A/N: Thank you so much for your reviews, favourites and follows! After getting several reviews on my other stories that my layout is difficult to understand, I will be changing the layout a bit. Just thought I'd let you know in case you notice. *UPDATE: this chapter has been rewritten* - W
Upon returning to the TARDIS, Bill found herself thrust into an uncomfortable silence. Neither her nor the Doctor knew what to say after their argument only an hour before. Eventually, it was the Doctor who spoke first.
"Where were you?" He asked quietly, turning to face her. His voice wasn't confronting or angry, and instead sounded soft, as if he had been worried.
"I... just went for a walk." Bill lied, worried they would only argue again if she told him where she had actually been. She knew that the Doctor could see straight through her, but to his credit, he didn't push the subject.
"I didn't mean to bring up bad memories earlier." Bill spoke. The Doctor didn't reply, and instead beckoned for Bill to follow him over to nearby chairs. He took a deep breath.
"We grew up together. Missy and I. Well, she was known as the Master then." He noticed Bill's confused frown. "When a time lord's body dies, they regenerate. Grow a new body, essentially. Sometimes a time lord can change gender. Its not a big deal like it is with your lot." He explained. Bill nodded slowly.
"So when you die, you become somebody else?" Bill asked. The Doctor shook his head.
"I'll look like a different person, but I will still be me." He reassured her. He sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Missy and I... its a long story, Bill. Are you sure you want to know?" He asked. Bill nodded determinedly.
And so he told her. With mugs of tea in hand, Bill listened as the Doctor explained to her the Untempered Schism, much as he had to Martha all those years ago, telling her of how he had run away, and the Master had gone insane. He explained that their friendship had only been rekindled recently with Missy, as the Master had been hell-bent on murdering the Doctor and dominating planets. Yet, as he explained, they both never stopped caring in their strange ways, even throughout the year that never was, where Martha Jones saved the Earth. Bill listened with wide eyes as he told of Martha, as Bill - like the rest of the world - could not remember that year. Strangely, she wished she could, so that she could remember Martha, considering she had saved them all.
"The most important thing I want you to remember from these stories, Bill, is that Missy is dangerous. She is making progress, and that's why she is in the vault, so that I can help her. But, I don't want you to trust her - not yet. She has murdered in the past so willingly that I worry she could kill you just as easily. She very nearly killed Martha Jones and all of her family when they helped me try to stop her, and I... I can't let another of my friends suffer because of her again." The Doctor explained. Bill nodded, suddenly feeling sick at the thought of the danger she had been in whilst visiting Missy.
"But why would you spare her after all that she's done?" Bill asked. A brief expression of sadness flashed across the Doctor's face.
"Because she's my best and longest friend." He said quietly. Bill nodded.
"Thank you for telling me." She smiled gently. The Doctor smiled slightly in return.
"So, where to today?" Bill asked, seeing that he needed a change of subject.
"Nowhere, I'm afraid. The TARDIS needs repairs after our last trip, thanks to Nardole spilling his tea on the console." The Doctor replied, walking to the console. "Got anything human you need to do today?"
Bill shrugged. "Maybe."
dwdwdw
Bill arrived at the vault knowing that it was ridiculous for her to have come after the Doctor had warned her away. However, after hearing their story, and considering that Missy had asked her to come back... she felt that she was doing the right thing, even if it meant risking her own life and lying to the Doctor. The Doctor wanted Missy to change, and so in a way, Bill hoped she could help, if only for him.
The door opened as she approached it, and Bill sighed. "You've got to stop doing that. I'll have to tell the Doctor."
"Will you?" Missy questioned, raising an eyebrow as if challenging her.
"Yes," Bill replied, "Because I know more about you now."
Missy shut the doors behind them, and went to sit at the piano. "Oh, do you now? I suppose the Doctor told you."
"Yeah, we talked about it. He told me you're his best friend." Bill explained, standing awkwardly nearby.
"I am his best friend." Missy smiled unsettlingly, as she began to play a strange tune on the piano.
"He told me you used to be a dude, too."
"You're so eloquent. I prefer being a woman, now." Missy said, briefly pausing her song as though in thought over her previous bodies.
"He told me that you killed people." Bill forced herself to say it, as she knew she wouldn't be able to relax without bringing it up. She had to know why.
"Lots of people, dear." Missy announced happily, although her fingers told a different story as she suddenly played the wrong chord in her piano piece. Bill frowned in disgust.
"What, and you're... proud of that?" she asked. Missy turned away from the piano.
"What did you want me to say?" she replied. She suddenly pouted dramatically. "I'm so so sorry pet. I do so regret my history of brutal murder, even if it was so fun." she exclaimed, putting on the most sarcastic and patronising voice Bill had ever heard.
"You're evil." Bill snapped. Missy cackled, and Bill frowned even further. "You know what I think?"
"No, but I'm sure you'll tell me." Missy sighed sarcastically, returning to her piano playing.
"I think that you're sad. I don't know why, maybe you're jealous that the Doctor spends his time with me and not you, or maybe you wish you could be out there killing people, I don't know. But I think... I think you're lonely. You opened the doors for me because you have nobody else, and you need me." Bill rambled, furious at Missy's obvious joy at being labelled a murderer.
Missy stopped playing her song abruptly, and turned to Bill with a strangely blank expression. She stepped towards Bill slowly, like a tiger stalking its prey. "I'm not lonely. And I do not need you." She spat, her expression becoming more murderous as she approached.
Bill stepped backwards towards the doors, and her heart began beating out of her chest as she realised she didn't know the code to open them. "Missy I..." she began, but she couldn't bring herself to apologise. Not to someone who laughed at murder.
Missy leaned in close to Bill, causing Bill to fall back against the doors, her back pressing against them so hard she knew she would have bruises. "Are you scared?" she whispered, smiling maniacally. "You smell of fear." Bill's breath was coming in short gasps now, and she knew she was about to die. Missy leaned in, pushing aside Bill's hair, and Bill pictured her mother standing next to her, hoping that would be her last image. "I could kill you." Missy whispered.
Suddenly she pulled away. "Get out!" she growled. Bill frowned in confusion, and found herself frozen in shock. "Get. Out." Missy screeched, punctuating her scream by throwing a nearby lamp straight at the door code panel, shattering both the lamp and the panel, and causing the doors to open. Bill frantically ran out just as Missy threw something else towards the doors, but thankfully, the doors shut before it could reach her.
"Bill." A voice came from behind Bill, and she turned with dread in her heart.
"Doctor." She whispered. "I'm... I'm sorry, Doctor." She continued after the Doctor said nothing.
"I assume that you were here during your 'walk'?" The Doctor said. His tone and expression were unreadable. Bill nodded sadly.
"I just... when you weren't answering me I came here, and then she just seemed lonely, so I came back. She asked me to come back. I'm sorry." Bill explained. The Doctor sighed.
"And then what happened?" He asked, gesturing to the direction of the screeching and breaking of furniture.
"She was... bragging about killing people, and it just made me sick. So I... I lost my temper. I told her she was just lonely and sad." Bill replied. The Doctor frowned.
"Go back to the TARDIS." He said. Bill sighed, but nodded, and left. The Doctor approached the vault doors, and carefully opened them.
"Missy."
