Danica looked uncomfortable, but eventually gathered her courage and spoke up, “Sir, may I ask, this will only take a little bit, have you met anyone by the name of Septima? She’s got brown hair, green eyes, rather short and has this bird mask…”
The Master steepled his fingers, keeping his face impassive. “Perhaps,” he replied. “But alas, information is not free. Why should I betray her confidence?”
"She’s a major problem, sir, if she comes in contact with a planet she wishes to infect, she can do so! Entire places, obliterated… unless… you know this, do you?" Danica frowned, "What is it you’d like in exchange, then?"
He considered his options carefully for a moment. “I recently acquired a plague from Septima, which should prove invaluable in conquering some planet or another. I would like an antidote to the plague; it will make taking control that much simpler.”
"What? No, no, I simply cannot! You’ve made a deal with her, I mean, you’ve helped her in her research! I… can’t really just give you the cure, I don’t even know the kind of plague we are working with!" she replied worriedly.
"I have a sample of the plague in one of my TARDIS laboratories," came the Master’s answer. "And just think of how many might die because I have no antidote on hand, my dear Danica. I shall use the plague regardless; but with your aid my victory shall not only be swifter and easier on my new subjects, but shall result in fewer deaths."
Danica attempted to calm herself down, “I…” she sighed, “yes, that is true, but in the event that… I do give you the antidote, I will need your assistance in capturing Septima, it seems that she trusts you. To some degree, at least.”
"Very well then. We have an agreement. This shall prove most amusing."
"Yes, for now." Danica then asked, "Shall I see the plague?"
"Splendid; follow me to my TARDIS, my dear Danica, and I shall fetch it immediately." The Master strode towards his time capsule.
Danica nodded and followed the Master, “I will need a sample of the virus in order to create something I can use to fix it.”
He led her through the twisted maze of his TARDIS to the laboratory in question. “Here you go; a sample of what I have tentatively named the Death Stream. I do love anagrams, don’t you?”
She nodded before giving a small smile, “Very clever, sir, very clever… all right then,” she held the vial in one hand and picked up an empty vial with the other, “I suppose I’ll give this a go.” Both vials glowed. Danica glanced at the Master, “I think we should talk about my end of the bargain now?”
The Master chuckled. “Yes; in order to aid you in Septima’s capture, my dear Danica, I’ll need to know her habits; places she enjoys; hobbies she favours; that sort of thing.”
"Ah, of course. Hmm… she does really enjoy visiting desolate places. It’s strange. I know she has visited a few planets, but she prefers staying on Numen, which is our home planet. At least it used to be, until majority of the Deities decided to inhabit Earth. Including me, it’s not too shabby. Hobbies? Hmm. Although it’s rather obvious, she enjoys creating things in a laboratory. Mostly plagues," Danica stated, turning her attention back to the vials. "This is some virus that we have here…"
"Perhaps if she enjoys desolate places," the Master said, "she might have decided to visit Skaro? It has no life - not even any micro-organisms - aside from the Daleks and their creator, and I believe she mentioned a desire to see the place last time I spoke with her."
"Skaro? Of all places… well, it does seem very much like her." Danica sighed and shook her head, "This antidote is taking much longer than expected."
"Do you require help with the antidote, my dear?" the Master inquired.
"Perhaps. It is likely I need a break. She really outdid herself on this one, I feel a bit overwhelmed."
"Well, I did want quality work." The Master smirked. "I suppose we could get started on the search now. I shall get started on restoring my TOMTIT immediately."
"Thank you. Would you like some help with that?"
"Yes, I suppose your aid could speed my progress." The Master spent several moments considering how Danica could help him. "What I primarily require is a power source; when I used the device before, I powered it with a fragment of the Crystal of Kronos, but due to that wretched Doctor’s interference, the Crystal was destroyed. The device will be useless without a replacement."
"Oh. What exactly do you have in mind in terms of a replacement?" she asked.
"I have been attempting to trace down the separate segments of the Key to Time as of late, and I believe one may be found on the Library," the Master informed her. "This one segment should suffice, with but a few modifications to the device.
"Don’t worry about the Vashta Nerada; I should have some protective suits capable of keeping them out for a few hours, and they cannot infiltrate my TARDIS without my aid."
Danica sighed, “I’m not sure, you see, I am not quite sure I can trust you. I already know that you are in cohorts with Septima not to mention that you are going to use this plague to enslave a planet.” She shook her head, “I don’t know, sir.”
It is hardly slavery, my dear,” the Master scoffed, “I pride myself on treating my subjects well. Why, whenever I visit Tivoli, the natives are always gushing about what a great leader I am; “Glory to the Master”, and so on. But if you wish, you can go off to Skaro by yourself; I’m certain the Daleks will be quite happy to see you.”
