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It had been a few months since Hally's first lesson with The Master. While he had been unforgiving and harsh during their sessions, he had been pleased to see that she'd been making fast progress over the past few months. Despite her initial resistance, Hally had eventually fallen into a happy routine and they had even decided to increase their sessions to twice a week. During her spare time, Hally could be found in the observatory, which was now dust free thanks to a rather large misfired energy blast. For the first time in a long time, Hally was truly focused, she was excited and a little proud to have developed the power she'd initially feared so much in just a few months. Of course, she was still a far cry from perfect and although her telekinetic abilities now came naturally to her and she was able to physicalise the energy into weak barriers and blast attacks, her accuracy and stamina were not yet to The Master's standards. Her mental capacity was still limited by fatigue and her abilities could only be sustained for an intermediate amount of time.

This was why Hally was currently standing, alone, in the dark observatory at around midnight that evening. The Master had grown frustrated with her the evening before after she'd been unable to sustain her protection barrier for longer than 12 minutes. He had expressed his anger repeatedly by throwing golf-ball-sized pebbles at her head in an attempt to force her to work through the fatigue.

Hally grit her teeth in determination, set on improving before the night was out if only to save herself from more circular bruises. She held up her hands in front of her and a thin, golden shimmer blinked into life emanating from her hands. As she concentrated the form spread and slowly engulfed her entire body in a shell of bright golden light, the more effort she pushed into the shield the thicker it became until eventually, it felt strong enough. Hally stepped out from inside the golden shell, holding it in place as she moved a few paces backwards. She nodded to herself and focusing intently she flicked her right hand in a small movement towards the barrier.

A small pebble that had been discarded on the floor after the previous evening's assault suddenly flew and hit the shield with a loud crack! Bouncing off and falling back to the floor. Hally continued the assault on the barrier, throwing rocks and other small items that were littered around the room into the barrier so fast they looked like tiny bullets. Almost all of them bounced off noisily but slowly, after around 10 minutes, a few of them began to sail through.

Hally sighed softly, lowering her hands as the barrier flickered and blinked out of existence. She rubbed her head gently, the familiar headache beginning to creep up the back of her skull. Hally felt frustration begin to rise up inside her chest, she conjured a small crackle of energy in the palm of her hand, throwing it hard against the far wall with a cry. The blast hit the wall with a smack and ricocheted around the room, causing the glass roof of the observatory to shake dangerously. Hally ran a hand through her hair, noticing the black jagged mark on the wall that The Master would be sure to mention.

A small movement by the door caught Hally's eye, it was slightly ajar and through the dark gap, Hally was sure she could see two beady eyes staring back at her. In a swish of red, the eyes vanished and Hally heard loud footsteps jogging away from the door.

"Shit!" She muttered under her breath, sprinting towards the door and pulling it open. Her blood ran cold as she watched Councillor Xia begin to descend the spiral staircase back towards the main hub of the academy. In a split second, she made the decision to follow him, hoping to cut him off at the base of the stairs. She ran after him, throwing herself as quickly as she could down the stairs in order to catch him. She wasn't thinking far enough to consider what she was actually going to do when she caught him but somehow in her mad panic she managed to reach him at the bottom of the stairs, grabbing his robe tightly in her hand.

Councillor Xia whirled round as she pulled at his clothing, his hand connecting with the side of her face as he backhanded her hard. Hally cried out in pain, losing her grip on his robes and falling to the floor. Black spots were dancing in front of her eyes as she clutched at her throbbing cheek.

"Ow…" She muttered meekly, shaking her head in an attempt to clear her vision.

Councillor Xia was stood over her, his face was stern and uncaring, "What treachery is this child?!" He shouted venomously, swooping down and winding his large hand into her hair. The Councillor unceremoniously pulled Hally to her feet, ignoring her pained protests and began to drag her down the corridor, no doubt to Chancellor Borusa's study.

Hally screamed in anger, throwing her bodyweight against Xia. He shrugged her off and continued to drag her forward.

"Silence child, The President will be hearing of your meddling…" He growled and began to pull her down another set of stairs, Hally did her best not to trip and fall as she was roughly dragged down.

Hally was panicking, he was taking her to The President?! There was no way she'd be able to get out of this unscathed if Xia made it to The President to explain what he'd seen. Hally could hear her hearts beating loudly in her head as she desperately tried to figure a way out of this mess. The noise in her head jolted her thoughts and she mentally reached out to The Master as best she could.

"Help!" She shouted mentally, trying to send The Master an image of where she was. She struggled helplessly against Councillor Xia's strong grip, groaning in pain as he pulled harder on her hair.

They had entered the central column of the academy now and Hally knew that sooner or later they'd bump into more Time Lords on patrol. Taking a deep breath Hally threw out a splayed hand hitting Xia as hard as she could in the ribs. Hally's physical strength alone wouldn't have achieved much but in her panic, the sheer force of the energy blast that accompanied the hit ripped Xia away from her and threw him hard against the wall. Hally heard a loud crack as his head connected with the wall and watched in horror as his eyes rolled back into his head and he slid down to the floor.

