The freighter was burning and Adric was burning with it.
He still clung to the marsh belt he’d taken from his brother’s corpse, but his legs had failed him. He knelt before the bridge console, watching as the planet loomed closer, unable to take his eyes off the ghastly sight, even though the flames were scalding him, licking and eating away at his flesh. He had to see it happen; planned to watch up until the very moment he died.
The fire billowed hot around him, creating its own searing wind. The ship screamed as it broke up on its descent, metal bits ripping off the hull at the force. The cacophony of noise seemed, for a moment, to regulate into a pulsing cry and Adric turned his tear-streaked face toward the sound. His heart leapt into his throat, watching as a familiar blue box materialized on the bridge just feet away from him. “Doctor,” he breathed, but the sound he made was no more than a rustle of paper. The oxygen was almost entirely depleted on the bridge now, consumed wholly by the flames.
Staggering to his feet, Adric made his way toward the TARDIS. His body ached from the flames, but he knew he had no time to waste. It’d do the Doctor no good if he died just before reaching his salvation.
The doors opened just as he reached them, and Adric gratefully stepped through them, collapsing unconsciousness almost immediately into the warm, strong arms of the Doctor.
--
“Aah, Barcelona!” Turlough cried in delight. “I promise, Doctor, you’ll love it here.”
The Doctor’s eyes were fixed on the scanner screen, watching grass sway as the wind blew through it. “And how is it you came to know of such a nice holiday spot?” he questioned smoothly.
Shrugging past the question, Turlough went to open the TARDIS doors. “Never mind that, Doctor. Just trust me—it’s exactly the sort of place we need to go to unwind from our encounter with the Daleks.” The pair stepped out into the grass. Turlough put his hands on his hips to survey the land, while the Doctor unrolled his hat and put it on. “And it won’t have any of the odd side effects your Eye of Orion did,” he added contemptuously.
Affronted, the Doctor gave Turlough a scrutinizing look. “Well, I should hope not.” Reaching out to lightly smack Turlough on the chest, he started out. “Come on then, let’s go exploring.”
They appeared to be in a park of some sort. There was a copse of trees behind them, and a few solitary ones stood out around them, casting leafy shade in big patches along the grass. In the distance they could make out the spiraling towers of a city. It gleamed metallic and silver in the noonday sun. “They’ve got the most peculiar animals here,” Turlough idly said after a few moments of silence. “Earth-like, and yet not.”
The Doctor squinted into the sun, seeming to pay Turlough little mind. “Hmm? Oh, strange animals you say? Well, that’s hardly surprising. Most planets evolve life in similar ways.”
“Well, what good is a dog without a nose?”
The Doctor stopped walking to stare at Turlough. “Don’t be absurd.”
“I’m serious,” he insisted. “They’ve got dogs here with no noses.”
For a time, the Doctor stared at Turlough intently, waiting to see if the boy was goading him on. Deciding, at last, that Turlough was telling the truth, his face broke into a broad grin. The idea of a dog without a nose intrigued him more than he could imagine. “I think I’m going to like this place after all.”
--
Adric was cold when he came to, a sensation he thought was strange as in all his dreams he’d been burning. Sitting up, he found a damp rag in his lap. It had clearly just fallen off his brow. The room he was in seemed familiar, and yet somehow strange. It wasn’t his room on the TARDIS, but it was clearly one of the rooms there. A strange sort of light seemed to hang about the ceiling, though he couldn’t make out where it was emanating from.
Swinging his legs off the bed, he found he was dressed only in pants. He stared with wide eyes at his legs, marveling at the welts the fire had caused there—that he had not yet been able to heal. They were neatly tended to with salve, but were still badly burned. “Doctor?” he called, but his voice was weak and he realized how very parched his throat was.
Squeezing his eyes shut, he tried to remember how he’d escaped from the burning freighter, but it hurt too much to strain his mind. His eyes felt gritty, like he had sand beneath his lids, and his head felt full of cotton. He wanted nothing more than to go back to sleep, but now that his mind had registered thirst, he knew he couldn’t sleep until he’d drank. His mouth tasted of soot.
