Roka stared wide-eyed at the now empty spot where the Master had sunken down moments ago, just to suddenly vanish into thin air. Everything had gone so incredibly fast... too fast for her mind to catch up. But it did eventually, everything rushed down on her like a waterfall of fire, burned her insides, twisted them in such painful ways that she thought she'd die any moment.

"What..." Roka mumbled in disbelieve and stared at her trembling hands. "What did you make me do?"

Hot, painful tears burned in the corners of her eyes like acid. It wasn't true. It was impossible! She hadn't...

The Doctor hesitantly lay a hand on her shoulder from behind. "Where did he go?" he asked, his voice breathy and filled with as much disbelieve and confusion as Roka felt.

"I..." The tears now came, silently ran down her face, hot and unstoppable. "Doctor... what did I do?" she whispered shakily, still staring at her hands. So, so long ago she had sworn to herself to never take a life again. And now she had... and not just any...

Carefully the Doctor grabbed Roka's arm and helped her up. She saw the same terror in his eyes that was in her heart, the same disbelieve, shock. "I didn't know this would happen." His voice was trembling, his eyes wide and darting around, as if he hoped the Master would reappear. "If I had, I would have warned and stopped you, I swear!"

Roka's legs were like brittle logs, refusing to carry her weight. If the Doctor wouldn't hold her arm, she would have simply sunk back down to the ground. And for a few moments she could only stare at him, silently begging him to tell her that this was just a bad dream, that she would wake up, that he could fix it!

"I... I killed him!" she cried out eventually and suddenly started to shiver violently.

"No... no... Roka," the Doctor tried to appease. "He tricked you into doing it."

"That doesn't change anything!" she sobbed. Her head was so dizzy, any moment and she would simply collapse. It couldn't be. It couldn't... It hurt too much!

The Doctor pulled her into a careful hug and rocked her back and forth. "It's not your fault. Not your fault. Don't think that for even a second."

But all she could do was to sob uncontrolled into his shirt and wish she could wake up, could stop the numbing pain in her chest and in her very being. At the same time she knew it wasn't a nightmare. And the thought ripped her apart. Why? Why had he made her do this? It was not fair. It was cruel, and he surely had known it.

"I know him since we were children," the Doctor eventually muttered, still gently swaying back and forth. "But I never thought I would see him doing something like this."

An eternity passed before the tears ran dry and Roka looked up at the Doctor, who was thinking intensely about something. She pushed herself a bit away and ran a sleeve over her face.

He wasn't dead. Not really.

"He had an emergency teleport," she explained toneless. "For cases when regeneration wouldn't be an option." The Doctor simply nodded as if he had already guessed something like that, and she continued, her voice bitter, "I was so dumb to never ask to where it would bring him though. But it has something to do with resurrection."

"Yeah, that makes sense." Tongue between his teeth the Doctor marched up and down. His face displayed concern and... fear? "That's not good... not good at all... I have to find him. Quickly."

Roka took some deep breaths. "Yes, let's hurry."

"No, Roka." He shook his head determined. "You have to stay out of this."

"What?!" she let out dumbfounded. "No way! I'm certainly not going to stand around like an idiot!"

Quickly the Doctor was in front of her again, his big eyes filled with anguish. "I'm so, so sorry. But..." He took a breath, as if to calm himself, and for a moment looked at the spot where the other Time Lord had vanished. "Don't you get what he did there?"

"Being an arsehole just to escape you?" she huffed sourly.

"No, if he had wanted to just leave, there would have been plenty of other ways." He sighed and rubbed his neck. His next words sounded as if he hardly could believe them himself, "I think... he wanted to protect you."

Her mouth dropped open, but there were no words to speak. Memories of the past weeks ran through her mind. How often had he begged her to leave, to stay as far away from him as possible, over and over again. And still it didn't want to make sense to her. "No..." she muttered. "He wouldn't do something like that just because of me."

"Mhm..." A knowing smile came to the Doctor's face. "Don't judge too fast. That was a more selfish act than you might think."

