‘I’ve got medics coming in,’ Barlow assured her. ‘I knew there would be casualties.’ He peered at the Doctor.’ Will he be OK?’

‘I don’t have a clue,’ Donna growled, fighting not to cry. ‘He’s an alien. God knows what sort of body chemistry he’s got.’

‘Jesus,’ Barlow looked back at the seething mass of lava and the burning grounds. ‘Well, you two obviously know how to throw a parry.’ Then he looked concerned. ‘What happened to your friend?’

‘Dead,’ Donna answered. ‘He saved the Doctor’s life.’

Barlow nodded, at least not making any inane comment about how sorry he was when it simply wasn’t true. ‘I lost too many myself,’ he said finally. ‘I think I’m burned out of fighting.’

‘Well, there’s hope for us yet, then,’ Donna said with a sigh. ‘Where the hell are those medics?’

‘They’re coming,’ he promised her.

‘They’d better be,’ said Donna.

Darkness had flooded Susan’s hearts, and she simply sat on the floor of the Master’s TARDIS as bitterness and loss filled her soul. The Master had shot her grandfather – perhaps killed him – and he had certainly killed David. Tears fell from her eyes unheeded as she thought about the loss. David had been her whole life for over thirty years, everything she had given up her freedom and heritage for. The recent troubled times were an unfair testament to their many happy years together. She knew they’d have got over their problems somehow. But now, there was no chance.

She’d known that David would die before she did – a long time before. But being gunned down by a homicidal maniac, after all they’d survived through… The same maniac who had uncaringly unleashed the Daleks back on Earth again. It meant nothing to the Master that the Daleks would create havoc and deal out death or enslavement to anyone who crossed their paths. To him, humans were insignificant beings, to be used and discarded as he wished.

Grief was rising within her, but not as swiftly as the rage. This monster had casually destroyed, or attempted to destroy, everyone that she held dear, all to gain a device by which he intended to blackmail other worlds into submitting to his twisted will. Rage filled her body, bringing back life out of her lethargy. She still held, unnoticed, the Master’s TCE, clutched in her frozen grip. The Master was paying her no attention at all as he laboured over his TARDIS’s controls. To him she was simply a minor inconvenience to be disposed of at his earliest opportunity, no doubt.

But he was wrong.

The fury was starting to consume her, giving her back her strength. She had almost forgotten the pain in her hand now as she focused only on her need for action.

There was the sighing again as the TARDIS landed somewhere, the time rotor switching from rising and falling to the spinning scanning mode. ‘Tersurus,’ the Master murmured. His TARDIS was obviously fully functional, unlike the Doctor’s.

Susan rose to her feet, glaring at him, and slowly moved towards the console. It was quite different in many ways from the one she’d been used to, thirty years earlier, but there were some similarities. Good.

The Master glanced up at her. He was still clutching the transmuter to his chest protectively. ‘Stay away, child,’ he warned her. ‘There are forces you cannot possibly comprehend being harnessed by these controls.’

‘Forces?’ Susan felt like spitting in his face.’ And what about all the things that you don’t seem to understand? Like love, compassion and decency?’

He laughed briefly. ‘Weaknesses,’ he jibed. ‘Excuses for the powerless. There is only one true reality in this universe – that of power! And that is my destiny.’

‘Power?’ Susan stared at him scornfully. ‘You used your power to kill my husband.’

He simply shrugged. ‘Humans have such short lives anyway,’ he commented. ‘I promise to be merciful and allow you to join him soon. When I can be bothered.’

‘Merciful!’ Susan was still moving slowly forward, drawing closer to the controls now. ‘You’re a shallow, vicious, self‐centred, evil little troll, with less decency than any of the people you’ve killed. You really think you deserve power?’

‘Power belongs to those who can claim it and hold it the Master responded, seemingly amused by her argument.

‘Then I’ll show you power,’ Susan snarled. She moved forward, touching both hands to the contacts for the telepathic circuits. ‘And I’m not a human – God help me, I’m one of you.’

The Master’s eyes widened slightly at this revelation, and he gave a sharp cry as he moved forward to knock her hands from the console.

But he was far, far too late.

Susan had known for a long time that she had greater latent telepathic powers even than most of her people. It was raw talent and normally unfocused. But working telepathic circuits could do what her own mind could not. The TARDIS caught up her will, and shaped it, like a weapon – aimed directly at the mind of the TARDIS’s controller.

The Master screamed and collapsed as the mental wave slammed into him. Susan had harnessed all of her rage, all of her grief, all of her loss, into one, rock‐hard emotion of hatred. She sent this seething mass of fury deeply into the Master’s mind, burning at his exposed thoughts, slicing through his own desires, devastating every last thought in his mind. She fed her fury over David’s murder, her anguish about her grandfather, her sense of loss, promises broken, the horror of Daleks resurrected – every last agonising emotion was fed from her mind, amplified by the telepathic circuits and directed like a laser into his brain.

He rolled on the floor, howling in agony as his mind slowly fried. Susan glowered down at him, refusing to feel the slightest twinge of pity or remorse for what she was doing. She wouldn’t even allow herself the luxury of satisfaction, in case that weakened her rage. But she did feel some of the feedback from the Master’s mind, and she stared into the pit of his inhumanity. She saw a creature who never doubted that it was his right to do precisely what he wished, who spared no concern for any other living creature. His own will was all that mattered to him in the entire universe. He was self‐consumed to the exclusion of any kind of gentleness or kindness.

Whispers of his knowledge, his thoughts and his deeds crossed Susan’s awareness. They sickened her, and fed her despair and fury. The Master writhed under the bombardment his mind being ravaged and consumed.

Until, finally, she could keep going no longer. Weakened and shaking, she jerked her trembling hands from the contacts and stared down at the trembling creature at her feet. She knew what she had done to him, and didn’t have a single regret or doubt. And yet, even after all he had been through, such was his own strength of will that he managed to open his eyes and focus on her.

‘You’re… the Doctor’s whelp,’ he gasped. It was a terrible strain on him, but he was focusing solely on this one fact. ‘I shall… destroy you… have my revenge on him.’

‘You’ll destroy nobody ever again,’ Susan vowed. She showed him the TCE. ‘This time, I’m the one with the weapon, Master of nothing. Get to your feet, or I swear I’ll kill you where you grovel.’ She knew he could read the grim assurance that she meant what she said. She wasn’t even sure he could move after what he’d been through, but he amazed her again.

He staggered to his knees, and then to his feet. The transmuter was still locked in his arms, like a precious child in the embrace of a doting mother. His eyes showed madness, but his will was surmounting even that. He was incredible – and demonic.

‘Outside,’ Susan ordered, triggering the door control. She also shut down the defence systems totally. It wasn’t beyond his imagining to have sabotaged them in the event of necessity. She had no desire for the TARDIS to incapacitate her now because of some cunning scheme of his. ‘Outside,’ she repeated.