The room contained a desk and chair beside the bed, and there he found the remains of his Alzarian clothing. Most of it had been burnt beyond recognition. Draped over the back of the chair, he found a pair of loose fitting black trousers and a matching tunic. He donned the items with care, grateful the trousers were loose enough not to aggravate his painful burns. Wincing, he walked toward the door, deciding to go find the Doctor.
Adric found himself limping down a corridor of the TARDIS he was unfamiliar with. The ship hummed in familiar ways, but he was disoriented. The TARDIS was massive, that much he knew, so he didn’t worry much. Trying to pinpoint his location helped keep his mind off his thirst. “Doctor?” he called again.
As he walked, a peculiar sensation stole over him, a strange, twisted sense of déjà vu, as though he’d been here before. He shook his head, trying to dispel the unsettling feeling. He was beginning to have doubts about his whereabouts. He very well could be dead, and in some strange afterlife for all he knew. “Doctor!” he called, his tone somewhat more insistent this time.
“In here, Adric!” came a return.
He couldn’t tell if it was the Doctor or not, but it definitely hadn’t been Tegan or Nyssa. “Doctor, what’s going on?” he asked, turning the corner to find the open door where the voice had come from. “And what’s wrong with the TARDIS?”
The room he stepped into wasn’t right; the sight of it made him freeze. The walls were black as was the floor. The center of the room housed a great deal of unfamiliar machinery and a big opal colored orb. The room gave off a foreboding aura. Adric took a step, to back out of the room, but the door shut behind him. Spinning to try to open it again, Adric let out a gasp of surprise as he suddenly found himself face-to-face with the Master.
“Hello, my boy,” he smoothly said, grinning brilliantly.
--
“Hello, I’m the Doctor, and this is Turlough,” the Doctor cheerfully said. “We’d like a room.”
Turning aside, Turlough hissed, “What’re you doing?”
The Doctor smiled, turning from the concierge to Turlough. “Why, getting a room of course.”
“What’s wrong with the TARDIS?”
The Doctor’s frown furrowed his brow. “Nothing, as far as I know. Why, do you know something different?” He seemed concerned.
“No,” Turlough said. “But we could stay there. Why get a room here?”
Cheerful again, the Doctor answered, “That’s what a holiday is all about, isn’t it?”
“Yes, but it’s very expensive,” Turlough protested.
This seemed to make the Doctor brighten up even more. “Well, then, I thank you very much for treating!”
Turlough straightened up, staring at the Doctor as if he had gone mad. “What, treating? Me?” His eyebrows rose up, and he spread his arms, indicating his plain school uniform. “Does it look to you like I have any money?”
The Doctor studied Turlough for several seconds, before giving a weak grin at the concierge, twisting his rolled up hat in his hands. “Oh dear now, that is a problem,” the Doctor admitted, suddenly crestfallen.
--
Instead of finding himself stuck in a headlock, or being threatened, Adric found the Master simply holding out a large glass of iced water to him. “You must be parched,” he said. “What with that ordeal you went through. Here, have some water.” He offered the drink more insistently.
Adric backed away from him, staring from the water into the Master’s dark eyes. “How did you get here?” he demanded. “Where’s the Doctor?”
“Get where?” the Master asked. He was still smiling.
“In the TARDIS!”
“We’re in my TARDIS, boy,” he smoothly said. “I had to change its appearance to be certain you’d board. It was a one-time-only sort of trip, you know.”
“You tricked me!” Adric snapped.
“Aah, perhaps so,” the Master admitted. “But what alternative was there? You’re alive now, aren’t you?” He offered the water again. “And probably very thirsty.”
“The Doctor would have come for me,” he said. “I know he would have.”
The passion in Adric’s voice made the Master break into laughter. It seemed to be genuine laughter, too, not the dark, twisted laugh Adric had heard before. “He wouldn’t have, Adric. He had all the time in the universe to save you, and he didn’t. He chose not to.”
Fighting against that logic, Adric replied, “Because you tricked me into going with you, first!”
