A.N: It has been recommended by my friend/editor that you listen to the Doctor Who soundtrack while reading this. I certainly won't advise against it :)
Missy's question was greeted with a bemused silence from the four.
"What?" Missy asked, wincing as she lightly touched the bruise. "Is it really that bad? Oh, I'll bet you anything it's going to clash with my makeup." It actually matched impressively well, but Mystery certainly wasn't going to tell her that. "Tell you what," she commented to River, "you've got one hell of a right hook."
"There's more where that came from, I promise you that," River muttered. The Doctor shot her a quelling look.
"Oh, come on! You're not honestly telling me you hadn't thought about it? Not even a little bit?" She sighed. "Now I see what you think of me."
"Now that you mention it," the Doctor said slowly, turning to Mystery, "you dealt with everything, all on your own. How? And why didn't you deal with her?"
"I forced my way into the Moment and used her-" She shook her head impatiently. "It's power and my own regeneration energy to repair the crack in time," Mystery explained quickly. The Doctor nodded, impressed. "More on that later, if you like. But as for her…" She looked at Missy and shrugged. "I thought you'd rather take care of her yourself."
"Delivered into my hands," the Doctor muttered, looking over at Missy. "Just like you tried to do to me. What were you saying about gift wrap?"
"Ooh, Doctor." Missy raised an eyebrow, half-smiling. "Such a vindictive streak. Didn't know you had it in you."
"Must say I'm a tiny bit surprised myself. But then, you should know." He smiled too, and somehow in that moment Mystery was almost more afraid of him than of Missy. "Nothing gets me angrier than someone doing something to one of my friends."
Missy considered him for a moment. "Alright," she said at last. "Do it. Whatever you're going to do, all the nasty things you're cooking up in that head of yours, let's see it." The Doctor was still. "Come on, come on," she said, goading him. "I'm completely open. Beaten, figuratively and literally, alone, at your mercy. So come on." She held her arms straight out, head back. "Do it!"
Still, the Doctor didn't move. To the casual observer, it might look as though he hadn't even heard her, but his face tightened - Mystery knew enough to know he was fighting down fury.
"No," Missy said, shaking her head, "no, you won't. You never would, would you? You're too good. Too boring. You're on the side of the angels, aren't you? Dreadfully dull. Can't get anything done that way."
"A burden I'm willing to bear," he said lightly.
"Wouldn't it be better to lock me up somewhere?" she asked him, arching one thin brow. "Out of the way, where no one could get to me? You told me once you'd keep me shut up in your TARDIS, watch over me."
"Is that what you want?" the Doctor asked her. "Really?"
"I want my friend back," she said simply, her Scottish accent coloring the words. "Is that so much to ask?"
"Doctor, you can't be considering this," River said immediately. "You can't let her into the TARDIS, I don't care how well you lock her up. She stole the Moment from you, remember? God knows what she'd get into next."
"I'm all for second chances," the Doctor said with a small smile. Then he glanced at Mystery. "Just maybe not today." He turned his back on Missy and strode towards the door.
"So you're just going to do nothing?" she demanded. "Going to let me walk away?" She sniffed. "I'm disappointed, really I am." There was the slightest hint of desperation in her voice.
He stopped, smiling to himself. "Ah, now, I didn't say that. I-" He stopped suddenly, seeming to focus in one something else, something Mystery couldn't see.
"Doctor?" Jack asked cautiously. "Everything alright?"
"I-" He hesitated, still clearly fixed on something else. "Yes, I'm fine, I just…" He nodded briefly. "Just got distracted."
"I noticed," River muttered. Mystery had a suspicion she knew what had distracted him.
"Right. Yes! Anyway." The Doctor rubbed his hands together. "Jack, Mystery, River, head for the TARDIS. I think that's enough excitement for one day," he said with a grin. "Time to go home."
"Just like that?" Missy demanded. "You're leaving?"
"Yes," the Doctor told her firmly, a hint of a smile. "We're leaving, and you won't be. Your allies are gone, and, I would guess, so is your transportation." He raised an eyebrow slightly. "How long do you think it'll be before someone comes around here again, hmm?"
Missy was very still for a moment, then smiled, though Mystery noticed that her smile shook slightly. "You cannot be serious."
"Oh, I try never to be serious. Never knowingly be serious," he said to Mystery. "In this case, I'll just be gone. And I'm taking that with me."
