Author's Note: "Home", Part V.
Sorry I didn't post anything yesterday. I had to rush over to Meyers, and by the time I got back, it was 9:30 pm, and I was exhausted.
Enjoy the Doctor and Glory!
(For those of you confused about what "Brain Sucking" is, don't worry, you'll get an explanation later.)
Part V
.
Glory laid back on her couch, letting her minions pamper her — letting some give her a scalp massage while others buffed her nails, and a third group made sure that she looked exactly right. She was so tired of this dimension, of needing minions to make sure she looked good, of needing food and drink and scalp massages and all these other things.
But she wouldn't be here long, if she got her way.
The door opened, behind her, and she could hear her other minions rushing in. Glory glanced into the mirror that hung on the wall across from her. Through the reflection, she could see the bound, helpless figure of a tall man being dragged into the room and thrown upon the floor.
He was not exactly as she had imagined him. He was… tiny. Just some thin — almost twig-like — man who wore a pretty face and a dinky little suit. So terribly breakable, so terribly small — not at all the sort of person to be able to bring down gods.
Was this really the Doctor, the annihilator of Sutekh, the Oncoming Storm, the mortal who had caused so much death and devastation during the Time War? This little itty bitty breakable thing?
One of Glory's minions rushed forwards, and bowed in front of her. "Oh, glorious, exquisite, flawless—"
"Yeah, whatever munchkin," said Glory. "That my Time Lord?"
"It most certainly is, your supreme splendidness," agreed the minion. "But I have to confess, he did try to stir up our—"
"Shut up," said Glory. She stayed on the couch, her back to this silly, insignificant little thing who thought he could destroy her, who dared to defy her will. She batted the minions nearby away, and examined her nails, carelessly. "So, Time Lord, I've got to say, you're one thing I never thought I'd see in this reality."
The Doctor said nothing.
Glory picked up an iron nail file, and started filing her nails. "I thought you were all gone and wiped out of time," said Glory. "Kachunk. Finished. Annihilated. Removed from the universe in an act of destruction so brutal, so horrific, it made me a little envious." She paused a moment. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, now, would you?"
The Doctor said nothing.
Glory snapped the nail file in half, as her anger surged through her. "Come on! Speak up!"
"Your all exultant Glorificus, he cannot," said the minion beside her. "He has been gagged."
Glory stood up and kicked the minion across the room. "And how is he supposed to tell me where my Key is when he can't talk?" she screamed.
The minion slammed into the wall, making it crack under the impact. The other minions scurried around, rushing to do her bidding.
Glory heard a sharp intake of breath, followed by a cough. Great. Her Time Lord was alive, awake, and ready for an interrogation that would surely break him.
"Leave us," Glory told her minions, as they all scampered out of the room.
The Doctor exercised his jaw, then gave her a grin. "Sorry about that," he said. "Slight bit of a disadvantage. Happy to introduce myself. I'm the—"
"Don't care," said Glory. "And don't bother, I know who you are. I heard about the Time War. Big fan. That Arcadia thing? Loved it." She turned her head, for the very first time, looking at him directly. "Wanna give me a few more details?"
"Who are you?" asked the Doctor, managing to get to his knees.
"Oh, come on, you haven't guessed?" said Glory. "I thought you Time Lord guys were supposed to be smart. No wonder you got sucked out of the universe." She walked over to him. "And speaking of sucking…" She ran her hands across the top of his head, feeling the mental energy buzzing beneath her fingertips. "I've always wanted to know what it would be like to brain-suck a Time Lord."
"Brain suck?" the Doctor asked. He didn't look scared — he looked curious.
"Oh, yeah," said Glory. "I bet it'd really be something. These humans are so breakable and weak and… blah. Your mind? That'd be something to remember. Mental energy like that — might make me feel more like myself again. Help me stretch through the dimensions."
Glory could see the exact moment when he worked it all out. She could see that spark appear in his eyes, and watched as it faded into shock and then a touch of horror. Yeah, now he got why she didn't care if he tried to get her minions to rise against her. Now he understood just how futile anything like that would be.
"No!" said the Doctor. "But that means… and that makes you…" His jaw fell open.
"Say it," said Glory.