"Please don't be dead…" She whispered, checking the corridor for others. Content that the corridor was still empty Hally edged towards the now unconscious Councillor, breathing a sigh of relief when she saw that his chest was still rising and falling slowly.

The sound of soft footsteps made Hally whirl around, hands raised to attack.

"Whoa there…" The Master raised his hands in mock surrender before his gaze turned to the unconscious Councillor. Hally watched The Master calmly assess the situation, he seemed to be slightly out of breath as if he'd been running.

"What happened?" He looked back at her, his expression grave as he noted the dark bruise that was already forming on her cheek.

She swallowed nervously, her hearts still beating loudly. "He saw me… he was going to Borusa, I didn't have time to think…" Hally felt like she was going to be sick, she wrapped her arms around her chest tightly. "I didn't mean to…"

The Master nodded slowly, he took a few slow steps forward, his face softening.

"It's alright." Very slowly he wrapped his arms around Hally, one of his hands gently hovering behind her head. He guided her into his embrace, resting her head against his chest. The Master could feel her shaking slightly, her two hearts beating erratically against his chest. He held her still for a few long moments until eventually, her hearts began to slow. The Master gently stroked the back of her head with his hand, "You did well." He quietly encouraged.

Hally stirred in his arms, shifting to look up at The Master. Her eyes were wide like a deer caught in the headlights, her breathing was short and shallow.

"What?" She looked up at him in confusion. The Master had to stop himself from taking a sharp breath, she looked so perfectly vulnerable in his arms, looking to him for help.

He took a deep breath, "It's late." He looked over to Councillor Xia's still body, "Go back to the dormitory. I will sort this." He looked back at her and released her from his hold, his usual cold expression back in place.

Hally looked quickly over to Xia and back to The Master, she swallowed and nodded slowly. She walked past The Master heading for the door he'd just come from, pausing and looking back at him, he was now crouched over Xia's sleeping form.

"Thank you…" She muttered slowly before disappearing through the door.

The Master watched her go before turning his attention back to Xia. He smiled to himself, pleased to see the progress the girl had been making. Her fear had resulted in a blast so powerful that she had knocked a man double her weight into the wall with enough force to almost kill him.

The Master's smile grew, she was certainly on her way to becoming a force to be reckoned with.

My force.

Hally was sat trying to concentrate on listening to Lord Vxyai as he lectured at the front of the small stuffy classroom. She still felt shaken by the events of the previous night and wanted nothing more than to go and find The Master and ask him what had happened to Councillor Xia.

"Now as you know the constellation of An Gàrradh has been referred to by many a civilisation as Eden or perhaps even what is thought to be Heaven…" Hally looked down at her desk frowning, she was lucky she hadn't killed Xia last night, she'd never meant to expel that much force.

"…and as Time Lords may see all of time and space, the people of An Gàrradh are able to look through time as well. It is their gift…" If The Master hadn't shown up when he did what would she have done, Hally thought, biting her lip.

"…however, the governments and councils choose not to elect a President as we do but rather they identify a suitable King or Queen by looking throughout time. Then they wait until their Sovereign is ready before the retiring King or Queen presents them one day with the blue Sorverous flower… and so the tradition continues…" Hally gently raised a hand to her face where Xia had struck her, the swelling had reduced overnight and now all that remained was a slightly discoloured patch of skin, however, it was still tender.

"…The current King Abstrax has reigned for over 1,000 years and as next year is his 1,100th he will be visiting many a constellation as a celebration. I know The President is eager to host and further strengthen Gallifreyan relations with his people." Suddenly Persca, who had been sitting beside Hally, grabbed Hally's hand and gave her a pointed look.

"Stop tapping… it's distracting." She whispered. Hally frowned, she hadn't realised she'd been tapping. She shook her head and tried instead to focus again on what Lord Vxyai was saying.

The remainder of the lesson passed by in a bit of a blur and Hally eventually found herself sat with Persca and, for some reason, Lenden in the academy grand dining hall for dinner that evening. Students of all ages and ranks sat about the hall alongside researchers from all levels of the academy, as was tradition. Hally paid little attention to the conversation her companions were having, staring intently at her food as she moved it around the plate.

"My Lords and Ladies!" The room fell silent as Chancellor Borusa stepped slowly up onto the small platform at the top of the room. Hally looked up a small flicker of fear dropping into her stomach.

"It is my duty to inform you that unfortunately, our good Councillor Xia has taken leave of the Citadel due to unavoidable circumstances and will therefore no longer be able to fulfil his duty to The High Council." Borusa paused for a few moments, his head bowed. Hally's face paled, her suspicions over what had been Councillor Xia's fate only growing.

"However, it is a great honour to announce that, in light of these recent events, The Lord Master will be stepping in to undertake this great responsibility." From behind a group of students, The Master stepped up and onto the platform, bowing his head in Borusa's direction respectfully.

A polite round of applause circled the room as The Master turned to address the hall, his eyes roaming the tables before he found a familiar pair of wide, brown eyes.

"The things I do for you…" He whispered into Hally's mind, his face lighting up into a charming smile.