He hopped up onto the platform and picked up the simple box that was the Moment. "On second thought," he muttered, groaning under the weight, "Jack, you can take it." He handed the box over to the captain, who grunted, but bore it much more easily than the Doctor.
"Whatever you say, Doctor," Jack said with a grin, hefting the box. "I work for a living!"
"Yes, yes." The Doctor waved him off towards the TARDIS. "River, take Missy out of here. Shut her up somewhere safe, somewhere unpleasant, just so long as she's out of the way. "
"Oh, I think I can do that," River said, walking over to the Time Lady and hauling her up by one arm. "I was locked up here once," she said conversationally, "as a baby. Just my mother and I, in the middle of an army. That ought to do you some good." She smiled, without a hint of warmth. "It certainly will hold you."
"Sounds perfect," the Doctor said, grinning at the memory. "And do watch out for her. You can never be too careful."
"Since when did you start being careful?" she muttered. "You will be following?"
"Would I let you leave without me? I'll be right behind you. There's one more thing I have to do."
River raised an eyebrow. "Oh? And what is that?" Mystery giggled a bit. It was good for the Doctor, she decided, to have someone around that knew all his tricks and wasn't afraid to call him out. Better still, that someone was his wife.
The Doctor sighed. "I'm going to lock these controls, just to make sure our slippery friend here," he said, glancing over at Missy, who gave him a pout, "can't ever use them again. Satisfied?" He tossed River a TARDIS key. "Get her ready to go, would you?"
River caught the key and pocketed it, grumbling a bit, but she followed Jack out of the room, dragging the protesting Missy along behind. Mystery started to troop after them, cursing her newfound aches, but stopped when someone called her name.
"Mystery," the Moment said softly. Mystery turned to see her leaning against one wall, opposite the controls. She walked over to stand in front of the blonde woman, arms crossed.
"Didn't Jack just take you out of here?"
Bad Wolf sniffed, her eyes flashing gold. "As if I'd let myself be tied to a simple box. No, Mystery, I go where I please, and right now…" She studied Mystery for a moment, her eyes lingering on her wrinkled face, then glanced back at the Doctor. "I've a few more things to say."
Mystery raised an eyebrow. Behind her she could hear the Doctor tinkering the with the base's controls. "I've never much been a fan of long, drawn-out goodbyes," she informed her, "so if that's what it is, forget it."
"Oh, this isn't goodbye, Mystery," the Moment told her, smiling. "You're far too interesting for me to give up now. I'll see you again, I promise you that. Even if you don't see me. Although," she added suddenly, "just because it isn't goodbye for me, doesn't mean it won't be goodbye for them."
Involuntarily, Mystery glanced towards the door where her friends had gone. "What do you mean?" she asked.
"Done!" the Doctor announced. "All shut down. You'd need a sonic screwdriver to start this place up again." He walked up behind Mystery and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Come on," he said gently. "Time to go."
"What do you mean?" she asked again, ignoring him. The Doctor said nothing, for which she was grateful, merely squeezing her shoulder encouragingly.
"You've rewritten the entirety of the universe," the Moment explained. "An earthquake in the fabric of space and time. Did you really think there wouldn't be a tsunami?"
Mystery began to feel a bit faint, her arms and legs tingling. If this is old age, she thought angrily, I don't like it. "What's going to happen?" she demanded. "And why hasn't it happened yet?"
"Oh, it has happened," Bad Wolf told her. "It is happening, it will happen. You are the eye of the storm, Mystery. The rest of them maybe felt a shock, little confusion, that's all. But you?" She shook her head. "This asteroid will get hit worst of all."
"What do you mean, hit?" she asked suspiciously. "Just tell me. Please. Don't you think I've got a right to know?"
The Moment smiled, her eyes burning golden. "I never planned to keep it from you." She sighed. "Something that big is too much for the mind to handle," she told her. "It's… beyond comprehension. You can only ever grasp at the edges of it. And I'm afraid that's all that will be left."
"No." Mystery shook her head. Was it her imagination, or was the Moment's entire body glowing golden now? "I won't forget everything, not again. I refuse."
"You won't have to," Bad Wolf reassured her. "Being there with me, connected to me… it changed you, in ways I'm not even sure of. There's no telling what you'll be capable of now. You're wasted there on Earth, you know," she added.
