The billowing plumes of thick, grey smoke floated along the derilate ruins where the city stood. Tiny sparks danced along the edges of the cloud that now was rising rapidly. The buildings which were once clad in burnished purple metal now were blackened with ash and dust. People lay on the ground covered in grey, lifeless. This was her life. Fire and smoke in all her lives and all her dreams. She sat a few hundred metres away on a piece of rubble, watching the shapes that the smoke made.

"Pretty", she thought.

"Isn't it just?" a voice replied. Missy's face sank. It wasn't enough that he invaded her sleep, he had to invade the time she was awake also.

"Oh, it's you", Missy said aloud, with no fear of looking insane. There was no one around and even if there was, she wouldn't care what those lower life forms thought anyway. "What do you want now?"

"Who said I wanted anything?"

"You always want something. I've given you what you asked for", Missy retorted, pointing at the atmosphere which was now flooded with smoke. "One sky full of smoke. Now... leave me be". His 'visits' had become more frequent, not just haunting visions in her sleep, but voices in the day. Asking her, telling her to do things. It was small things at first, stealing mechanical parts, killing annoying citizens, but now it was more. This was genocide. She could remember it now. She was just minding her own business, not really caring about who or what happened. She booked under a different name, used a perception filter and wore different clothes - practically a different person. No one would know that a psychopath walked among them.

"I said nothing of the sort. This was of your doing, not mine", the male replied. "Think of me as the devil on your shoulder".

"I don't need a conscience. And I certainly don't need you as it".

"You rate yourself too highly if you think I am doing this for your benefit".

"Then why are you doing this?"

"Because I don't want my future to be poisoned with whatever The Doctor has been putting in your head", the voice sneered. "Perhaps you did take my name, but you aren't The Master anymore. Not in moral anyway. And it's saddening".

"I-" Missy started, but was cut off.

"There may be something still there though, since you did burn down this city on your own accord".

"I did it because you forced me to!"

"I believe we have been here before", the voice murmured. "You can't help it. You try to leave me behind, try to forget everything you've done, but you just can't. And this proves it. You just can't help being bad".

"Get out of my head".

"You can't forget me, Missy. You'll never be able to let me go".

"Get out, get out", Missy said more loudly and quickly. She held her head in desperation as if she was trying to exorcise the thoughts from her head.

"I can't wait to see you".

"That is impossible".

"Nothing's impossible, sweetheart. I will see you one day", the creature, The Master, said in a defiant voice. "Anyway... you're boring me now. Goodbye, my Missy. You seem to have guests". Looking slightly confused, Missy turned to see three men in heavy armour. They had black helmets covering their faces, which were covered in complicated engravings.

"Miss Koschei Oakdown", the first man started. Funnily he spoke English, which Missy didn't expect at all. Surely he wasn't human. She knew that Theta prized their intelligence and naivity so much, but she didn't think that they would be so clever as to be able to get to Loras. She looked closer at the engravings on the man's helmet. Official looking, ancient writing. The writing of the... Heriotza? But that only meant one thing - Missy's time had run out. "You are charged with counts of genocide, arson and offences against the rights of the universe".

"Now, now dear. Don't be so dramatic", she replied in a sing-song voice, and the guard looked over her shoulder at the burning city.

"You will be taken to be executed. It will be a swift death".

"Oh goodie. Just what I wanted for my birthday", Missy chuckled and got up from the rubble she sat on. "A swift death? Oh you are spoiling me".

"A quick death, but by no means not painful".

"Surely this has to go through a jury first? You can't just go around killing Time Lords. We're a dying species".

"We have analysed all of the acts of yourself and your previous incarnations, and decided that you are a threat to the universe as we know it. That cannot continue", the man replied in such a robotic and monotone voice, it seemed like this was the speel they regurgitated whenever they arrested someone. Missy gritted her teeth in frustration. She should have just ran, left Loras in one piece. If she hadn't have listened to The Master, then she wouldn't be in this mess.

"Kill him", The Master said in her head in an almost inaudible voice.

"No, shut up", Missy answered him out loud.

"I'm sorry, Miss Oakdown? Blasphemy against a Heriotza guard is one of the highest offences. Do you really want to add such an act to your list of felonies?"

"Not you", Missy brushed him off and turned her attention back to The Master who had invited himself back into her head again.

"You know what to do, Missy. You've done it a thousand times. Big, heavy suit of armour, but they always leave the neck exposed between the helmet and chest plate", The Master began, in a voice like an excited child. He was pulling the strings again. "The hair pin in your hair, there is a blade inside it. Jab that into the side of his neck (He's a humanoid, so probably has a jugular), steal his blaster on the side of his suit and shoot it through the eyepieces on the other two. This will give you time to escape and find a bigger weapon to take them out with. Then-"

"Going to have to stop you there", Missy cut him off and he huffed. "I'm sorry. I know you didn't want this, and that you wanted me to be The Master, but I can't keep running. I'm getting tired now. I'm so tired. It was a good run, I admit that. And those days where I killed an entire race for the kicks will be genuinely brilliant memories, but it's time to pack it in... It's time I paid the price".