"The Meyomelae Krvas," the Doctor whispered. "The Abomination of the Triumvirate. That Which Cannot Be Named." He took a deep breath. "Glorificus."
"Uh-huh," said Glory. She snapped his jaw closed. "Don't drool, honey. I get it. You're impressed. And who wouldn't be? You're just some mortal, while I'm a god."
"But that's impossible!" said the Doctor. "You're... but you can't be... but you are...!"
"What?" said Glory. "A myth? Legend? Scary bedtime story?"
"You shouldn't exist," the Doctor said. "Not here. Not now. It's impossible."
"No, you shouldn't exist," said Glory. "I'm just in exile. That's why you can see it, and I can't. Cause you shouldn't be here." She hooked her fingers beneath his chin, and dragged him up to her eye level. "Now. I'll make you a deal. You tell me where my Key is, and I let you keep existing. What d'you think of that, Time Guy?"
The Doctor frowned, a puzzled expression crossing his face. "Sorry, Key?"
Glory hesitated. She'd been sure. So sure! Was it possible he didn't know anything? Was it possible that she'd been wrong?
No, she couldn't be wrong. He'd known about it back when he was doing the White Guardian's dirty work. He'd stolen Excalibur away before she could even get to it. Obviously, he knew what the Key was.
(Unless whatever the monks had done had affected his brain, too.)
"Just because you can't go home doesn't mean I shouldn't be able to, either," said Glory. "Now. Key. Mine. Where is it?"
"Have you checked your pockets?" the Doctor asked.
Glory threw him across the room, and he thunked against the floor, rolling a little under the impact. "Why are you being so difficult?" she shouted. "I know you know what I'm talking about."
"Maybe it fell down the back of the settee," the Doctor offered.
Glory picked up a lounge chair, and hurled it at him. He curled into a ball, trying to protect himself, as it crashed on top of him, upside down. "This isn't some stupid game like your Time War. This is serious! I'm on a deadline, here, and I need to find my Key! So just tell me where it is!"
For a few seconds, Glory thought he wouldn't answer her. That maybe she'd actually knocked him unconscious, or even squished him flat. Then, from beneath the turned-over lounge chair:
"Have you tried picking the lock with a paperclip?"
Glory stormed over and shoved the chair out of the way. "You know, I'd tell you all the ways I could kill you," said Glory, pulling him up by his hair. "All the things I could do to you. Except… you already know. Which means that either your memory got zapped, and you really don't have a clue what I'm talking about, or you just enjoy watching me suffer!"
The Doctor said nothing for a moment. Then, "I can help you."
"Yeah?" said Glory. "Whatcha offering, Time twerp?"
"I can find a way to stabilize your mental energy," the Doctor said. "Drag you into three dimensions, completely, thereby fixing you to this reality. You can become human, lead a normal, sane life without having to drain any more minds."
Glory just gaped at him. Too stunned to speak.
"That's your help?" she shouted. "That's your answer? Force me to stay here and be human?" She dropped him, snapped a leg off the chair she'd thrown at him, and struck him with the chair leg, repeatedly. "You selfish jerk! Just because you don't have a home, you think no one else should? Well, newsflash, Doctor. The universe is bigger than just you!" She slammed the chair leg against him, again, hard enough to make the wood shatter as it hit him.
The Doctor gasped for air. Still not looking at her, still curled into himself, now bruised and bloody and clearly in pain. But still conscious, and still not even close to death. They were tough, these Time Lords. Glory had to give them that.
"I don't give second chances," the Doctor wheezed.
Glory paused, just looking at him. Bound, bleeding, completely at her mercy. Completely powerless. She started laughing. She collapsed onto the ground beside him, still laughing.
"Oh, I like you," she said. "Tied up, helpless, knowing you'll never make it out of this alive, and here you are, dishing out threats like they were in style." She leaned back against her hands. "You know, I always kind of wanted to meet you. There aren't a whole lot of things I like in this reality, but your little Time War? That was something I wanted in on. All that chaos and destruction. Mmm-mmm! And you, there, making it all happen. I mean, that Moment thing — a hundred galaxies, countless numbers of innocent souls, and you sentenced them to die over and over and over again. Agony and torment forever, with no way out." She reached out one hand and grabbed him by the ropes that bound his arms together, dragging him towards her. "Now that's creativity, hun."
