It's all AU.

Benton left the hotel, and began patrolling the streets, trying to get a handle on what sort of place he'd been dropped into. The Professor was right. It looked like a fairly ordinary town. Like a suburb of London. Parks, shops, restaurants. No cars, though.

And no telling who he might run into, friend or foe.

Lucy had found a nice little tea shop that was a little less seedy than some of the other places she'd seen, and was sitting at a table in the corner eating her lunch - a fairly decent salad and a glass of white wine.

When the bell over the door tinkled, she glanced up towards the newcomer with a pleasant smile.

"I just want to go home," Rose groaned, not even looking at who she was sitting down next to as she frankly flopped down.

He slipped, skidded, and fell off the low roof with a dull thud. He landed flat on his back, looking straight up into the strange sky. When the light was blotted out by a shadow, he managed a rather breathless, "I meant to do that."

He was lying through his teeth, but there was no way in the world he was going to admit that he'd been so surprised by a large bird that he startled right off the edge of the shop's roof. No way in hell.

Not until he could breathe, anyway.

The Master took the oppotunity to slip away while the Doctor went to check her assertation that the TARDIS wasn't registering any time. She'd much rather explore, and see if this was a suitable substitute for the habitable, but unihabited, planet she'd been intending on leaving the Doctor on. Habitable, but not due to evolve any sentient life for another million years. Or even be visited by any intelligent species for a good long while after that.

As she stepped outside, looking up at the wash of stars, she raised an eyebrow. That set of constellations was like no other she'd seen before. Or, in fact, had any inkling existed. Though the buildings around her made it appear that this wasn't going to be an impossible place for the Doctor to escape. Well, back to plan A - get the Doctor to that planet, then find a place to start taking over the universe.

After she found a way out of this place, anyway. Which, at the moment, wasn't too high a priority. She doubted the Doctor would figure it out before she did.

Leaning against the wall, she waited for someone to come by, an idea forming in the back of her head.

She didn't crack a smile as she threw the levers, pressing buttons, and all but glared at the jury-rigged console as she sent the TARDIS dematerializing, despite the Doctor's frantic attempts to stop her, and get the doors back open for her companions. The Master didn't want them in here, didn't want them to interfere with her plans.

Besides, that would give the Doctor allies against her, and it was bad enough that this was the Doctor's TARDIS in the first place. Though she was responding well to the Master's input.

Well, so the Master thought, until the jolt of landing told her something was wrong. She glanced at the screens, frowning slightly in puzzlement. She'd intended to take them into the Vortex, then find a place she could deposit the Doctor that was out of the way in time and space while she worked on returning to the power she deserved. This... wasn't the Vortex, and it wasn't someplace she recognized as safely out of the way, either.