Hi!

So, FINALLY after 375 days, I am updating this story. I am SO incredibly sorry that this one fell off the map. I had so many other stories that were in demand. And then I had the most horrible case of writers block on this and 'Recovering Memories'. But now I have my muse back. Not only have I finished a new chapter for both of them, but I have come up with better ideas for the plotlines and the direction the story was going.

I can't promise that this will be updated uber fast, considering how many things I have to write, but I can promise that it will be updated. I do not abandon my stories, and eventually everything will be updated.

I have more time to write things now, so updates WILL become more frequent. If I'm not posting on this account, I'll be posting on my joint account with my friend Farhana. Check us out: u/5580654/Krazy-Tyler-Kreations

Anyway, enjoy the new chapter! You have no idea how glad I am to have finished this chapter!

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I Take it Back

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Rose waited in fear, her body pressed as far back into the door as she could manage. She waited for him to look away, to look past, or through her, just like everyone else. But he didn't.

The Master kept staring at Rose, confusion creasing his brow, and his head tilted slightly as he watched her shuffle a step along. He still didn't look away. A huge grin spread across his face, and he suddenly jumped up.

"Ha, ha!" he cried, finally looking away. "Ha, ha, ha! Ha, ha, ha!" he laughed in strange ways as he dashed around the console and hit the speaker. "Doctor! - Ooh, new voice. Hello. Hello. Hello," he tested said voice in low, high and normal. "Anyway, why don't we stop and have a nice little chat while I tell you all my plans and you can work out a way to stop me? I don't think!"

"I'm asking you really properly! Just stop! Just think!" the Doctor pleaded.

"Use my name."

"Master. I'm sorry." So, the Doctor clearly knew this man. And it appeared he didn't like the Doctor very much. She had to do something!

"Tough!" the Master cried, instantly starting up the dematerialization sequence.

"No! Stop!" she cried, rushing forward. Before she got there, the console sent sparks flying everywhere, the TARDIS groaning in protest.

"No, you don't!" he shouted, slamming a lever down and getting it working again. "End of the universe. Have fun. Bye, bye!" And before she could do anything else, the TARDIS was dematerializing.

"No! No, you can't leave him! Bring him back!" she shouted. Leaning over, she pulled a lever that would take them back.

"Hey!" the Master cried, slamming it back and glaring at the console. She pushed it up again, only to have the Master do the same thing. "Stop it!" he growled, this time looking right at her. His hand stayed on the lever so she couldn't change it again.

Rose stepped back, unnerved by the venom in his glair. "You… you can see me?" she gasped.

He regarded her for a moment, tilting his head again. "Just," he replied. "I can see you… but it's almost like you're invisible. I can see right through you… So, who are you then? Ghost of TARDIS past? A manifestation of the TARDIS… No, not quite… You're something else." He began walking towards her and Rose took another step back, slowly making her way around the console.

"Take us back," she said, her voice strong, but shaking. "Go back, and get the Doctor! You can't just leave them there with those things!"

"Oh, yes I can. And I will," he grinned. "He's been in worse messes… let's see him get out of this one."

"But he'll die! He's stuck there."

"He has an immortal friend with a Vortex Manipulator, and he can regenerate. If he's thick enough to die, then I look forward to going up against his next incarnation."

"He will find a way out," she growled at him. "If he has a Vortex Manipulator, he can escape. And he will find you," she warned him, almost on the opposite side of the console now.

"Oh, my dear girl… that's exactly what I'm counting on." The grin that stretched across his face could almost have been called adorable, if it weren't so sinister.

Rose looked at him in fear. Who was he really? What did he want? And how could she stop him? …Unfortunately, it seemed that right now, there was only one thing she could do. Run. Finally she was close enough to the hallway to dash off. And she ran all the way back to her room, the Master hot on her tail, shouting after her. She dashed inside and slammed the door, her heart pounding against her chest.

"Lock it! Lock it! Lock it!" she shouted at the TARDIS. There was a snick, and she knew that the Master would not be able to get in, no matter what he tried. And indeed, she heard him smack into the door, then try the handle and bang on the door with his fist.

"Come out of there," he called, almost sweetly. "Please. I won't hurt you… I don't even know if I can…" he muttered as a quiet after thought. "Come on, I just want to talk."

"No!" Rose called back. She couldn't believe that he was still trying to be nice. She'd seen enough of him to now that he was not a nice person. "Why the hell would I trust you? You stole the TARDIS and left the Doctor and Jack and Martha to die! If you think I'm going near you…"

"You'll have to come out at some point. You can't stay in there forever."

"Believe me, I can. The TARDIS likes me."

"Look, I only want to chat... what's your name? I need to call you something."

"No, you really don't. If we're asking questions, how can you see me?"

"I don't know. Why can no one else see you?"

"I don't know. Now, we're getting nowhere, so just leave me alone."