The Doctor didn't answer her.
"Tell you what," said Glory. "You give me my Key, and I don't just keep you alive. I take you with me. Help you shake off the mortal coil. Make you a god."
Glory saw a spark of interest in his eyes. He seemed to perk up a little.
"Really?" asked the Doctor.
Glory grinned. She knew she'd find his weak spot eventually. "That sound tempting, Time Lord?"
"Oh, yes," agreed the Doctor. "You clearly know me terribly well."
"Yeah, so, go on," said Glory. "Where is it?"
"Where is what?"
"My Key!"
"Ah, yes, I keep waiting for the bit where you explain what, exactly, that is," said the Doctor. "Can't really help find it if I don't know what I'm looking for."
"The Key that those monks hid!" shouted Glory. "The one that will open the interdimensional gateway."
The Doctor absorbed the information, with a slight crease of his forehead. "I see. And you never thought to ask the monks who hid it…?"
"Dead," said Glory.
The Doctor raised his eyebrows. "What, all of them?"
"They didn't give me what I wanted." She gave him a piercing glare. "Let's hope you're not stupid enough to do the same."
"Nah, course not! Never!" The Doctor paused, thinking the matter over. "Course, might take me a bit of time, and… you said you were on a deadline, yes? So, when would that deadline be, exactly?"
Glory stared at him. These Time Boring-ords were supposed to be smart. Supposed to be able to see the strands of time all coming together. If he could easily work out when it was, why would he be asking her…?
That was when Glory figured out, all of a sudden, exactly what the Doctor was doing. Why he was playing dumb. Oh, that was clever. Very, very clever.
She hurled him across the room, against the far wall. He thudded against it, the plaster cracking around him, then dropped to the ground.
"I see what you're doing," she said, leaping to her feet and strolling over to him. "You're playing dumb to find out how much I know. You're trying to get me to tell you all my plans, exactly what I've worked out, so you can waltz right in at the last minute and stop me." She put her foot down on his ribcage, and waited as the bones cracked, one by one. "You've been lying to me, haven't you, Time Twit? Playing me along, trying to make me tell you something you can use?"
He opened his mouth to say something, but all that came out was a pained gasping.
"Should have guessed you wouldn't care much for immortality," said Glory. "After all, no home, no one left to love you, nowhere left to belong." She knelt down by him, stroking her hands over his chest, watching him wince every time she hit a broken rib. "It's not just that you shouldn't exist. You don't even want to." She shushed him, slipping a hand into his hair, coaxing him towards her. "Threatening your life won't work. So how about this? Either you tell me where my Key is, Time Toy, or I butcher the next hundred humans I come across. Starting with your little red-headed friend."
It was a strategy she honestly never thought would work. The Time Lord who'd obliterated entire worlds, who'd been legendary in his destruction — of course, he'd never care what happened to a few humans. But he slumped, as if he'd just been defeated. As if he'd caved.
"I'll tell you," he said.
Glory grinned. "Oh, look at you! Aren't you the softie." She cuddled him a little, feeling him writhe against her as she hit his shattered bones. "Now. Talk, Timey. Where's my Key?" She tightened her arms around him, a little harder, so that he hissed. "You do get what Key I mean, right?"
"Yes."
Well, that was progress. Glory loosened her arms a little. "Yeah, so? Where is it?"
The Doctor met her eyes with his own, and Glory could see a spark of something that these stupid little humans lacked. A spark of something dangerous. A spark of something brutal and timeless and destructive — a spark she liked.
(She really wished he'd taken her up on her offer. It was sort of a shame to kill him.)
"It's gone."
Glory froze. "What?"
"The Key," said the Doctor. "I found it. And I destroyed it. It's gone."
Glory felt the anger rise in her veins. She didn't like him anymore. Either he was lying — and how dare he lie to her about something like this — or he wasn't, and he'd purposely locked her out of her home forever. She pushed him away from her, leaping to her feet, glaring at him. She began to pick up everything in sight — potted plants, mirrors, couches, paintings — and hurled them at him, one after another.
They shattered against the Doctor's body, tearing him to shreds.
