It was all I could do not to spit on him purely out of hatred.

I raised myself out of the dirt, brushing it from my clothes. His hand remained extended, as though it didn't know what to do besides "help."

I narrowed my eyes, staring at the man with the blue box. "What do you want?"

His eyes were soft and brown. Weak eyes on a weak man. "A friend. Really. That's all I need right now."

I rolled my eyes. "Pick up another one of your earth hookers, then. I know one in a diner just down the road- she doesn't really do much, I'm sure she'd love to meet you. Anyone but me, Doctor."

I began to walk away, but he set a firm hand on my shoulder, stopping me in place. "Master. Please."

Turning around, I shook his hand off my shoulder. "Keep your hands to yourself. I don't need the fingerprints of scum like you on my body."

He winced, obviously slightly offended. His eyes were now larger and rounder than ever before. "Master. You're my only friend."

I laughed. "You don't actually think we're friends, do you?"

"You don't have anyone else. I don't have anyone else. We're all that's left of the time lords now, Master. We've got to stick together."

I rolled my eyes and began to walk away. "You're the last person I want to stick with."

"I can show you the stars."

I stopped dead in my tracks, resisting the urge to punch him in the face. "Do you actually think that's going to work on me?"

I could almost hear his eyebrows scrunching up in false confusion. "What?"

Before I knew it, I was facing him, holding the Doctor by the neck, prepared to kill the damn time lord as many times as I needed to. "Do not play dumb with me!" His eyes were pleading. God, he was so weak- so attached, so emotional. "I'm not another one of those whores you always run around with! I am superior to them- and to you! You can't trick me into running off into your stupid blue box! I'm not stupid!"

I felt as though I was going to be deafened by the horrendously loud pounding of the drums. In fact, I almost hoped that I would be. Anything would have been better than hearing that lunatic speak to me.

But speak he did, his voice as weak as the rest of him due to my hands being around his neck. "Master. Please."

It should be stated that it wasn't his pleading that stopped me from killing him right then and there. It was I, really, realizing that I could, in fact, take advantage of the situation. He was temporary, a minor inconvenience that I could wipe out of existence any time I pleased. The TARDIS, however... Invincible.

I let him go, taking a step back. "Okay."

He furrowed his brows, obviously surprised by my sudden change of heart. "What?"

"I'll travel with you," I said, gagging on the words. "I'll uh... We'll see the stars. Or whatever."

It was obvious that he was still a bit flustered by my sudden friendliness, but he smiled all the same. "Thank you. Really."

I grinned toothily, which was almost physically painful. "It's my pleasure."

He took another moment to stare at me, all big brown eyes, before finally beginning to move towards the TARDIS. "We'll start now, then! Come along! Allons-y!"

I choked on a fake laugh as I watched him disappear into the blue box. God, whatever I was doing would be the death of me. It hadn't even been ten minutes with the man, and I was already on the verge of murdering him. I sighed. It was only a matter of time.

Stepping into the Doctor's TARDIS was an even more incredible experience than I'd ever imagined. It was even larger than I'd remembered, and it made me feel tiny in comparison- but somehow, it did this in a good way. It was warm, cozy. Somehow, the time machine felt like home.

The Doctor watched me with a knowing grin as I looked around the interior. "Everyone reacts this way, you know."

The comfort the time machine had provided immediately evaporated, and the space was filled with hatred for the man and the sound of pounding drums. "I'm not everyone."

He waved his hand through the air, as though my comment was the most insignificant thing in existence. "No, of course you aren't." He paused. "But that's what everyone says, of course."

I rolled my eyes. As usual, there wasn't any reasonable response to his idiocy.

The Doctor smiled in a way that made me want to punch every tooth out of his mouth before walking further into the TARDIS, to the console. He ran his hands over the knobs and switches, caressing them as though they were living, breathing things. God, he really needed a girlfriend.

"So," he turned away from his groping session with the controls and looked at me, "where do you want to go first?"

"Away from y-" I caught myself mid-insult, remembering my plan to "befriend" the time lord. "Somewhere new," I said, choking on the civility. "Something neither of us has ever seen before."

He nodded, still beaming (God, when would he stop?!). "Brilliant."

Just like that, his hands were chaotic blurs- smashing buttons, switching switches, turning knobs. He'd gone from gently stroking each detail of the console to bashing the metal as though the machine was his mortal enemy. Talk about moody.

The engine of the TARDIS was much louder than I'd expected. It roared underneath us as we were thrown around in flight. I was tossed here and there, crashing into the Doctor and the door and the walls. With flights like this, I was surprised that the Doctor had survived even a hundred years!

Just as suddenly as it had started, the TARDIS stopped. I lay on the floor of the time machine as I heard the sound of the engine whir into silence.

"Come on, then."

For the second time that day, the Doctor stood over me, offering me a hand that no one could pay me to take. Again, I stood up without his help, ignoring the pain in my legs as well as the pounding in my head. I didn't need him, and I never would.

He acknowledged my ignorance towards his hand with a raised eyebrow, but he remained silent- thankfully.

I faced the TARDIS door. One push and I could be anywhere. Following the push? I could be anywhen. All it would take was one murder, and the TARDIS would be mine. Time itself would belong to me. I grinned, imagining my success, as I reached for the handle. Just as I had a grip on it, a life-changing grip...