"What do you mean?"

"Weeell... knowing him, he wouldn't have risked his own death. At no cost, believe me." He pointed a finger up. "Which means, he was absolutely certain that he could come back."

"I... really hope so." She looked away and took a deep breath. "It still makes no sense..."

Thoughtfully the Doctor mumbled more to himself, "I wonder if he even realized it..."

"Realized what?"

He pocketed his hands and glared upwards. "You know... I've seen him doing things... unbelievably cruel things. He is a man, who burns entire galaxies if he feels like it, enslaves planets out of boredom, shatters whatever is in his way without losing a second thought on it.. Who kills for fun and never looks back at the broken souls he leaves behind. I don't think I ever saw him truly caring for... anyone..."

No, that last part wasn't true. She remembered Darook and what he had told her. She remembered all of the Master's stories and the tiny snippets that, when one listened properly, hinted at people he had indeed cared for. In his own way. It might not happen very often, but sometimes even he seemed to let people into his hearts. Squeezed somewhere into a tiny spot that he could ignore, if he had or wanted to.

"And then suddenly," the Doctor continued, "he claims to care for you." Now he looked down and at her. "Can you blame me for not believing it?"

"Guess not," she mumbled, realizing astonished, that the Doctor might not know his oldest friend as good as he thought he did.

"I've never seen him act like that around or towards anyone." He shook his head. "And then he does this. No, I'm sure it was at least partially to keep you safe. And this means I have to do this alone. I know. I'll forget you soon, Roka. But don't follow me anywhere. Please." He didn't gave in to her begging glare and wiggled his forefinger in front of her nose. "I can fix this. Somehow. And I'm a way better match against another Time Lord than a human. He won't be able to harm me as easily as you. Not on purpose and not even on accident."

Roka swallowed and nodded. As much as the thought hurt, he had a point.

---------------------------------------------

Roka tried to force her mind onto something else. But it was hard, incredibly hard. The thoughts kept coming back again and again, not letting her sleep, sometimes not even breath for some moments, her chest so tight it felt as if she was about to die.

What if it didn't work? What if he had made a mistake? What if she had truly...

Every few hours Roka slipped into the console room to ask the Doctor for news, until he eventually, but gently shoved her outside after probably the tenth time, telling her to finally get some sleep.

"As if I could!" she protested a bit sourly.

The Doctor only sighed and gave her a small chip that had an entirely different effect on Time Lords, as he told her, but for humans they functioned a bit like sleeping pills.

"Just this once... And when you're fresh and awake again, I surely will have found a trace," he announced with a reassuring, toothy smile. "It's a TARDIS after all. Wherever he is, I will be there in the right time. Trust me." He winked and carefully pushed her towards the door once more.

---------------------------------------------

"Still nothing," the Doctor admitted with a deep sigh, his glasses high up on his nose. He stood bowed over the console, studying the monitor and some controls in turns, typing in new things here and there, while the TARDIS hummed calmingly in the back. He gave Roka an apologetic grimace. "It was more luck than anything else that I found him the first time... honestly..."

Right. She remembered when he had been aimlessly hopping around after he had visited the Ood home world. Back then she had had no clue what he was looking for. Not until they had been literally running right into the Master's arms.

"I was mostly following rumours, last time," he explained, mouth hanging slightly open as he thoughtfully eyed the monitor and then scribbled something onto a paper. "Any strange happenings and stuff. He is not very good at staying hidden..."

"So, you skim through every news archive in history?" Roka arched a brow.

"Not quite. It must be somewhere around the time he was prime minister." Frantically he tapped some buttons and slightly bit on his tongue.

"Look for a place a cult could hide," she remembered. "He said something about that."

"A cult?" The Doctor laughed. "Now that sounds like him. Let's see..."

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Time dragged on as painful as it had done so never before. Roka continued her, probably very annoying, routine of sneaking in every few hours, tugging at the Doctor and asking for progress. A few times he actually was gone and she paced up and down, heart pounding.

