A/N: Hope you're still enjoying this. I'm looking at another two to three chapters for this now but then I never know, its always changing. By the way, the name for my baddy is finally revealed here and I must thank my best friends Finton and Brendan for their help with choosing this. We all sat in the pub for three hours before we came up with it.
His Legacy
Grace looked up at him through sorrowful eyes, her expression that of such loss and desperate hurt. The Doctor reached through the bars to her, brushing back her tangled hair and trying to bring her some comfort. A single tear escaped her eye and coursed down her cheek, leaving a trail of pale silver on her ghost white cheek.
"Oh God he won't let us go," she cried, "He found me Doctor, he brought me here."
"Clarence?" said the Doctor.
"I've been here so long," said Grace, her voice a desperate hushed tone, "And a woman comes to me when she gets free from him, from the thing. Its not Clarence, he's a prisoner too, its something evil but the woman comes and helps me get to you, to help you because she can't herself. Where is Rose?"
The Doctor nodded to the eagle who stood grave and quiet at his side, her golden eyes brimming with tears at the sight before her. Grace's eyes widened in alarm for a second but she did not utter any defiance of his affirmation, the things she had seen as a prisoner in this world clearly augmenting her innocent mind. She steeled herself and continued.
"We were happy, in the beyond," she said softly, "Clarence even came, made amends to us all but then the creature came and took us, said he could use us to get you. This thing knows who you are Doctor."
"What is holding you here Grace?"
"The lord of this world, the devil who turns into nightmares before our eyes. I have passed into Hell for my sins. He haunts me as Clarence as he knows he is who I most fear."
The Doctor gave Rose a bemused look, not understanding Grace's rambles, "I'm going to let you out of this cell Grace and I want you to stay by Rose, do you understand?"
"Yes," said Grace, stepping back as the Doctor used the sonic screwdriver to release the lock. As soon as it had sprung free Grace shot through the doors and into the Doctor's arms, crying into his shoulder. The Doctor held her tightly, comforting her as best he could.
"Its ok, you're safe now. Where's the little one?"
Grace left his arms and returned to the cell picking up a tiny bundle from the ragged bed in the dark corner of the room. She cradled it tightly to her and walked back over. The Doctor looked down at the baby in her arms and smiled.
"I'll get you both out of here, I promise," he said, "You said about a woman coming to you, who was she?"
"I don't know but she was very beautiful, a lady if ever there was one. Long dark hair and deep eyes, like crystal pools," said Grace, "She told me she needed my help to get a message to you and help you. She did this thing with my head, like she was in there and then I remembered seeing you and speaking to you or leading Rose down the corridors away from that false Doctor."
Rose shrieked, her message quite clear to the Doctor if no one else.
"Sounds very Time Lord," he said looking down at her, I'm going to look around, see if anyone else is here. I still have no idea what I'm dealing with. Stay here with Rose, Grace. I'm going to look in the other cells. Rose, keep your eyes open ok?"
Rose gave a soft twitter of affirmative, moving close to Grace's side but keeping her eyes on the room around her. The Doctor wandered into the dimly lit room, passing several empty cells before he saw one that was occupied. He peered through the gloom, trying to make out the figure hunched in the shadowy corner.
"Hey!" he called, "You awake in there?"
"Who are you?" came a voice the Doctor recognised well.
"Pete I'm a friend of Rose's," said the Doctor already seeing the confusion in the man's face and not wanting to frighten him any further by explaining his regeneration. He had realised from Grace's ramblings that all those imprisoned here probably weren't completely aware of themselves, "I'm here to help you."
"Rose is only a baby," said Pete, trembling as the cell door opened and her made to step out, "I don't know you. I'm confused."
"You and me both," said the Doctor, "Now I want you to go and stand where that girl and the eagle are ok. Stay with them."
Pete nodded and wandered over to Grace and Rose, leaving the Doctor to continue on with his search. He succeeded in releasing several more people he believed he would never see alive again. Catherine and Simon, terrified of Clarence as Grace was and their infants dragged away by such nightmares as children have. Clarence himself, his anger manifesting in a more loatheful form of himself. It was then that the Doctor began to feel pain, when those he cared about came to him. His father, dragged away by the guard of the senate and too shell shocked to form any coherent sentences; Susan, accosted by the High Priest of Sacrifice from their visit to the Aztecs; Reinette, unsurprisingly still terrified of clockwork robots haunting her even after death. The French woman clung tightly to his arm at first but he soon sent her off to the others he had released, hoping Rose kept her talons to herself when in her presence. The Doctor continued onwards, passing many empty cells, their contents nearly as fulfilling as his ideas on what had managed to hold everyone here.