Danica frowned, “Isn’t Tivoli… that place that always gets conquered?”
"Which only goes to show how much they need me," came the reply. "Why, imagine if the Sontarans or the Daleks were to take advantage of them; but as Tivoli is part of my empire, they cannot attack Tivoli without my acquiescence, and so I can allow the Tivolians to live in peace. And as I said, they are quite grateful for it whenever I visit.
Danica thought for a moment before finally agreeing, “I suppose we should go locate the Key of Time now.”
"Splendid." The Master began to head for the door. "You can fetch the protective suits from my wardrobe and meet me in the console room; I’ll head there immediately to set the coordinates for the Library. Try not to get lost; the last time someone got lost in here, it was decades before I found them."
She frowned, “Oh dear. Well, all right then.” She left to go find the Master’s wardrobe.
The Master had begun to set the coordinates when he noticed that somebody was attempting to contact his TARDIS. Turning on the view-screen, he saw what appeared to be Danica herself, apparently having found her way outside the TARDIS. “I don’t understand why I’m doing this,” she murmured to herself before finally saying, “How do you think you will go about catching Septima anyhow?”
Amused, he replied, “Well, first I shall need to know her habits; the places she favours, the hobbies she enjoys. After that, it is a matter of choosing the appropriate place and time. I believe you Deities require sleep for particularly long amounts of time? I shall reconstruct my TOMTIT and use it to advance her far along her timeline; in effect, I shall force her to sleep.”
"Now that I know this, I suppose I should take off with the knowledge you intend to betray me, Master?" Septima giggled.
He laughed. “And who says I intend to betray you, my dear Septima? When you escape my trap, I shall tell Danica I tried my best and failed; as she is already working on the antidote, I shall gain her services at no cost whatsoever.”
Septima looked mildly surprised, “You were not? I see. Danica is rather slow, then.”
"She is a do-gooder. In my experience, they all tend to be quite slow, my dear Septima; and they always wish to believe the best of everyone." The Master snorted haughtily. "How very foolish…"
Septima gave a curt nod, “What planet do you intend on going after first, if I may ask?”
"All things being equal, I have a few options in mind," was his reply. "Perhaps I shall convince her to go after Skaro; it would be amusing to watch those armoured bores panic. Or I might go after the Earth; I believe she favours that planet as the Doctor does, and it would be just as amusing to ‘accidentally’ reduce a city to dust in ‘pursuit’ of you."
Septima smiled, “Skaro… I don’t visit there often. You’ve reminded me, I should visit there sometime and infect a plague just to see what they are made of. Yes, Earth, that would be lovely. I’d really enjoy watching that. Tell me when you go after that one.”
"I certainly will, my dear Septima," the Master smiled. "I should caution you about visiting Skaro; the Daleks are quite tricky and spend all their time plotting the death of everything. They may be hazardous even to the health of you or I, so do take care if you visit them."
Ending the conversation, he chose to check on Danica, as it had been about an hour since he had last seen her. She had successfully obtained the protective suits, but had seemingly lost her way as she headed towards the console room, “…I’m rather sure that I passed by here a few times already.” She sighed and continued walking, occasionally checking the doors.
Activating the intercom, he spoke. “My dear Danica, do you need directions? All you need to do is head east from the wardrobe, down the second left corridor, in the purple door, up the spiral staircase - not the revolving staircase, you’ll regret it - take a quick short-cut through the library - that will be in the first door on your right as you go up the stairs - down the elevator shaft, then head east down the widdershins corridor and you should arrive at the console room. It’s as easy as pie. Just make sure you don’t enter the dinosaur room - I’m keeping a few birthday presents for the Rani in there.”
Danica sighed, “Right…” She went east, went down the second left corridor, hesitated a bit before taking the purple door, stared at the few staircases before heading up the spiral, headed through the library, took the first door on the right as she went up the stairs, hesitated again before going down the elevator shaft, but accidentally began heading west before turning around and ending up at the console room. “Why is this place so large?!”
The Master chose to answer her rhetorical question. “I do have something around a millennium’s worth of possessions. I have to put them somewhere, my dear. At any rate, if you’ll follow me, we have somewhere rather larger to search for a certain segment. You can carry the tracer; I’ll take the torch - I don’t trust the lights here.”
"All right then." Danica exhaled, wondering what she was getting herself into.
"I have landed us within a mile or less of the segment," he informed her. "I believe the segment should be on a nearby balcony - it is currently disguised as a small, blue journal, quite worn with age. Try to stay close to me; with how long this place has been infested, I don’t trust the lights not to break when it’s least convenient."
She nodded, “I see… blue journal… right. I will try to stick to your side. At least, I’ll attempt. I do have the sneaking suspicion that will will end… not in a way I would expect it to.” The pair began to walk down the corridor, following the tracer.