"You selfish, lying, stubborn little thief!" she shrieked. "You think you can just steal my stuff and destroy it? Do you even know who I am?"
"Yes."
"Do you know what I could do to you?" She charged towards him, yanking him to his feet, her hand around his throat. "Are you trying to make me kill you? Is that it? You're doing all this because you've got some sort of death wish? Because the second you go down, Time Jerk, your little redheaded friend is going right down with you."
Now the Doctor looked truly terrified. He struggled, whimpering, and managed to gasp out, "Please! I don't care what you do to Donna, but… please… please… don't brain suck me. Please…"
But Glory was sick of his stupid voice, and squeezed the words out of his throat.
She knew he'd survive it. She'd probably be able to kill him a few times, and he'd survive it. But that stupid Time Bastard had given her an idea. Brain sucking him was way better than just beating him senseless.
Glory threw him into a chair. "Not a bad idea, you know," she said, advancing towards him. "Might make you worth my time. Brain suck you, and I get enough energy to shake off this prison for a year or two. Get almost all of it back. Become a god again. And you can spend the last few moments of sanity thinking about just what that's gonna mean for your friend, yeah?"
The Doctor began to struggle, as much as he possibly could given the injuries and the restraints. Oh, he was scared all right, that was for sure. Little jerk deserved it.
Glory lunged forwards, and in one movement, shoved her hands into the Doctor's mind.
And… oh! How magnificent! How glorious! She moaned at the feeling of such raw power drifting through her, the tendrils of energy that were flooding her own mind. Oh, yes, this is what it was about! This was the stuff! And there was so much more of it! So very much…
That was when Glory began to realize that something was wrong.
Because this energy surging into her mind wasn't revitalizing her. No, it was doing the opposite. It felt as if someone had pulled the stopper from the bottom of her mind and was slowly draining her, bit by bit, letting everything she'd gained over her captivity fall away into nothing.
She opened her eyes, and met the Doctor's own. But his eyes weren't scared. They were dark. Biting. Cold and angry, like staring into that deep abyss of madness and knowing she'd be pulled back there, trapped forever.
"I don't give second chances," the Doctor growled.
And Glory realized… this was it. This was the end. She was going to retreat back into her prison, be forced to start from scratch, take control again. And by the time she managed to break out of it, once more, the moment she needed would be over, the Key — if it were still around — would be forever out of her reach, and she would be stuck here. Stranded on Earth. Forever.
The Doctor had condemned her.
But she was taking him down with her.
She pulled as hard as she could at his mind, draining him of everything he had left. She was going to make sure that he lived the rest of his life in the same hell he'd condemned her to. She was going to make him suffer for this, for daring to defy her — Glory! A goddess! For daring…
She… she… she…
She was going…
She was losing it, losing all touch with the world around her. She was draining, going faster and faster. She was… really… really…
Glory blinked. She looked around. It was like… the whole world had shuddered around her. Like everything had convulsed for just a moment. And suddenly, she was fine. Completely fine. Her mind was intact, no draining had occurred, and everything was back to normal. Only… in the place where her Time Lord should be, Glory found…
Nothing.
She spun around. No sign of her Time Lord. No ropes tossed onto the ground or footprints across her sumptuous carpets. The walls she'd cracked by throwing him and her minions against them were all in perfect shape, once more. The furniture she'd destroyed was back to the way it had been before that Time Twerp ever came in. There was no trace of him anywhere.
He'd just… disappeared. Done some clever time thing, and vanished.
Glory stood in the middle of the room, staring at the walls, angrily. "Oh, very clever, Doctor. Very, very clever. I knew you had to be lying! You didn't destroy my Key after all, did you? You were just trying to trick me into draining your mind and destroying myself!"
Glory waited, a moment, as if for a response, but none came.
"Well, it's not going to work!" she retorted, anyways. "You hear that, Time Lord? I am going to find my Key! I'm going to become a goddess again! And when my day of triumph arrives, I swear I'll make you wish you'd gotten stuck in that time lock yourself!"
The Doctor looked up at Donna, his hands hovering over the spacio-temporal coordinate settings. They were in the TARDIS, again.
"Oh, no," Donna was saying. "I'm coming with, Spaceman. Sunnydale, planet of the hats, beginning of the universe, wherever. You're not getting rid of me that easily."