"Maybe so," Mystery said with a hint of a smile, "but I think I'll find some things to do." She blinked hard, noticing that not only the Moment was golden, but the entire room. Is that part of those changes?
"But the others," she said aloud. "River and Jack and-" She stopped herself, remembering that the Doctor was right behind her. "Are they going to forget?" She marveled briefly that the Doctor hadn't spoken up long before now. Unless he could hear both sides of the conversation?
The Moment nodded slowly. "As soon as you're out of sight, as soon as the TARDIS door closes between you, the entire adventure will be gone. They won't notice a thing," she added with a smile. "Both the human and Time Lord brains are wired to fill in gaps like that. You could miss hours of your life and not be any the wiser."
"That's not fair," Mystery said firmly, flatly refusing to accept it. "That's not right. I've had my memory wiped, and I wouldn't wish that on anyone." Her head began to pound.
"Everything has a price, Mystery," Bad Wolf reminded her. "Your friends will pay for what's happened with a few hours of memory. Your price is to be forgotten. To Jack Harkness and River Song, 'mystery' will only be a word, not a name or a person. The Doctor will never have found you again, will still be wondering what became of you."
"No, no, wait," Mystery protested. "You never said- I've already paid! I got old, I'm old, look at me, I've paid!"
She held up her hands to show off her wrinkles, but found them instead smooth and young, covered in golden light - regeneration energy. "But that's not mine," she whispered, "that's not me…"
"I'm sorry, Mystery," the Doctor whispered. She looked over her shoulder in horror and found that the golden energy was streaming off his hand - the hand still gripping her shoulder.
"Doctor, no!" she cried, trying desperately to wrench away. "You can't, I said you can't, Doctor please-"
"It's done," he said softly. "It had to be done. You've got a fiance, a life waiting for you. I couldn't live with myself if I took that away from you."
"You wouldn't have to!" she shouted furiously, pulling away at last and whirling around to look the Doctor in the eyes. The pounding in her head was growing, a side effect, she guessed, of the mass healing she was undergoing. "You're going to forget it all anyway!"
"Doesn't matter," he said, shaking his head. "I've spent years forgetting things, but it doesn't change them at all. It'll still be there."
"And you helped him, didn't you?" Mystery asked the Moment accusingly. "What was the plan, distract me so he could do the deed?"
The Moment shrugged. "You made me care for every species ever to exist. When you remember how many of those species came together to make you?" She smiled sweetly. "How could I not care for you most of all?"
"Mystery, very soon this is going to knock you out," the Doctor said urgently. "Your body can't handle the extra stimulus and it's going to shut down, but before it does, I need to know I have your forgiveness. Give me this, Mystery," he pleaded, releasing her at last. "Let me take care of you."
"I haven't got much of a choice, have I?" Mystery grumbled, unconsciousness beginning to pull her in. The Doctor smiled sadly down at her.
"Take what gifts you are given," Bad Wolf told her, her voice warmer than Mystery had ever heard it. "The universe gives only so many."
Mystery sighed, the encroaching darkness dulling her anger. "Yes, Doctor," she said softly, closing her eyes. She began to sink to the floor, and was only dimly aware of the Doctor scooping her up and carrying her out of the room. "I forgive you."
She would never know whether she'd said it out loud.
A.N: Hello, dears. I do hope you took my friend's advice about the soundtrack. Adds to the intensity, I think. And frankly, I'm extremely proud of the intensity of this chapter. I felt like I was building a bomb, bringing in each piece (the golden light she was seeing, her headaches and tingles, etc) and putting it together so carefully that you don't see it for what it is until it explodes. Truly, I'm very very proud. I do hope you all can see why.
Also, I'm glad you like the new title! (At least, I haven't heard of anyone disliking it.) I did change the cover art to reflect it now, which is probably good. Be a bit embarrassing if they didn't match.
I start my new semester tomorrow, so this ridiculous posting-every-other-day thing that's been going on will likely not last. But there's really only a few more chapters in this one, and then on to something new! I'm both excited and sad, but I'm not really going to worry about either just yet. After all, there's a few more chapters!
Once again, I thank you all very much for reading along, and for the new favorites and follows I've gotten. I do so love watching the numbers climb. This story more than doubled in views this month, which is awesome, and I know it's all thanks to you!
-Forever the Optimist