"No", The Master exclaimed in a small voice. "No, no, no".

"Mr Heriotza Guard. Can I have a final request?"

"I suppose".

"I don't want to die dressed like this", she murmured in a sombre tone and gestured towards her outfit. Once it was a gorgeously elegant evening dress, studded with black onyx. It was an off-the-shoulder, long gown in deep purple satin, with a row of semi-precious jewels along the waist and gathered along the hem like starlight. Now it was covered in smoke, ash, blood and rubble, all caking the fabric in off-coloured stains. "Everything I need is in my TARDIS. It's parked just outside the city's entrance".

"If you think I will allow you to escape, you have another thing coming, Time Lady", the guard gruffed and turned to his comrade. "Go to her TARDIS, get the first thing you see out of the wardrobe".

"Dear, no offense, but they're not picking my clothes", Missy muttered.

"I don't think it is your place to decide that", the guard retorted, putting Missy in her place.

"Fine", she gave in and cast an eye over the guard that would choose her death outfit. "Violet overcoat with the puff sleeves, the ankle-length skirt, the patterned shirt and the leather gloves. Grab anything else that seems interesting". She winked and grinned, a little too widely for someone who had been given a death sentence. The guard began to walk away, the armour clanking around their chest and legs. "Oh!" Missy called, remembering something else. "Grab the makeup bag from the dresser. And if you touch anything, I'll detach your fingers". The two other guards were staring at her - if she didn't know better she would have thought they were rolling their eyes under their helmets.

"What?" Missy asked in a lulling voice. "If I can't have a quick death or a painless death, then maybe I can have a good death. Or a good-looking death at that". She started to walk forward, then was stopped by a guard.

"Put out your hands", he commanded gruffly. Missy looked puzzled, then noticed the pair of handcuffs in his one hand.

"Saucy", she quipped with a playful smile, then did as she was told. The handcuffs latched around her hands with a click and a sharp pain gathered around her wrists.

"Follow", the other guard ordered. "No talk".

"And what will you do if I do?" Missy asked to the put-out expression from the guard who dragged her by the arm. "Put me to death? Oh wait, you've already done that. Afraid you've ran out of options, hon".

"We'll cut out your tongue", the guard answered, showing the hilt of his dagger from the inside of his armour. "So shut your mouth".

"O-kay..." Missy murmured, with wide eyes, and stayed silent, finally surrendering to her fate.

:/:

"Come on, come on", The Doctor murmured at the monitor, frustrated. "Hundreds of executions, genocides even. There must be some trace of it somewhere". The TARDIS hummed calmly, as it if wanted to reflect onto the Time Lord. "Right, just think. They said they operated from the highest order, so... Who is that?" Missy's execution was just days away and The Doctor was getting desperate. Of course he didn't want her to die. And that wasn't going to happen on his watch. "Highest order... Highest order", he mumbled to himself, furrowing his eyebrows. There must be something he was missing. The Heriotza were just killers without boundaries. Surely the Shadow Proclamation would have noticed by now, a race of creatures who were the judge, jury and executioners of everything living.

But what if the Shadow Proclamation was the highest order? The one pulling the strings? The Doctor moved quickly, typing rapidly for any planet owned by the Shadow Proclamation. Hundreds appeared on the screen, all different masses and located far and wide across the galaxy.

"So let's narrow it down", The Doctor spoke to himself and ran his finger down the list. "Too big", he commented, flicking it off the screen. "Too close to the Shadow Proclamation's base". He continued this for a while, slowly getting rid of the planets.

"In the middle of a war zone".

"Too icy".

"Made of lava".

"Not enough energy".

"Near a black hole". Finally he was down to one - Amala. The Doctor tapped in the coordinates and the TARDIS dematerialised with a low thrum. Exiting, he immediately noticed the great emerald forests of the planet, the deep waters of the rivers that wound through the landscape like a snake sliding through grassland. The sky was bright; the green hills becoming silhouettes against the horizon, where streaky clouds wove in and out of the blue. This couldn't be the place. It was too perfect. Then, he saw it. Engraved onto the hillside was the logo of the Heriotza, a curling mass of lines that came to a knife-like point, like a Celtic knot. Of course. It was too perfect. It was a perfect illusion. The best place to hide those that you wanted forgotten. For while you looked at the beauty around you, you never thought what was buried under your feet.
The Heriotza wouldn't budge on Missy's sentence - who could blame them? But The Doctor wasn't going to let his friend go so easily. Even if it did mean that he had to take part in a touch of sabotage.

:/: