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"Me?" He raised an eyebrow at her. "I hardly thought you cared anymore. Just traveling, mostly."

"Would you rather I go back to pretending not to care? I can." She chewed her lip a little. "Besides, heard from someone that you may be a little worried about me. If they were mistaken..."

"You were just pretending?" He was honestly surprised by that. Koschei didn't often see the good in himself, especially after that incident.

She gave a small nod. "I... Well, I'm allowed to feel a little curious as to who the person who created my world is now... Even if you're not really him."

He hid a smile in his tea as he took a sip. "Well, I like it better when you talk to me."

"How long's it been since I left?"

"I'll try to make it a habit then."

She bit her lip thinking with everything that had gone on it was hard to tell. "Two weeks I think. Maybe three..."

"Thank you," he murmured genuinely.

"Oh, not long, then. Brilliant." He nodded. "Anything interesting happen?"

She nodded looking back out at the sky.

"Just typical things." Her eyes darkened for a moment, she felt it this time, hopefully she had her head turned enough.

Koschei was not unobservant, so he noticed when her eyes darkened. A frown crossed his face and he sat up straighter.

"That, my dear Mira, does not look like 'typical things', unless you humans have become more masochistic than me," he said sharply.

She chewed her lip a moment.

"There was a mishap... I'm still trying to figure out what happened exactly... Please, don't freak out. I can't fight it when I lose it..."

"Something is inside of you," Koschei said simply. "That's obvious enough. But how? Tell me what happened."

"I know something's in me... Not like I can really take it out." She scowled a little. "I touched Doctor's hand... Created a Meta... and I'm still..." She closed her eyes resting her head on her hands a moment. "Since then... I've been trying to fight it..."

Koschei blinked. "Come again? You touched his hand and created what?"

"He's part Human... Part... I didn't know what I was doing, I bumped it and tried to keep it from falling..." She kept her head down. "I... I can't stop the music now... It's so loud..."

"Oh! You mean like Handy! Yes, I met one of those," Koschei said, nodding. His mind had gone somewhere else at first.

"Can I see?" he asked hesitantly. "I know a good deal about those sort of things, having had the drums for most of my existence."

She nodded.

She tensed. "Can... can you look without making me remember? I... I don't want to see my home again... I don't want to remember it." She was almost begging, not looking up at him yet.

"There's a reason I took the name of Master," he said with a crooked grin. "I can do everything."

He took her face in his hands, watching her. "Just trust me."

She bit her lip and nodded looking up at him. "Please... I need a little silence... so many... I can't stop them... The screams..."

That sounded far too familiar for comfort. Koschei gently pressed his forehead against Mira's and closed his eyes, slipping into her mind.

It seemed so simple, compared with his. He'd never actually been in a human's mind before, he hadn't thought them even comparable to him so why bother? But it had a certain beauty to it.

He rifled through her mind, searching for the problem. Something too complex or too simple to be human.

She moaned as he slipped in, unable to stop it she let him in completely showing him everything and more than she had shown the Doctor...

She bit her lip hard to keep from screaming out when she watched the town she had grown up in, the pale remains of San Fransisco getting destroyed. That was when it seemed she started hiding the fact she wasn't fully human from herself. There was a sound, like a movement of wings, her eyes darkened as she groaned almost falling.

Relax, he ordered her telepathically. Focus on me.

He wouldn't be able to block it off permanently. That much was obvious. This thing inside her was part of who she was. Destroying it would damage her, perhaps even kill her.

Still, there were sections he could separate temporarily. Steeling himself, he began to erect a mental barrier in her mind around these parts of her that weren't her.

She felt the walls and the part of her that he was trying to block fought back. The part of her that was fighting to stay human stayed back giving him what he needed.

Koschei had to work harder than he had expected to put them up. Finally, the inhuman part of her was sealed off, and he pulled back. He was surprised by the amount of energy it had taken and fell backwards onto the grass with a small gasp.

She sank to her knees. The music had died down some, it was still there...

"T...thank you..." She put her hands on the ground to steady herself.

All she got was a grunt in reply. Koschei was spread out on the grass like before, breathing slowly. His face was shiny with sweat and he wiped it off, eyes closing.