally stopped in front of a posh building.

Or what's left of it.

Imagine a building big as a palace, with a dome and pillars like the ancient Romans had used. Imagine half a hundred stairs climbing upwards to meet with the delicately chiselled stones of wolf statues, looming over the city, eternal watchers. The colour on their surface broke away, cracked open.

Imagine fires.

Fires as big as the palace itself reached upwards from within the crippled dome. Burning fingers that wanted to touch the sky. Their light reflected in a myriad of coloured splinters of glass that lay scattered over the place like the mockery of snowflakes, some charred, some half molten. The flames licked against white stone, painting it dark, forcing it to burst where the heat overwhelmed structures that might have stood there since ancient times or even longer. They crumbled, they fell, they spread like the wings of something dead around the stairs and there…

There, at the bottom of those stairs, in the midst of all the chaos, of screaming stone and the corpse of history sat a lonely figure. He rested his head on one hand, elbow on his knee, watching everything unfold below him like it was an interesting play. White flakes of ash slowly freckled his brown hair, his face didn't move. For a moment, not even his eyes did.

Blink.

Then a smile. One that slowly widened to a menacing grin, stretched unnaturally by the light of the spreading fires.

In the distance rang a bell.

"Why?"

The Doctor stepped forwards, although his stride wasn't as steady as it normally was. He also didn't walk all the way to the stairs and instead stood still just far enough away for the Master to hear him. A waft of smoke enveloped him like a second coat.

The Master took his time to glare, still with the uncanny grin on his lips. There was a moment, only one, where his eyes rested on me, but it went by fast enough to be mistaken for imagination.

"It's pretty," he said eventually. "Just look at the fire. It dances, Doctor, can't you see it?"

"I see people bleeding in the streets."

"Mhm-mm." The Master nodded his head slowly, as if he was thinking about those words. "Can't say I didn't miss this." A deep exhale, still smiling. "That's a vacation to my taste."

The Doctor took half a step closer, not more, but he straightened his posture, gesturing up to the burning monument of history. "But why? After all we've been through, Master, after all this time you were with me and now that again? What even is your goal here?"

"My goal?" He cocked his head to the side and looked almost puzzled for a second. "Ohhhh! Oh, oh I get it." He laughed out loud all of a sudden and clapped his hands together, rising from the stairs. "No Doctor, I'm not playing with you again."

"This isn't a game!"

"No. No, you're right." The Master looked past the Doctor and at Donna now. "But you two… I should have known. Yes, Doctor… After all we've been through, after all…" He locked eyes with the other man, suddenly snarling in his face. "And now I'm not going to let you put a leash on me again! I heard you talk yesterday. I know you plan to lock me away! Tell you what? Not gonna happen!"

Confused, I looked between Donna and the Time Lords. This was not about the conversation from this morning. No, apparently they had been talking about the same thing too. And now it made sense why they had looked at me the way they had. Not because they thought me stupid, but because they had had the same thought.

"You should've listened to the end then, mate!" Donna snapped. She took one single step closer, but didn't dare another. "T'was only half the talk!"

"She's right," muttered the Doctor. "We didn't-"

"Oh shut up." The Master pushed against the Doctor. Hard. And growled as he stumbled backwards. "This is so you! Lulling me in with promises and fake love just to make me complacent and then put another collar around my neck! You're disgusting, Doctor."

"I wasn't going to… That wasn't…"

"The Doctor doesn't want to collar you, you moron!" called Donna. "That's why we talked. We just wante-"

A beam of glowing hot light hit the ground right in front of her feet, making her jump away with a shriek. The Master lowered the slim device in his hands with a dark look.

"Not one more word." His voice was so dark, so angry. I wished there would be something I could do or say. Anything. But right now, right here, I was utterly useless. The Master slowly walked backwards, up the burning stairs until he was surrounded by smoke and fire. "Why would I want to stay with you lot anyway? I know when I'm not welcome and I have no desire to have your hating stares in my back all day."

"I don't think anyone hates you," I tossed in, just to say something. But was it the truth?

"No?" A sad smile whizzed over his face. "What about you, little light? You want me gone, don't you? Don't lie."

It wasn't fair. I couldn't even remember what I wanted or not. "How am I supposed to know?" I whined. "And you were creepy and mean every time we talked. Of course I don't want that!"

The Master dipped his head to the side, maybe acknowledging my words. "Yeah… Not my best manners, I admit. Doesn't matter. This here is still more fun."

I didn't understand. None of this made sense. If he wanted me to like him then why had he made clear that he was not approachable.

"Fun?" Donna snapped. "This is no fun! There are dead people an' do you even know how old that building there was? D'you even care?"

"Can't it stop?" the Doctor pleaded now. "The killing? We had our own fun, didn't we? Why this, Master? Why does it have to be-" he waved his hand to encapsulate the environment- "death?"

And why plead with a mad man? What could they see in him that I couldn't? All I saw was fire and smoke and ashes. The world burned and in the centre stood a single man. Responsible and even thriving in it.

The Master spread out his arms, glaring down at each of us. "Yeah, look, look closer, this is who I am, in case you forgot. Bathe in it! Smell the fire and the blood in the air and remember that this is me!" He shot another laser beam in the Doctor's direction when he tried to move. "Fuck off! All of you! This planet is mine now. Mine!"

"No, Master, stop it befo-"

But it already was too late. With a last step the other Time Lord had vanished into the ever growing smoke cloud. No trace was left of him. Only the smell of destruction stayed and the soft sniffing of Donna.

Soon, we had to move, lest we wanted to suffocate. One last time I dared to look back, when an ear piercing crack split the pantheon in half, releasing a stream of smoke and fire and embers that shined like rising stars.

There, for a second, I could even understand why the Master had called it pretty.