The Master's Game (Doctor Who)

Reversed roles

The Doctor rushed inside the TARDIS and bent down to the unconscious Master, throwing one of his arms over his shoulders and heaving him out of the room. All of it happened so fast Roka wasn't able to overcome her shock before the Doctor was out of sight.

Where would he take the Master? What would he do? Bind him in chains? Lock him up somewhere? Roka darted inside the console room, anxiously pacing up and down. At least she could be sure the Doctor wouldn't harm him. That wasn't a thing he would do. Not even after being imprisoned himself for months and... She shook her head. No, the Doctor wouldn't do anything bad.

After the initial shock had settled, she started to feel anger welling up. Why had he waited here? Why couldn't he have just went away? How could he appear here, right now, and ruin everything she had fought for, tearing apart her future, her wishes and....

Startled she stopped in her pacing, running a hand over her face with a deep, frustrated sigh.

Who had she become to think like that?

She had no right to be mad at the Doctor. They had stolen his TARDIS. He had more right to be here than the two of them. But it didn't help against the brooding anger inside her. Might it be unfair as it was, but there was no way she would just accept it.

Her gaze wandered over the room that was still littered with all sorts of components, before it fell onto the Vortex Manipulator. Hastily she grabbed and pocketed the device, a plan already forming in her head.

The sound of steps made her spin around. The Doctor entered the room, obviously unaware of her presence. After all that time with the Master it felt weird to be invisible again and for a while she simply watched the Time Lord while he first got the TARDIS moving and then inspected every corner of the console room, the components, the cables. He even ran the simulation on the console.

"Oh, no. What have you done there?" he muttered shocked to himself.

Finally Roka decided to make herself visible and tugged at the Doctor's coat. He jumped and spun around to her, his eyes widening in recognition.

"Oh my! Roka, you're alright! And alive! And even unharmed!" he exclaimed and hugged her happily.

"Stop that!" She wound herself out and looked angrily at him. "Of course I'm fine. What have you done with him?"

"With... oh! Oh, don't worry." He beamed all over his face. "He is locked away. Can't do any harm now! You're safe again, I promise."

She glared daggers at him, although she was aware that he had every reason to act like that. How could he know?

"What if I told you that he hasn't harmed me at all?" she said carefully. It was a lie, of course, but she was still alive, so it counted in her eyes.

The Doctor surveyed her, his head tilted, while he bobbed up and down on his heels.

"You do look a bit pale. Are you really all right?" He rubbed his neck and smiled. "Weeeell, you definitely look unharmed otherwise. I'm glad you could hide."

Of course, Roka thought, he couldn't know that the Master wasn't affected by the glitch.

"How did you escape?" she couldn't resist to ask.

"Ah, that was surprisingly easy," he grinned widely. "The hypnosis the Master had on the guards wore off. And then they let me go and vanished themselves. I mean... he apparently didn't even pay them... so I'm not surprised." For a moment he looked thoughtful. "Although it's definitely odd for him to just leave like that."

"Guess, he got distracted..." Roka smirked to herself, but also realized that this had only been possible because the Master had jumped a few months into the future, instead of bringing them back to the right time. So his childish act had brought him into this...