“No, my dear boy, not at all. Don’t you think if the Doctor had materialized at all, and found you missing, he would have known something was wrong? He would have come looking for you, but he hasn’t. Do you know why?” The Master’s smile was even brighter. “Because he never tried. He let you die in that freighter; let you crash into the Earth without a care. You’d be there now, nothing more than a crater in the sun, if it weren’t for me.”
“You’re lying!” Adric shouted.
“Am I?” the Master mused. Moving past Adric, he set the glass of water down on one of the machines and approached the opal ball. Waving his hand over it caused a scanner screen to open on the far wall. At first it was blank, but after a few seconds, a picture materialized. It showed the Doctor lounging on a lawn chair beside a ginger haired boy, both soaking up the sun before a beautiful pool, drinking iced lemonade. “There’s your concerned Doctor,” the Master spat.
--
“It is a nice day for a swim, wouldn’t you say, Turlough?”
“I would agree,” Turlough replied, eyeing the inviting water. “Pity we left our swimsuits back at the TARDIS.” He tore his eyes off the pool, focusing them on the Doctor again. “I don’t suppose you’ve got a pair of trunks in your pockets there, have you?” The Doctor laughed at the thought. “I’m afraid we’re only going to luck out once today like that. Mind, you’re going to have to pay me back for the room. It was dreadfully expensive.”
Turlough flopped back in his chair. “I can’t pay you back! It isn’t as though I’ve got a job of any sort.”
“Well, you should’ve thought of that before you decided to rent a room here.”
That caused Turlough to sit upright. “I wanted to stay in the TARDIS. I will, in fact. You can sleep in the fancy, expensive room. I’ll stay in the TARDIS, for free. Then I won’t owe you anything.” He pushed to his feet, setting down his drink.
“Turlough, come now. I was being facetious.”
“No, Doctor. You enjoy your room. I’m going back to the TARDIS. Maybe if you’re lucky I’ll remember to bring back your swim trunks.” He turned and stalked off.
“Turlough!” the Doctor called, sitting up himself. “Turlough, come back!” But the boy ignored him. Muttering to himself, the Doctor settled back on his lawn chair, stirring his drink. “Children,” he grumbled.
--
“Why would you save me?” Adric asked. His tone was dark, and his voice soft.
When the Master turned back to him, he found the boy not watching the screen, or him, but eyeing the glass of ice water. “It’s perfectly safe, you know.” He picked it up and took a long drink from it. “Come, why would I save you just to kill you again?” Once more, he offered the beverage to Adric.
This time, the boy took it. There was a moment of hesitation while the boy sniffed the rim of the cup suspiciously, but it passed inspection and he quickly drained the glass. He sighed deeply after he finished, looking back up at the Master. “It wasn’t out of any kindness to me, I know,” he said. He sounded stronger, as though the water had revitalized him.
Laughing, the Master turned back to the view screen. The boy the Doctor had been with had gone, but the Doctor himself still lay on the lawn chair, now with the hat tipped over his eyes so he could sleep. “Perhaps to save you from that,” he said smoothly. “Perhaps to try to educate you.” His eyes slid back to Adric’s face. “Youth is so wasted on the young, as they say.”
“You just want to use me, like you did back with Castrovalva.”
The accusation made the Master smirk. “We all have our agendas, my dear boy.” He stalked away from Adric, pressing the opal orb again, to close the scanner. “No, you’re not a boy anymore, are you?” He looked over his shoulder at Adric. “Someone like you, choosing to save the lives of your friends even when it meant risking your own . . . no child could make that decision.” He turned to face Adric, tilting his head as if to appraise the boy anew. “The child still lurks inside you, but he grows weak. There is much maturity in you now.”
Adric stared at him, simply at a loss for how to respond. He felt as though agreeing was playing into the Master’s hands, and yet he felt what the Master was saying was true. He had risked his life trying to fix the coordinates. He was going to die, crashing in that freighter, all to save a planet that wasn’t even his own. He was more mature now. He wasn’t a boy any longer. Yet, how could he agree with the Master?