"Little one?!" came a call to his left and he hurried to the cell door, instantly taking the hands offered to him.
"Knew I'd find you around here somewhere," said the Doctor, noticing with some alarm how haggard his mother looked, tired despite her beauty, "What's happening here? No one knows and I can't find the answers anywhere."
"You have to get out, get them all out. I don't have time to explain, its too complex," said the brunette woman, helping him loosen the stiff handle of the door, "You have to get away from here. He tempted you here with visions and I thought you could defeat him if you came but you have to run, get the others out if you can but forget us if you must. You and Rose have to run, you're flesh and he needs that. He wants you."
The Doctor stood stock still as she tried to drag him over to the others, his grip firm on her hand, "You know what it is, don't you?"
The woman nodded mournfully, "I know because I released it, I was the one who brought this burden upon you my son; the same way poor Clarence brought it to bear upon his family."
"What?"
"I wanted you protected, your father had warned me about the potential plot against us. You remember your Grandfather don't you?"
"Barely," said the Doctor, horror lighting his eyes that his mother had ever dabbled in anything as terrifying as what was around him.
"Well he knew the ancient ways, the ways before Rassilon, before the Time Lords themselves. He taught me when I was a child but his lessons never finished and I was left unknowing when he left me behind after I had your brother. I wanted you safe, I tried to call on what he taught me but it brought anger and pain, it's what killed your brother and sister."
"Mother stop it please, you didn't, you couldn't…" said the Doctor, cold realisation dawning on him as faded memories of his grandfather's teachings on the rare occasions they would meet came to mind.
"I called it up little one, the ancient protector, the one who dealt in blood."
"No, please no!" cried the Doctor snatching his hand away, "No you couldn't."
"Yes she could."
The Doctor turned his head as he heard a eerily familiar voice and a startled shriek from Rose. In the doorway they had first entered through there stood a figure he had never thought to meet face to face, the entity he had hunted manifested into the form he most feared. He almost had to laugh at himself as his first thought was to as whether his ears had ever been that big but he soon shook it off, taking several tentative steps towards the doorway, seeing Rose ushering the group a safer distance away. He watched the tall figure in the doorway, his arms crossed about him and one ankle resting over the other as he leant on the frame, a pose the Doctor remembered striking so often. He heard the brush of leather on leather as the figure in the doorway moved.
"I have to say," came the Northern drawl, "I was surprised when I found out what you were most afraid of. I wanted to become a Dalek or something with a little flare but no, the great Doctor, terrified of his own shadow, of his little human girl still lost in her love for your former incarnation."
"Hardly the best thing to be admitting that you're not him then is it?" said the Doctor, coming up to his alter-ego but seeing what Rose meant about it being wrong, never even in his darkest moments had he worn such a look of contempt, "And my fear for anything surrounding the past is dwindling with every second here, she came back to me."
Rose shrieked beside him, alerting him to her presence. If she could he was sure she would have put an arm about him but as it stood she just stared daggers at the manifestation before her, her feathers ruffling in agitation.
"Such a pretty plumage," drawled the other Doctor, "An improvement if you ask me, you did chatter so my dear."
Rose gave a piercing cry and took flight, turning her vicious looking talons towards him. The northerner just smiled, a tight rope attached to two heavy weights appearing hands with no effort on his part at all.
"Down birdie," he muttered, casting the weapon towards her.
The Doctor looked on in horror as the rope wrapped around her, anchoring her wings to her side and causing her to drop flightlessly to the floor with a cry of alarm. The second she landed the wispy blue light surrounded her and she lay in her human form once more. The Doctor rushed to her side, rolling her onto her back and frowning in alarm as he saw the bruising already starting to rise on her cheek where she had impacted with the floor. He felt for her pulse and sighed with relief as it echoed back at him strongly. He heard her take in a gasp of breath before eyes open. She looked up at him and then down over herself.
"At least I'm human again."
The Doctor smiled, "Can you stand?"
"Yeah," said Rose, "Just keep hold of me. What is he Doctor?"
The Doctor lifted her up off the floor, holding her close to his side as he set her on her feet. Rose took the hint and cuddled closer to him, fixing the impostor with a vicious glare.
"That thing is an ancient creature that survives on suffering," said the Doctor, noticing the others had been drawn to his side, his mother close on his right and Grace, grave and determined to his left, "It feasts on the horrors of the sub-conscious mind, plays on our darkest fears until we give in, give over to it and augment its power further. It is summoned by blood but it lives on greed and will only be satisfied when a soul and blood are given freely, until that time it draws in everything you have ever cared for, everything that lives in your mind even though it has passed from life. And if it must it can bring you to kill for its own gains."