The Doctor just stared. He looked down at himself, but he looked fine. Felt fine. He'd been battered, bruised and broken. He'd been driven into a darkness of eternal madness, a fate worse than death, in order to doom one twelfth-dimensional being. Condemned to a horror the likes of which he never wanted to contemplate (but Donna would be safe, and Buffy would be safe, and all the others would be safe as well, they'd all be safe — and that made it all worthwhile). And then the universe had pushed him out, again.
Another near-collapse.
"Oi!" said Donna, marching over to him. "You're not thinking about killing Dawn, again, are you?"
"You don't remember," the Doctor realized.
Donna frowned. "Don't remember what?"
The Doctor typed in the spacio-temporal coordinates for Sunnydale — just when he'd gotten pushed out, just when he'd left the time-stream. The TARDIS groaned into life, then shook, violently, as the coordinates began to flip by themselves.
Donna tried to grab onto the central console, as the TARDIS tossed her across the room. "Oi! Can't you learn to fly this thing?"
"Something's wrong," said the Doctor. "Something is very, very wrong."
And he needed to work out what it was.
Dawn was safe.
Buffy wasn't really sure why she kept feeling like Dawn had just been in some sort of terrible danger, but none of that mattered, because she was safe.
They were outside, though, and Buffy wasn't exactly sure why they were outside. She had the feeling they were looking for someone. And, of course, she'd brought Dawn along, because she couldn't leave Dawn alone, not with that woman after her.
No, hang on. They weren't looking for anyone.
The more Buffy thought about it, the more she knew. They weren't looking for anyone; they'd never been looking for anyone. They'd come outside for something else. Buffy just… wasn't exactly sure what.
Buffy took Dawn's hand. "Let's go home."
And so they walked along the street, back towards their house, Dawn and Buffy, side by side. And it wasn't until they were within a block of their home that Buffy recognized the strange girl standing a few feet away, looking down at something in her hands.
It was the same girl she'd seen before, just after Riley's operation. The one who'd recognized Buffy, who'd called herself Rose.
The closer Buffy got, the more she could make out. It appeared that Rose was focused on a small, yellow device in her hands, a circular device that she was muttering at, beneath her breath. She looked up, as Buffy approached, and smiled.
"Hello, again," she said. "I don't suppose you've seen any vanishing Police Boxes round about…" She trailed off, as her eyes fixed on Dawn.
"What's a Police Box?" Dawn asked.
Buffy squeezed Dawn's hand a little tighter. She didn't know who this Rose person was, but the way Rose was looking at Dawn was making Buffy uneasy. Did she know what Dawn was? How?
"Can I see that?" Buffy asked Dawn, pointing at the key draped around Dawn's neck.
That was when Buffy realized that Rose hadn't been staring at Dawn — just at that necklace, at that tiny Yale key. Dawn shrugged, took it off, and handed it to Rose.
Rose took the key from Dawn, touching it, tentatively, as if she were afraid that it would shock her. She brought it up to her eyes and examined it in minute detail, as if she were analyzing a very complicated puzzle, and couldn't quite make the pieces fit. Then her eyes widened, and she handed the key back.
"Where did you get this?" she asked.
"Buffy gave it to me," said Dawn.
Rose turned to Buffy. "And you… you haven't seen the Doctor?"
"Which doctor?" asked Buffy. "I mean, I've met a bunch, over at the hospital—"
"You don't even know who I'm talking about," Rose realized. She looked from Buffy to Dawn. "Neither of you." She took a shaky breath, and then turned, racing down the street. "I'm going to need another jump back home," she announced to the air around her. "Something is very, very wrong."
"What—?" Buffy started, but Rose vanished before her eyes.
Dawn turned the small key over in her hands. "What am I supposed to do with this?" she asked.
"Put it somewhere safe," said Buffy. "And don't touch it, don't look at it, don't go anywhere near it from now on. Whatever that thing is, it's something that shouldn't belong."
Like the blank red notebook on Buffy's desk. Like them being outside, unable to understand why. Like that feeling in Buffy's heart, that she'd just forgotten something terribly, terribly important. It was all wrong, none of it belonged.
Buffy had too many other things to worry about, right now.