"Splen…" The Master paused, listening. "Do you hear somebody asking, ‘Who turned out the lights?’"
Danica’s eyes widened, “Wha… wait a second… yes, I do. Should we be worried?”
"There’s nothing to worry about, my dear," he said reassuringly. "I’m quite certain it just means that somebody else is in here with us. The Vashta Nerada can’t speak, and my compressor will handle whoever it is, should they prove to be dangerous." He removed the weapon in question from his pocket. "In fact, it might even be one of my younger selves; I seem to recall a prior visit to the Library around this time. Let’s just keep going forward."
"Another one of you?" she questioned, walking in stride with him.
"Yes; as a Time Lord I have had many lives with multiple different faces," he began to lecture. "And on occasion, I sometimes cross paths with myself. I was quite a different man in those days; very uptight and staid. And there was a great deal of grey, as I recall." He paused.
"My dear Danica, the person talking appears to be a short distance behind us. Curious, there doesn’t appear to be a problem with the lights here; there’s no need for him to go on complaining like that. I think we’d better wait here and see what his problem is when he catches up."
Danica nodded, “Although if it turns out to be someone with malicious intent, it will be your fault for subjecting us to that.”
The Master rolled his eyes. “As I said, my tissue compression eliminator should deal with him quite handily.” It was at that point that the speaker came into sight. “Unless he happens to be a skeleton inside a spacesuit animated by the Vashta Nerada, in which case my compressor will simply release a swarm of flesh-eating parasites upon the both of us. May I suggest we run?” Not bothering to wait for a reply, he fled down the corridor.
Danica followed. “Running? Ah, running is nice. Running is delightful. Let’s run.”
The Master spotted a crossroads ahead. “It pains me to say this, but I think my chances of survival would be greater if we split up. Farewell, my dear Danica! Farewell forever!” He entered one of the side corridors, and was pleased to see that the Vashta Nerada went after Danica. After it had passed, he went back into the corridor, returning to his TARDIS.
Close to Danica, another TARDIS materialized, and out stepped an older gentleman in a Nehru jacket. He listened to Danica’s panic and the skeleton’s last words. “Odd, I hadn’t thought anybody would be here. Why on earth do I hear shouting?”
Danica’s eyes widened, “No! Dammit I knew I shouldn’t have followed you!” As she ran, Danica closed her hand and opened it, sending little fireflies to fly around her, “Hi, hi, no time to talk, do stick around though - okay no, let’s move away from that firefly, he’s got two shadows, delightful, okay, keep flying please!” Things would only be worse if Septima was here; at least she could say she wasn’t.
The gentleman followed the sound of Danica’s voice. Quickly taking stock of the situation, he spoke, “Dear me, you appear to be in a bit of trouble, whoever you are. Perhaps we should discuss the matter in the safety of my TARDIS.” He smiled gently. “It’s quite safe from the shadows, I assure you.”
"Hello sir! That would be wonderful," Danica nodded, and ran over to him.
"Splendid!" the gentleman led her back to his TARDIS. "It’s just down this corridor… in this door… disguised as this bookcase… and now that we’re safe, would you mind telling me how you got here? I thought the Library was abandoned at this point."
"Would you like it to be the long story, or the short version?" Danica exhaled, still panting a bit heavily, and took out her hair bow to fix it.
"The short version should do," the gentleman began manipulating his TARDIS console, observing the current location of the Vashta Nerada infestation. "Oh, and I almost forgot; where are my manners? Introductions should certainly come first. I am known as the Master. What are you called?"
She stopped what she was doing and looked a bit surprised. “You are the Master? Funny, you see, I was just abandoned by someone who called himself the same thing. I’m called Danica. I did a bit of a bargain with the sir and in exchange for a cure to a deadly plague, he said he would assist me with capturing my arch nemesis. We went to the Library to obtain the Key of Time, which according to him looks like a blue journal. As you see, he left me, and so I resorted to fireflies.”
The Master grimaced. “How utterly revolting of this person. Rest assured, my dear Danica, that I pride myself on my gentlemanly behaviour. I shall not abandon you as that cretin did. I see you are still shaken; how about you take a rest from your adventure? There are plenty of guest bedrooms aboard my TARDIS, or if that does not suit your fancy, you may explore the TARDIS; I keep anything dangerous safely locked away where only I can access it. I have some research to do within the Library. When I return, we can discuss what happens to you then.”
"I do hope you will not abandon me. Thank you, sir. I suppose I will look around a bit." Danica gave him a small smile before leaving his presence to look around the TARDIS. Seeing that the Vashta Nerada were elsewhere, the Master strode out of the TARDIS.
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