"How very dramatic," came the voice from the doorway, morphing as it did into a shape that caused Catherine's eldest son to gasp in alarm. The creature had become a towering dragon like creature but its skin dripped with blood where its scales had come free. It hissed out a laugh, "Come then Doctor, give me my name if you dare pronounce it."
The Doctor released Rose and ushered her back into the crowd, a tension coming to his body that Rose had never seen before. He shot a look towards his mother and Rose looked up in confusion as she took a firm hold of her arm and shoulder, anchoring her to her side. Rose watched as the Doctor stepped forward the only thing betraying his nerves being the slight tremor in his hand.
"Cyka-Idralas," muttered the Doctor as if the very word struck terror into his soul, "The dealer of blood."
"And will you offer your blood freely for all those here, to save them all. If you strike the ancient bargain in payment for their follies then they shall go free, leave this realm and never be disturbed from their rest again."
"If you let them go, all of them, then you have it all," said the Doctor, turning back to the group, a deep sadness settling in his eyes. Rose whimpered as she recognised the look, the look that told her that he would do anything to protect her. She watched on in silence as the Doctor went to those he had cared for, embracing them in turn and even offering comfort to those who had been dragged in through Rose's mind.
Rose was released for a second as the Doctor held his mother close, whispering to her in some long lost language. A look on his face one of confusion as he pulled back but he did not question the woman before him. He pressed a kiss to her cheek.
"You will be free at last, all of you," he said softly, "It is no great sacrifice if I know you are safe."
"Doctor what are you saying?" said Rose, finally finding her voice as he stood before her.
"Rose," he breathed pulling her close, "My Rose. The Idralas is a entity older than even my world and what I said was true, he is the dealer of blood. Both Clarence and my mother offered blood for his protection in their ignorance of his power and he has sought his payment, payment he can only take from the living he chooses, not the dead. I offered blood in the same ritual when we passed over into the mirror, he had a claim to me and I can set everyone free if I fulfil that pledge. If it means that you will live on and that those who he has harmed before can be free then I will pay it willingly."
"But that's not what you do," cried Rose, "You beat it, you destroy it, you trap it. Doctor you don't just give up."
"This is beyond me Rose," said the Doctor, "Beyond anything I've ever learned or done but I promised to keep you safe, all of you…especially you."
"You can't just leave me," said Rose, trembling as he pushed away her tears with the pad of his thumb, "I love you."
She watched as the Doctor shut his eyes against his own tears, "I know and know that I love you too, with everything I am and that's why I have to do this. You just keep on living for me and we'll see each other again one day I know."
Rose didn't answer as he pulled her into a kiss and she realised just how right it all was, that all her dreams of older lips, of previous lives meant nothing compared to the man in her arms, the man who would sacrifice his life for her a second time, knowing there was no hope of another chance at living. He released her and turned back to the dragon-like Idralas and nodded his consent. The creature's lips curled into a feral smile before it began to pulse and shake, its chest opening to reveal a burning, blood red heart which beat a macabre rhythm. The cut the Doctor had made on his hand reappeared and the blood began to drip onto the floor before turning into gaseous form and flowing towards the Idralas' heart. The beast's heart began to beat faster and swell as the Doctor paled dramatically, pain evident on his face. The Idralas snapped out a long tail, wrapping it around the Doctor as he stumbled and began to pull him closer. When the Doctor was no more than an inch from the Idralas' twisted face he placed his hand against its heart, throwing his head back with a throaty gasp of agony.
"Doctor no!" cried Rose seeing the Doctor begin to grow paler as the Idralas grew brighter.
"Get them out of here!" cried the Doctor between desperate gasps for breath, "You don't have long until the bargain is complete and you have to get out."
Rose felt herself pulled roughly away by two strong, male hands and was surprised to see the quiet man the Doctor had called his father pulling her towards the staircase at the back of the room. She turned back to see the Doctor's mother running forward, hastily pulling something from the folds of her skirts. Rose almost cheered with glee as she saw the glint of the dagger in her hand and managed to pull herself free, calling to the others to keep running. She watched as the Doctor wrenched his hands away quickly and gave his mother room to plunge the dagger deep into the Idralas' heart, the blade ceasing the macabre beat and the creature screaming in agony as it folded in on itself into the ball of light. Rose ran forward and helped the woman lift the Doctor to his feet, finding him weakened. He struggled to his feet and managed to run with them towards the staircase.