“I see you’ve never been looked upon as an equal before,” the Master mused. “No doubt the Doctor never understood your intelligence or utilized your abilities. He is often blind, that one. He thinks he’s a God, sometimes. Such an ignorant creature.” The Master leaned back into the machinery, crossing his arms as he studied Adric. “He saw just an annoying little boy, not a brilliant mind thriving with potential.”
“Shut up!” Adric spat. The Master was trying to turn him against the Doctor, and he wasn’t going to let him. “Let me go.”
“Do you know why I chose you to fabricate Castrovalva?” the Master asked. His voice was velvety smooth. “It was because I saw the potential in you. I knew you were the only one of all the Doctor’s companions to be of any use. And you were so easy to take, because the Doctor ignored you, forgot about you.”
“He was dying!” Adric snarled. “You don’t know anything about the Doctor!”
“Oh? Don’t I?” The Master laughed. “You forget, Adric, that I too am a Time Lord. The Doctor and I were at the academy together, back when we were young. I assure you, I know the man far better than you do. Far better than probably anyone does, including himself.”
“I don’t believe you,” Adric retorted, but the passion had ebbed from his voice.
“And I don’t expect you to, not yet.” The Master opened his arms disarmingly. “Come, we have much to discuss, and not all of it must take place here. How are your burns? I see you’re healing quickly, but still limping.”
--
“If you think I’m ever going to trust you after the way you treated me before, you’ve got another coming,” Adric said as the Master ushered him into a large banquet room. The Master had prepared a lavish meal, full of many delicious types of food, all of which appealed immensely to Adric’s large appetite. He sat at the head of a long table, and indicated Adric sit on the far opposite end. “I won’t compute any more algorithms for you, or betray the Doctor again.”
“The Doctor didn’t even realize you were missing on Castrovalva until it was too late.”
“He rescued me,” Adric replied, sitting down. His tone remained cool and neutral. He could outwit the Master if he wanted. “If he hadn’t been recovering from his regeneration, he would have known I was missing immediately.”
“You’re a fool.”
“He rescued me,” Adric repeated.
“That time, perhaps. But only because it benefited him,” the Master said. He was not watching Adric at all. Instead, he was carefully cutting the vegetables and meat on his plate into small, bite-size pieces. “He is an extremely self-centered type.”
“Oh, as if you’re not?”
The Master’s head snapped up, his eyes flashing. “Tell me, Adric. How did it feel?” Off Adric’s confused expression, the Master elaborated. “How did it feel to control an entire world? Castrovalva was my creation, but in my web, you were its God.”
Adric set his fork down. “Unlike you, I do not thirst for power, nor do I delight in hurting my friends.”
“Neither do I, dear Adric. You misunderstand my intentions.”
“You wish to destroy the Doctor, no matter the cost, but the Doctor is my friend. I will not help you.”
“I admire your loyalty, misdirected though it is.”
“The Doctor saved me from Alzarius,” Adric said coldly. “You cannot turn me against him.”
“Saved you, did he?” The Master leaned back in his chair, amused. “Oh yes, I heard about that. How, after letting your brother be killed by Marsh Men, he gallantly whisked away without so much as a goodbye to you.” Leaning forward, for emphasis, the Master's face broke into a grin. “Seems to me, the only reason he even knows you exist now is because you stowed away.”
Adric opened his mouth to retort, but no words came out. After several seconds, he shut his mouth.
“He would have taken you back to the Starliner, to be rid of you, if he could have. I’m sure he wanted to be free of a bratty little boy who followed him around like a lost puppy. But he couldn’t find the time, and then you were back in N-Space with him. And you just wouldn’t leave him, Adric. He didn’t notice you’d gone missing in Castrovalva because he half hoped you’d gone off to stowaway with someone else. He didn’t come rescue you from the freighter because it was an easy out—you wouldn’t leave him alone, but he’d let you kill yourself.”
Slamming his hands on the table, Adric surged to his feet. “You lie!” he shouted. “The Doctor liked me! He taught me many things, and we had fun together!”