The Master bashed his fist on the door in frustration, then there was silence. "Fine," he said eventually, his tone smug. "Stay in your room, my dear, but we will talk." And then, there was nothing.

Rose breathed heavily, she sunk down the door and lent her head back against it. "I take it back," she whispered. "Please, I want to stay invisible. I don't want him to see me."

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The Master walked back to the console room with a grin. He had an idea of who the woman could be. She couldn't be the TARDIS (or some form of it), therefore, she must be some form of humanoid. Most likely human, knowing the Doctor... but she was different somehow. Not quite human. She seemed to really care for the Doctor, love him even. And that room… it must be hers. He knew the Doctor's TARDIS, no matter what theme he set it to. That was where he kept the rooms of his companions. And that door… it had designs of gold filigree and red roses…

Rose. The Doctor and Jack and talked about a woman named Rose. And Jack had looked at the TARDIS and said her name… like he had seen her. He needed to find out who this Rose was. Because he knew the Doctor, and from that one conversation, he could tell the girl meant more to him than the Master could ever understand. Him and his stupid fascination of humans... it went beyond that. It was something else... It was almost as if he... loved her.

Suddenly he burst into laughter. The Doctor in love with a human? He really shouldn't be surprised. Trust him to fall for a creature of such a base, animalistic species.

He needed to find out more about this Rose. The Doctor had little notes with her name in them stuck all over the console. 'Rose Tyler'. The notes called her Rose Tyler... She seemed to be something entirely different. Grinning broadly, he typed her name into the computer. But the grin turned into a snarl as it came up with scrambled data.

The girl was right, the damn machine did like her.

Oh, well. It didn't matter. He had other ways of getting what he wanted. He only had to reverse the course of the TARDIS, and he would land in their last destination. Which, if he was right, would have been the year that Martha or Jack were from.

Like the last time, the ride was rough. He could tell that the bloody machine was older and more beaten up, but there was something else, too. Whatever the Doctor had done, he'd damaged his ship fairly badly. The TARDIS was protesting loudly, both struggling to get to where she'd been sent, and also not happy about having the Master pilot her. After what seemed like too long, the ship stopped with a shuddering crash that threw him to the ground.

Picking himself up, the Master adjusted his shirt, then strolled out the door.

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Back in her room, Rose heard the TARDIS make a sound. By now she was beginning to understand the ship, as if she were really talking. He was gone. The Master had left. Even though she didn't need to be quiet, she snuck out into the console room. For a moment she tried to pilot it. But she wasn't very good at it, and the controls seemed... stuck. There was something wrong with her. Rose could tell.

"What's wrong?" she asked, stroking the console. The ship hummed, sounding a little out of sorts. "What is it? Was it that explosion just before?" Another hum. She paced around, checking the console for damage, but couldn't see anything that looked damaged. Something must have sparked in the circuits... But the Doctor had done this, hadn't he? The Master was blaming him. Why would the Doctor ruin his own ship, his TARDIS, if it didn't help him escape... Actually, on second thought, the Doctor would never do anything to damage the TARDIS.

Suddenly, the door swung open, and the Master stormed in.

"2005! I landed in blinking 2005! Nothing happens there. Most boring time ever." He looked up and noticed her, standing frozen at the console. "Ah, Rose. I see you've come out to play."

"Don't you dare come near me!" she hissed.

The Master froze in his place and held up his hands in surrender. "Alright, alright. Let's just talk then shall we?" he said.

"Okay, then. I'll start. Why are you doing this? Why did you steal the TARDIS? Why did you leave them behind to die!?"

The Master relaxed, dropping his hands with a smirk. "Because I can," he said joyfully. He went and plonked himself down on the chair. "Your Doctor and I have always had a bit of a... rival going on. A system. I try to mess everything up and cause destruction and try and rule the world. And he tries to stop me."

"Right, so first impression was correct. Psychotic Time Lord."

"You got it, sweetheart. I left your friends there as a bit of a game. He has a bit of a knack for escaping deadly situations. I want to see how he deals with this one. How long it will take him to find me."

"You're insane," she growled.

The Master grinned. "Oh, you have no idea. Now it's my turn. What are you doing here?"

"What?" she said in confusion.

"I know who you are, Rose Tyler. I heard what the Doctor and your freaky friend said. You are supposed to be trapped in another universe. So how are you here? And why can't anyone see you?"

"I don't know." She turned away from him, unwilling to give him anymore information than he already had. He clearly wanted to hurt the Doctor.

"Aww, come on, Rosie-"

"Don't call me that!"