The door swung open inward, nearly hitting me on the nose. I backed further into the TARDIS as three men, outfitted in military suits and armed with guns, came barging into the time machine. They waved their weapons all around the room before stopping, pointing directly at me or the Doctor. Both of us time lords had our hands in the air, prepared to surrender even before knowing what our crime was.

"You'll be coming with us, then," said the grunt in the middle. "Newcomers always get to experience the cell for some time."

The Doctor stepped forwards slowly so he was standing next to me. "I don't like guns. I really don't."

The second soldier, who had a crooked nose and eyes that were far too close together, snorted. "They're useful when it comes to trespassers like you two."

The Doctor, who seemed to have a death wish, continued to talk. "Are they really? Because if you told me that you were willing to shoot us down, here and now, I sure wouldn't believe you." His voice was light, reasoning. It made him seem like less of a villain than he really was.

The first man spoke again. "We've done it before, we'll do it again." He nodded, signaling the other two men to move towards us. "That is, unless you quietly come with us now."

The Doctor looked at me with a raised eyebrow, signaling that I was to decide our next move. I furrowed my brow. Coming with the men meant being locked up for any amount of time, and staying meant being shot, possibly losing a regeneration. This could be to my advantage, depending on how many regenerations the Doctor had left... But was it worth losing one of my own?

Before I even had the chance to react, the men were upon us, lowering our raised arms and cuffing them. We were immediately marched out of the TARDIS and into the mysterious, outside world.

I was hit with a warm breeze as soon as I set foot outside the time machine. The place felt like a tropical paradise, but looked nothing like one. Nearly everything was grey, as though someone had taken a palette consisting of purely dark, depressing colors and had painted a universe using only those. The only things that weren't in completely depressing hues were humans, who marched around wearing uniforms similar to those of the men escorting us, and some curious little creatures who spoke in squeaks and hisses.

I was enraptured by these creatures. It isn't often that I'm impressed by another species, mostly because I'm experienced with aliens of all shapes and sizes, but these ones had me dumbfounded. They came in bright colors of any imaginable shade. Their contrast against the colorless world around them was astounding and made them seem even brighter. Most of them were only two feet tall, but some had extremely long necks that brought them to the three-foot point. Their shapes were usually harshly different: some were squashed, with long, tube-like noses, while others were stretched, looking quite similar to hot dogs. In fact, it would be difficult for most to even identify them as the same species, but large round eyes and blinding colors were all shared between them, making their relations obvious to a superior brain such as my own.

The Doctor was visibly entertained by the squirmy little creatures, as he couldn't seem to take his eyes off of them. However, his eyes were wide, sad, as he stared down at the aliens. That was just like him, to pretend to be superior in knowledge, familiar with the species despite the fact that he obviously wasn't. How could he be? I was so much more experienced with travel than he- it wasn't possible for him to know a creature that I was unfamiliar with.

I'd been so distracted by my surroundings that I was surprised when the men lead us down into an underground chamber. The walls were stone and lit lanterns showed the way down a long hall that ended with a single jail cell. We were tossed carelessly into this cell, our hands still bound. The three men stood on the other side and locked us in, smirking.

"Sweet dreams, foreigners."

I couldn't tell which one of the guards had said this because their backs had turned and already, they were marching down the hall and up the steps into the outside world. Suddenly, every lantern in the hall went out as though blown out by a gust of wind, leaving the Doctor and me in absolute darkness.

I groaned. "What have you gotten us into?"

His voice was as cold and steady as the stone around us. "A mission, evidently."

I rolled my eyes. "Could you not be so, you know, vague? I'm not here for drama. I'm here for..." I remembered my cover story. "...Adventure."

"Consider this your first, then. We've got to get them out."

"If 'them' is us, then yeah, I'd agree."

"Not us. Well," he said, "yes, us. But them as well."

I remembered his big, sad eyes as we'd walked aboveground. "Why do you pity those creatures?"

I could practically feel his judgmental gaze through the darkness as he analyzed my question. "They're prisoners," he responded dryly after a moment of thought.

"They're prisoners? They're prisoners? I don't see them sitting in a cold jail cell! They're walking freely up there- that's a much better position than the one we're in!"

"They're slaves. Workers. I bet they'd give anything to be in our place."

The drums pounded loudly in frustration as I realized that he was correct. A memory from minutes prior became clear to me as I recalled the heavy bands around the creatures' ankles. Red lights flickered on each of the bands every few moments. Obviously, the bands were used to monitor the species and their work, most likely tracking them at the same time.

Luckily, the Doctor was rather unfamiliar with the concept of shutting his mouth, and he continued to talk, oblivious to my lack of knowledge. "We can get out of here, and then we'll help them."

"Please, Doctor, don't be unrealistic. Bound hands, locked door, remember?"

I heard a bit of rustling as he awkwardly moved around, and then a blue light filled the chamber. The sonic screwdriver- of course. The Doctor quickly freed his own hands before releasing mine from their bounds. Before I knew it, the cell door was unlocked and we were walking down the hall.

As much as I hated to admit it, the Doctor's mind was quick- perhaps, he was more of an equal than I'd realized.