Laughing, the Master appraised Adric. “Well over seven-hundred years old your Doctor is, Adric, and do you know how many of his traveling companions he’s let die?” He paused for a moment, and then grinned. “Just you, Adric.” After giving a few moments for that to sink in, he added, “You know life is not precious to him. Think of the many lives you’ve seen lost while traveling with him. Think of the carnage on that freighter, or of the lost of lives on Logopolis.”
“You killed those people,” Adric began, but his voice was weak.
“But the Doctor aided me, Adric. And did he cry one tear for all the lives lost? When entropy devoured the world of Traken, did the Doctor share in the grief?”
“How should I know? He was with you at the time, trying to stop it from happening! If you hadn’t interfered in the first place, it never would have happened.” Growing more passionate, Adric continued. “And Nyssa wouldn’t have lost her father, or her home world and Tegan wouldn’t have lost her auntie. And my Doctor wouldn’t have died!”
Gracefully, the Master rose to his feet. He smiled at Adric from across the table. “I make no excuses for my evil, Adric. I am simply who I am. To me, the lives of others are often times expendable. You know I’m evil and do not pretend that isn’t so.” He stepped out from behind the table, walking slowly around it, toward Adric. “Tell me, though, what does the Doctor say when he is—directly or indirectly—the cause of the death of another life? Does he apologize for his evilness? Does he offer to go back in time to save their lives? Does he acknowledge at all the role he plays in their demise?”
The Master stopped in front of Adric, looking down at him with obvious delight. “You can’t answer, because to do so would condemn the Doctor you revere so highly. Yet you scorn me for trying to settle a grudge you know nothing about. For all you know, my reasons for wanting the Doctor dead are far more valid than anything you could ever guess.” Adric shied back from the Master’s tone. “The Doctor is a renegade, Adric. He’s been exiled from his home world, even tried for the murder of the Gallifreyan President. Tell me, in all your travels has he ever taken you to his home world?”
Off Adric’s unsettled expression, the Master only chuckled. “No, I thought not. He avoids it. Do you know why? Because he is a criminal: a thief, a murderer, breaker of nearly ever rule of Time Law. There are fewer laws he hasn’t broken than those that he has. The list goes on and on. He interferes with the evolution of planets, disregards all sorts of safety precautions, travels unheedingly to off-limit dimensions, abandons his companions on alien worlds, writes and re-writes history at his own whim. Need I go on?”
Adric had backed away from the Master, but now he was staring at him with incredulity. “Even if that were so, why would the Time Lords allow it?”
“They don’t, Adric. He’s a renegade, as I said. He’s forever on the run. You cannot imagine the damage he’s caused to so many worlds, and all without regard for the lives he advertently or inadvertently takes.”
“So you’re saying you’re some sort of . . . of police man, trying to serve him justice?” Adric seemed unimpressed. “I’ll never believe that.”
“No, I’m not anything of the sort, at least not officially. But the Doctor must pay for the wrongs he’s done, and the Time Lords on Gallifrey are too encroached in lethargy to do the work themselves! So I have chosen to! I am one of the many he has wronged, but he can’t run away from me. I will track him down and see that justice is served, for myself. And if that means killing him, then so be it. The universe will undoubtedly be a safer place, with him gone.”
“The Doctor isn’t evil,” Adric said weakly.
“You’ve seen it with your own eyes, Adric. Think of it. Think of the lives he’s taken, the choices he’s made for civilizations that he had no right to make. Think of your brother, Adric, and of your people who died because of his decisions. You won’t like the truth, but it does not make it any less true.”
Turning away, Adric fought against the surge of emotions welling within him. “Let me go,” he demanded, but his voice was soft.
The Master placed a warm hand on Adric’s shoulder. “Where would you go?” he questioned. “You cannot return to E-Space, you know that. It has been months since your freighter crashed. Do you really think the Doctor would want you back? He’s moved on. You’re no more than an unpleasant memory to him now. I doubt he’d even recognize you if he saw you.”
Adric shrugged his shoulder, knocking the Master’s hand off. “What do you want with me?” he demanded.