"-You want to know yourself, don't you? That's it, isn't it. You don't know exactly why you're here or what you are. And you need the Doctor to tell you. But he can't see you, and you can't contact him. It's like you're not even there to him. And you want to scream at him that you are, but it's still like you're stuck in another universe. Only this time you can see every little thing that he's going through because you decided to come back unseen, unheard and unfelt." Anger bubbled up within Rose. She knew it was the truth, but to have it set so plainly and mockingly before her made her want to slam something into his cocky face. But at the same time, she went pale at his words. Her instincts were telling her to both stay as still as possible and to run as far and fast as she could. "I can help you, Rose. I can hear you. I can see you. And I can tell you what you need to know."

"I..." She didn't know what to do. She wanted to know. Oh, God, she needed to know. But she didn't trust this man in the slightest. She couldn't afford to tell him anything.

"I can help you. I promise. I may be the only hope you have. I mean, what has the TARDIS done to help you? Has she told you anything?"

Anger and confusion boiled up with in her again, but this time at it was at herself, at her circumstance, and just a little bit towards the TARDIS. She had no clue what was happening to her. She was stuck and starved of contact. And no matter how she tried to reach for help, it always seemed like the TARDIS was stopping her. Why wouldn't she let her?!

"I... I died," she finally said. The Master's eyebrows rose. "In the other universe. I was trying to calm an alien and it attacked me. I died. And then I was here."

"You... died... Well, I guess that explains why you have no physical form."

"No, but I do. I can pick things up, I can-"

"Touch the TARDIS, but not people?" She fell silent and he took that as a yes. "If you died, then how are you here, hmm. Clearly the TARDIS knows you are, she's protecting you. And it seems like you have form sometimes but not others. Clearly you are part of the TARDIS itself."

"What?"

"Well, there's no other explanation. But that doesn't answer exactly what you are. What are you...?" He got up and started circling her once more, making her feel small. But no matter how much she tried to act brave, she still felt like prey being circled by a vicious creature that wanted to destroy her. "An echo? Part of the programming? I could look into it for you, but the TARDIS is letting me access her files as much as she is letting you communicate." Rose said nothing. The more he looked at her, the more she wanted to bolt. "What can you remember about being part of the TARDIS? The Time Vortex?"

"What?"

"I heard what the Doctor and your freaky friend were talking about, Rose. I heard them talk about you. About how were trapped in another universe and the Doctor was unable to get back to you. About how you absorbed the Time Vortex and made your friend immortal."

"So?"

"So?" he said, taken aback. "Do you not realise what you did?" Rose shook her head. "That's right, he said he didn't tell you much. How much did he actually tell you? And how much of it can you remember?"

"Absorbing the Time Vortex?" she said. "I- I remember... I don't know. We were in the future and we were in danger. Daleks were about to destroy everything and the only way to stop them was with a Delta Wave." At this, the Master's eyebrows rose in surprise. "He- the Doctor tricked me into the TARDIS and it sent me home. But I knew that something wasn't right. I knew he was in danger and I had to get back. I realised that the words 'Bad Wolf', these words we had been seeing everywhere, were me. I realised that it was a message from me. I could get back there. So I came up with a plan. The TARDIS was alive, I knew she was. She'd once opened her heart and saved my life. I saw what she could do with that power. And I- I thought that if I could just get to it, I could fly her back. Do something to save the Doctor. We struggled for a while to get it open and when we finally did... I don't really remember much after that. The heart opened and golden light came out at me. Everything was gold and powerful and peaceful. I... I knew everything. I could see everything... I remember... His face. The Doctor's face. And pain. I was burning. I remember... a kiss... and a song. The entire time all I could hear was a song. Everything went black after that. When I woke up, the Doctor was regenerating. He told me that he had sung a song and the Daleks had run away, so at first I thought that the singing had been him. Now I know that it was the TARDIS. And it wasn't till much later when I forced him to tell me, that he said anything about what happened. And all he told me was what I had done. That I had absorbed the Time Vortex. That I had forced energy into the Dalek Emperor's head and wiped them all out. That I had saved us. That I had spread the words Bad Wolf through space and time. He didn't tell me anything else. Not even about Jack."

The Master nodded. "I see. That was... very helpful."

"It was?" she said cautiously. Part of her was terrified that she had just told him exactly what she shouldn't have. She had the feeling that he was going to use this knowledge to hurt her. To hurt the Doctor.

"Yes. Because now I know exactly what kind of connection you have with the TARDIS. I know the changes that would would have gone through, both mentally and physically. And I think I may know how you are like this."

"But I didn't change," she said.

"I just need to go somewhere to find something out," he continued, completely ignoring her. He went over to the TARDIS and started up the dematerialization sequence.

"Master, are you sure you know? Because I didn't go through any-" She was cut off as she was roughly thrown to the ground. The TARDIS was shaking more than she'd ever done before. The console sparked everywhere, and part of the metal work at the bottom burst off with a hiss, barely missing her. She clung to the grating for dear life, trying to stop herself from being thrown around anymore. It seemed like ages later that the shaking finally stopped. And before Rose could even collect her bearings, the Master stalked past her and out the door. Leaving her a lone once more.