Each time the doors opened, Roka's head snapped up. And each time there was a little painful sting, when the Doctor returned alone.

"How did you even know he was alive last time?" Roka pondered some hours later. After the Master had refused to regenerate the Doctor must have thought him dead for good.

Eyes still glued to the monitor he replied dryly, "The Ood showed me."

"What do they have to..." She had to tug at the Doctor, seeing he had forgotten her already."What do they have to do with all of that?"

"Mhm... they called me a while ago. And showed me a prophecy. Something is accelerating their species. That is not supposed to happen. Time is bleeding, they said. And they showed me the Master. And... they said... they warned me... About the end of time itself."

"What?" Roka gaped at him. "I mean... he does lots of dumb things. But that sounds..."

"I don't think he will cause it," the Doctor disrupted her thoughts. "But at least the Ood thought he was playing a certain role in those events. And I..." Now he looked away from the monitor and gave Roka a somewhat apologetic look. "I thought I could prevent it from happening if I could get a hold of him first."

So that was why he really had refused to let the Master go. For a second it made her angry that he had done this, but she also understood his reasons.

"And then there was this lady on the bus in the desert," he mumbled on."Psychically gifted.... she said... I would die. And..." He swallowed and looked away. "She said... He will knock four times."

Those words hung heavy in the air, as both of them knew their meaning. The drumbeat. That was the reason the Doctor had acted so scared of the Master all the time. Now it suddenly made sense.

The drums... even if they would find him, would they still be as bad as before? Would the resurrection maybe get his mind back to the state it had been after the first one? But what if they really came from within the Schism?

"You said the Ood have been accelerated," Roka pondered. "And if time is bleeding... could that have caused the drums to get so bad so fast?"

Biting his lip the Doctor glared at the monitor without actually seeing it. "That... I was thinking about that too..." He sighed and rubbed his neck. "If that is the case, then I stopped nothing... And it's still happening."

His eyes were dark and sad now. Roka knew this look too well, had seen it so many times when he hadn't been able to save someone or to help. She put her hand on his arm and smiled.

"I'm sure you can fix this. You're the Doctor after all, right?"

"Right!" He spun around and gave her a big grin. "There is no way I will let this happen. And there is no way I'm letting a friend down! Definitely not two at once."

So many times Roka had seen him act like this. As if the rules of life and death and the universe didn't count for him. It was reassuring to have him around. His enthusiasm was the only thing that could dispel the horrible cold in her heart right now.

"Oh, what have we here?" The Doctor let out. "A huge explosion in the Broadfell prison. Shred the whole building to pieces."

"So?" Roka's heart jumped at seeing him so excited.

"Hm... that's where they kept his wife, Lucy. Might be a coincidence... but the time matches and... I'll check it out."

Hastily he turned and whirled around the console, pressing buttons and pulling levers, while shrugging on his coat. Roka held onto the jump seat to not get thrown around, and shortly after the familiar landing sound filled the air.

---------------------------------------------

As soon as the Doctor came back, Roka tore at his sleeve to make him remember her. And the look in his eyes was both, promising and haunted.

"What have you found?" she begged.

"Slow... slow." He put up his hands, somehow looking agitated.

"What is it, Doctor?"

He took a deep breath and leaned onto the console with both hands, then slowly turned around, without looking at her.

"I... I'm scared," he admitted, sounding both surprised and frightened at the same time. "Roka, I... I don't know if I can fix things this time..."

A part of her was feeling sorry for him. She knew what he had gone through, before all of this had started. For him not much time had passed since he had lost Rose and Donna, and since the incidence on Mars. And then, when things seemed to go right for a change, everything had turned around once more.

"Everything I did so far made things only worse," he went on. "I dragged you into danger."

"Well, I'm certainly not mad about that," she smiled.

"But it could have ended a lot different!" the Doctor exclaimed. "What if he had killed you?!"