The room was silent. Adric looked over after several long moments, to find the Master looking down at him. “Come,” he finally said, “I must show you something.”
The Master did not wait for an answer, turning instead to throw open the door and march down the corridor. Adric hesitated a few moments, looking around the dining room, searching for some sort of escape. He picked his dinner knife up off the table, slipping it into his trouser pocket, before hurriedly following after the Master.
They wound up in a room decorated to look like a study. The colors were dark and muted, unlike the study on the Doctor’s TARDIS, but the feeling was similar. The Master stood beside a large oak desk, fingering a strand of twined silver. Adric approached slowly, every moment expecting to be attacked.
The Master turned to him, holding out the silver bit of rope toward him. “I salvaged as much as I could. Most of it was destroyed in the fire.”
It took several seconds for Adric to understand what he was seeing. Then he reached out, grasping the marsh belt. It had been singed, but the Master had repaired much of it and entwined it with a sturdy silver rope to strengthen it. He fingered it for several seconds, amazed at the relief he felt course through him in having it back. He quickly put it on, marveling over the way it made his tunic fit so much nicer.
“You still haven’t answered my question,” Adric said afterward. “Why did you rescue me?”
The Master stepped up beside him, slipping a comfortable arm around the Alzarian’s shoulders. “I have use of you yet,” he said.
“What must I do?” Adric asked, defeated.
The Master smiled widely, turning Adric around so he could size him up. Impressed with what he saw, he nodded. “With some boots and a proper haircut, I think you’ll do just fine.”
Self-consciously, Adric fingered the ends of his hair. “I don’t understand.”
“I saved you, my dear young man, because you didn’t deserve to die. The one who deserves death is the Doctor, and I think you are starting to understand that. You need a means of survival after I’ve finished nursing you to health, and no one will take you seriously if you still look and act like a boy. No, you’ve got to finish your transition, leaving your boy persona behind entirely.”
In a deadened voice, Adric murmured, “You want me to kill the Doctor.”
“No, no, don’t be absurd,” the Master crooned. “I simply want you to lure him to me. I would not ask you to commit the final act. We shall do it together. If you help me, I can finish him off. Then, we can split the reward, and with that you can begin your life anew, on any planet of your choosing.”
“Reward?” Adric asked. “What reward?”
“Why, for killing the Doctor, of course. I did tell you he’s a criminal, didn’t I? There’s quite the bounty out there for his return to Gallifrey, dead or alive.”
Without realizing it, Adric found he was walking alongside the Master again. “I don’t think I can do it,” he said, fingering the belt at his waist. “Misguided though he may be, the Doctor doesn’t deserve death. Couldn’t you just bring him back to Gallifrey, so they could punish him?”
“They’ve tried, you know,” the Master mused, stopping to open a door. “The Doctor always manages to escape. Besides, it’s too much for him just to die. You understand about the regeneration process we Time Lords have?”
Adric nodded slowly. “A little.”
“The Doctor stole my regenerations. That is why I was forced to assume the form of Nyssa’s father.” After a moment of reflection, he added, “I regret that the action has made her suffer so.”
“You want to take over the Doctor’s body?”
“Yes, and the rest of his regenerations. He will die, as he should have long ago, and I will have my lives returned to me.”
Adric found himself in the Master’s console room and looked around it dully. It seemed so much like the Doctor’s, only twisted and dark. “What will happen to Nyssa’s father?” he asked, turning back to the Master.
For a moment, there was a look of surprise in the Time Lord’s eyes, but then his features softened. “He will, of course, be restored. Nyssa will have her father back.”
Lowering his eyes to the floor, Adric lost himself in contemplation.
“Come, there is still much to do before you see the Doctor again, and we haven’t much time.” The Master flipped a switch and the scanner in the TARDIS control room opened, revealing the same pool they’d been observing earlier. Only now night had fallen, and the lawn chair the Doctor had been occupying was empty.
“Who was that boy with the Doctor earlier?” Adric asked after several seconds of observation.
Grinning wickedly at the scanner, the Master simply said, “Your replacement.”
--