"What did you do?" said Rose to the woman hastily wiping the blood from her hands onto the dark tunic she wore.
"No time to explain, just know that the sweet little country girl you saw isn't what she let you believe, now move."
Rose felt a level of amusement despite their frantic running as she watched the Doctor's expression of pride, any mirth was short lived however as she heard a great roar from behind her and turned to see the Idralas reformed again, this time into a swirling blue mass that followed like a tornado up the stairs. They clambered frantically upwards, the steps growing harder to navigate as the stones became looser. The others had outstripped them by a height and we're now leaning down to pull them all up. The Doctor looked up as he reached the pinnacle and saw the mirror they had entered through not a two hundred metre dash ahead.
"Run for the mirror," he cried, "Jump through and you'll be out, all of you go. You'll be free again, it won't reach you once you get passed the mirror. Grace darling you and Ivy will be free."
"Thank you," said Grace, pulling him close and pressing her lips to his before she dashed off, leading the charge towards the mirror.
The group needed no further prompting, their presences fading as they ran on, the Idralas' power loosing its hold on them. Rose kept to the Doctor's side, his hand firmly holding hers and his other gripping onto his mother as she ran beside him. Rose didn't dare look back as she heard the vacuum pressure of the cyclone of blue behind her. Her lungs burned and her heart felt close to bursting through her chest as she forced her body onwards, seeing each figure before her jump through the mirror and disappear. The Doctor loosed her hand and his mother's, moving behind them slightly as he pushed them along. The mirror came within reach and Rose felt a strong pressure on her back, forcing her forward and pushing her through the mirror. She didn't feel the impact but felt an odd sense of completion, sitting up swiftly in her own body once more and looking into the mirror.
She screamed at what she saw, the Doctor quickly shoved his mother beyond the glass and she landed heavily on the floor beside Rose but as he moved to throw himself through and thick tendril of blue smoke closed tightly around his neck and snapped him back. He struggled but more and more tendrils began to grab him pulling him back. Rose jumped to her feet and ran at the mirror, only to be thrown back as she met with solid glass. She watched in horror as the Doctor was pulled back down the corridor before her, struggling in the grip of the Cyka-Idralas. With a boom like the crack of the Earth the mirror shattered and the glass fell in pieces onto the wooden floor at her feet, leaving the frame and its wood backing only left in place.
"No!" said Rose, her hands tracing every last millimetre of the wood before her, "No, Doctor, no!"
She thumped hard against it, not caring for the blood on her hands from the few sharp pieces of glass that clung to the frame. Sobs racked her body as she cried out for him over and over, shaking with fear and loss and heart break. She barely registered the warm, soft arms that settled around her, gently pulling her back. She fell willingly into the embrace, not questioning it and sobbed inconsolably, feeling the form she held barely repressing her own tears. It was only when her initial grief had passed that she looked up and pulled back in surprise at the young brunette woman who held her.
"Why didn't you disappear like the others?" said Rose, sniffing as she took in the distraught woman before her.
"I didn't disappear because I'm not dead Rose, I was flesh when I went inside that world. He didn't know, I thought I could get him through the mirror but he wanted my soul free. He didn't know I was still alive."
"But, we saw you die," said Rose, far too confused by all the events that had passed, "We were in your house and we saw those people kill you."
"How much did you really see? How much before you hid your eyes?"
"I…" Rose trailed off, remembering how she had forced the Doctor to the ground, shielding them both from the sight before the first dagger stroke fell, "I don't understand, you were in pieces, there was blood everywhere and then you fell dead, on the table."
The brunette woman moved to kneel beside the Doctor's lifeless body, stroking back his hair. Rose was reminded of how often she'd woken at night on the TARDIS to see the picture before her, even now the Doctor looked to be only in sleep, the rose tint of his lips still not faded to the pallor of death. She watched a single crystal tear roll down his mother's face and coming to land on the silk of his tie.
"I only ever wanted him safe. My father dealt in ancient magic, taught me his tricks but never the dangers around them. He cut off most of his connections to me when I gave birth to my first son, he was ashamed but when my littlest one was born he came back to us. We heard of the plot to destroy our family and I begged him to help me call upon the ancient magic to protect us, he refused, warning me of the dangers. I went ahead alone. Cyka-Idralas in my language means the dealer of blood. You would have seen the ritual performed to open the mirror, an offering of blood. I thought that would be all that it took, little did I know what I'd unleashed."
Rose felt the anger boiling inside her then, her fists curled at her sides but she was too weak from grief to launch herself at the woman, relying only on her words.