"You wouldn't know," Roka mumbled. "Maybe that's the only good thing about this glitch. I can be certain, if anything ever happens to me, you won't be able blame yourself for it." That was indeed a reassuring thought, knowing his tendency to do exactly that; but her smile didn't reach him. Reality seemed to have washed over him like a sudden wave. But she needed to know what he had found. "What was there, Doctor?"

He ran a hand through his hair and turned towards the doors. "The whole building is ripped apart. No normal explosion could have done that," he said toneless. "I couldn't go deep inside, too much rubble. All inmates are dead and... I found this." When Roka trod closer he held out something to her. It was a ring, scorched but still intact, with a big green stone in it, decorated with delicate Gallifreyan symbols. "It's what the Ood showed me. He must have used it to store an imprint of himself."

"Wait... but if that was inside those ruins..."

The Doctor shook his head. "I don't know. The resurrection might have gone wrong, that could definitely cause such an explosion. But..." He closed his fist around the ring. "If he is alive and still around, I should be able to find him."

"Then what are you waiting for?!" Roka called out.

And then she remembered.

He will knock four times.

If there was any truth to this prophecy... And knowing the current state the Master's mind was in right now, if he was alive...

The Doctor was scared for a reason. But like so many times in his life, he was facing a choice. Simply leaving and staying safe. Or going after the Master and almost certainly endanger his own life.

Roka felt a lump in her throat. She couldn't ask that of him. But there was this tiny spark of hope in her heart, burning her from the inside.

"You are right," the Doctor suddenly straightened and smiled, before she could say a word. "I am the Doctor! Who else but me could do anything at all!"

"But what if..." she mumbled, unable to finish the thought. As much as she wanted to find the Master, she wasn't ready to sacrifice a friend. Especially not after having gone through so much to know him safe.

"Who would I become if I wouldn't at least try?" he said through his teeth. then turned around to leave the TARDIS again. "And he is still my friend."

Roka followed with a small distance. While waiting for the Doctor she had set up her mind. There just was no way she could sit around and do nothing. Especially now after hearing all that. On her wrist was the Vortex Manipulator, just in case. Like this she could simply jump back to this moment in time if things went wrong.

The Time Lord ran ahead with wide steps, making it hard for Roka to follow. She could only get a vague glimpse at the destroyed building, but it was enough to let her stomach drop and make her wish the Master hadn't been inside there. Or still was... buried under all that rubble...

She shook her head and concentrated on not losing the Doctor out of sight. Here and there he stopped and took some deep breaths through his nose, as if he was a dog, following a trace. Could Time Lords smell each other? A weird thought, but not impossible.

Her legs started to get a bit tired when they reached a harbour and some sort of junkyard, filled with rubble and construction material, old machines and building parts. Seagulls squeaked above their heads and once again the Doctor halted to scent the air.

His face looked so serious. All those years Roka had always known him as generally happy an funny, but now this side of him was like wiped away.

Making sure to stay out of sight, Roka took the opportunity to take some deep breaths herself. Somewhere in the distance there was a metallic sounding bang. Another one followed. Then two more. The Doctor didn't move, stood there like frozen.

The four bangs repeated and finally the Doctor seemed to make out where they came from. He started to run again. Roka's heart pounded excitedly, but she was also worried. The bangs repeated a few more times, once a lot faster, before it stopped completely.

Only seconds later the Doctor stumbled to a halt, glaring up a hill of gravel. Roka looked up, her heart jumped. On that pile stood a black silhouette, too far away to make it out in detail, but there was no doubt.

The Master was alive.

He lifted both hands to his head, shook it violently. A moment later his arms sank again, but instead he let out a scream, laced with both insanity and pain. It made Roka's chest tighten. Then there was another manic laugh. "You love that running, don't you?!" his familiar voice called out amused. "Come, come! I've got some energy to burn!"

Suddenly he jumped impossibly high into the air, only to land on the other side of the gravel, completely unscathed.

Roka started to run the same moment the Doctor did. But if he had been fast before, now he was like the wind and she fell