The Master – the echo of the Master that had been trapped in the Eye of Harmony for so long – was standing on top of a hill waiting for the Doctor. When the blue box materialised behind him, he wasn't surprised.

The Doctor stood behind him.

"Hello," he said. "Shall we get on with this?"

The Master turned to face the Doctor. The other Time Lord widened his eyes in shock.

The Master was slowly fading away, and was already half transparent.

"What's happening to you?" the Doctor asked, horrified.

"I obviously didn't think my escape through hard enough," the Master joked. He sensed the other Master – or rather the weakling who dared go by that name – inside the Doctor's TARDIS. "I'm dissolutioning. To tell you the truth, I'm sick of life, Doctor. I'm free – and if that means I have to die, then so be it."

"There must be something we can do," the Doctor insisted. The Master smiled. He felt his atoms sliding apart.

"Nothing Doctor," the Master replied. "I'm free, that's all that matters."

Then he felt himself go… his atoms danced on the breeze… and he felt his consciousness fly away with it… it was finally, truly over…

--

Inside the TARDIS, after the Master had made sure his TARDIS was back in the cupboard where it belonged, Hermione came to a decision.

"Doctor," she said. "I want to go back."

The Doctor looked up, and his eyes were full of shock.

"I'm sorry," she said, "but… I've got a future there, and friends. I don't want to leave them forever."

The Doctor smiled, and nodded, then set the controls.

--

It took half an hour, relatively speaking, from where the TARDIS had been before, to get to where it was heading. In that time, the Doctor and Hermione talked, they laughed, they cried. The Doctor also told Hermione the Master's real name.

When they finally got there, they were both grinning. It wasn't a tearful farewell. It was just a see-you-later.

"Bye Koschei!" Hermione laughed, as she went outside.

"My name is the Master!" he yelled back, grumpily. He would have revealed the Doctor's real name, but then the Doctor would have killed him – well, overstatement, but it wouldn't have been a pretty sight.

Outside, the Doctor left Hermione with the boys. Judging from their faces, she'd just left.

"Like I said, ten seconds!" the Doctor grinned, before going inside.

He walked over to the console, and set them off again.

"Now what?" the Master asked. Before the Doctor could answer, a beeping came from the console. The Doctor checked it, and frowned.

"Stattenheim summoner," the Doctor said. "Harry must be in trouble."

He reset the co-ordinates, and the TARDIS landed. He went outside.

The Master watched him go out, and when he left, he rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Here we go again," he said.