"You set this thing on us?" she cried, "You set this thing on him!!"
"I never meant to! I didn't know. Everything passed on after I had requested his protection but the Idralas wanted his payment and so he poisoned the minds of several men to destroy my infants. They struck the day my little one came home to me and I received word only a few hours before he arrived. I worked quickly, he would go to the protection of my father and I would go to the Idralas and offer my life in return for the end of it. I arranged for the men to come, they were servants of my father. What you saw them inject me with was a powerful sleeping drug that would slow my body to the point where I would appear dead for several hours following. I placed my son in the basement, knowing I'd never see him again. The men came, we struggled as we had planned, I even cracked one of their jaws in the reality of it all. They never stabbed me though. The sound you heard was metal on meat to be sure but all set up with a random piece of meat set in preparation that they took with them when they left. The heavy old robes we wore were easily used to conceal wounds but slashed and bloodied they would appear to be hiding deep lacerations."
"So, you faked your own death?" said Rose, curiosity getting the better of her as she knelt a little closer, "Why so violent though?"
"I had to make sure he was terrified enough to run. He was to run to the city and my father was to raise him but he was too clever, he hid too well. My father had regenerated when he finally found him in the Capitol and he chose never to tell him of who he truly was, raising him as if he was a foundling. Once my son's safety was secured I began my journey in search of the Idralas. Unlike you I never left my body behind, I went physically into the world of the Idralas. I had heard tales of a gateway to his realm and I searched the universe for it and when I finally found it, I passed into it. I faced the trials of the Idralas, as you faced them and I passed through to his inner sanctum. There he appeared to me in the horror of my youth, a beast of the forest beyond my home that would stalk in the night with no clear form, he appeared that way to me, a formless heart of menace but I faced him. I offered him my life in return for that of my son but he refused to take it, breaking the blood bargain for something more substantial to his needs. I had not realised in my quest how much time had passed, I had stayed young due to my bargain with the beast, but the Idralas showed me. My son had grown old and left his home world and in his time had witnessed so much darkness. Even a heart as good as his carries with it the weight of deeds when a hand is forced and even in his first life my son's deeds had brought him darkness. I could not fathom how the Idralas had such a connection to him but then I remembered his father's pendant that he always carried, a pendant of the same magic and irresistible to the Idralas."
Rose looked down at the body between them, absently resitting a button that had pop slightly loose. She closed her eyes for a second, still trying to let her mind accept that he had been pulled away from her to his death. Her mind still would not let her understand her position and she spoke in monotonous tones once more, "So the Idralas wanted to Doctor? What happened to you?"
"I was imprisoned, I would prove useful when the Idralas had the power to get through to the Doctor but that could only come when there were certain pieces in place and that only happened many hundreds of years later. The Idralas had other deals of blood throughout my history with him and I saw the offer ritual performed and taken. I realised his weakness came when he opened to the blood of others, hence knowing where to strike today. I had hoped the blow would kill but clearly I was wrong. His connection to my son came again when you landed in Penrith, the lay line activated and you became embroiled with another who had offered blood but this time for pain, not protection. The Idralas' power had not rested on the rest of Clarence's family as they had not passed over fully due to the nature of their deaths and so Clarence remained also, taunting and harming them whilst destroying anyone in his path for the Idralas."
"Like the Johnston boys," said Rose, "Like the Doctor. You mean saving them caused all this?"
"It was the catalyst, it would have happened anyway in the end. The Idralas became attached to my son and invaded his already desperate dreams but his pathway became mine also and that's why you saw me. As the Idralas harmed him, I soothed him, kept him from its harm but I could never tell him of his danger. When the Isolas took the TARDIS then everything was in motion, the beast could take control. This library had gone unused for generations but, through coincidence if you believe in such a thing it had been used for the practice of the ancient arts. The practice was innocent as the Doctor told you but the Idralas could still use it. Your dreams began and the power grew and the rest you know. I thought my blow would kill the beast at last but he was too strong and now he has taken the one thing I searched him out to protect. That's the legacy I've left my son Rose, my protection brought him death."
Rose didn't answer, she didn't even raise her head to look at the woman crumbling before her, she just lay down beside the man she had loved since the day he took her hand. Laying her head upon his chest she laced her fingers with his, finding them still warm to the touch. She closed her eyes against him, imagining the double heart beat at her cheek.
"I am not giving up on you yet."
A/N: Ahhhhhhhhhh what have I just written, where did that come from? Seriously I had the ending of this story planned out and then in an instant I suddenly have a new pathway. Honestly, this story is writing itself!