A/N: I think I'm running out of witty/significant things to say in these notes.
Warnings: Sexual Content (like actual smut, so be warned if you're not comfortable with actual sexy times). Angst. Fluff.
Bad Moon Rising
Chapter 21
The Satan Pit: Drag Me to Hell
An Ood crawled towards him.
"I'd appreciate it, sir!" Jefferson called out, urgently.
"God speed, Mr Jefferson."
"Thank you, sir."
Zach cleared his throat. "Report... Officer John Maynard Jefferson PKD... deceased... with honours."
Danny, Rose, the Priestess and Toby sat in silence.
"43K2.1," Zach finished.
Danny cleared his throat, his eyes red. "Zach... we're at the final junction. 9.2. And er... if my respects could be on record. He saved our lives," he said, solemnly.
"Noted. Opening 9.2."
The gate slid open, revealing the Ood which were right behind it, waiting for them. The Priestess, Rose, Danny and Toby scrambled away, shocked and afraid, their hearts in their throats.
"Lower 9.2. Zach, lower it!" Rose shouted, desperately.
"Back! Back! Back!" Danny scuttled backwards.
"We can't go back!" Toby protested. "The gang point's sealed off; we're stuck!"
The Priestess' eyes rolled upwards and she noticed the grilling above their heads.
"Come," she said, urgently, lifting up and pushing it out of the way.
She climbed up and emerged through the floor of the corridor above, Rose and Danny following. The Ood crawled towards Toby.
"Come on! Toby, come on!" Rose called out, hurriedly.
Unbeknownst to them, Toby looked at the Ood and placed a finger to his lips, his eyes glowing red once more.
"Toby, get out of there!" Rose shouted.
Toby scrambled up, his eyes wide and panicked and ordinary. "Help me! Oh, my God, help me!"
Rose and Danny hoisted him up through the hole, as more Ood approach from one end of the corridor.
"It's this way," Danny called out, running in the opposite direction of the Ood.
The other three followed Danny along the corridor, while the Ood were in pursuit.
"Hurry up!" Zach shouted.
Finally, Danny, Rose, the Priestess and Toby burst through the doors into Ood Habitation, and rushed over to the computer. The Ood that were cloistered inside looked up at their arrival, eerily.
"Get it in!" Rose said, desperately, eyeing the Ood with fear.
"Danny, get down," Toby urged.
"Transmit!"
"I'm trying, I'm trying! I'm getting at it-"
"Stop them!" Toby shouted.
The Ood were making their way up the stairs towards them.
"Danny, get that thing transmitting!"
After a moment, the reading on the computer slowly decreased to Basic 0. The Ood clutched at their heads and stumbled about, collapsing to the floor. There was nothing but silence and shallow breathing from the four of them.
Rose beamed in relief. "You did it! We did it!" she crowed.
"Yes!" Danny exclaimed.
Rose laughed in delight, as did Danny, and she threw her arms around him, then hugged Toby, who grinned at her exuberance. Finally, she embraced the Priestess tightly, the two of them swaying on their feet. The Priestess kept her arms by her side, still not accustomed to the show of affection that seemed to come so naturally to humans (not to mention, the instinctual reminder of what Van Statten had done to her in that Otherforsaken prison he had stowed her in), but welcomed the gesture nonetheless.
"Zach, we did it," Rose spoke into the communication device, cheerfully. "The Ood are down. Now we've gotta get the Doctor."
"I'm on my way."
Without much more fanfare, the Priestess and Rose rushed from Ood Habitation.
The Doctor was still being lowered down the pit, in complete darkness.
"You get representations of the Horned Beast right across the universe. In the myths and legends of a million worlds. Earth... Draconia, Velconsadine... Daemos... the Kaled God of War... it's the same image, over and over again. Maybe... that idea came from somewhere. Bleeding through... the thought at the back of every sentient mind," the Doctor mused.
Ida frowned. "Emanating from here?" she asked, curiously.
The Doctor would have shrugged if he was in a position to. "Could be."
"But if this is the original... does that make it real? Does that make it the actual devil, though?" Ida pursed her lips.
"Well, if that's what you want to believe. Maybe that's what the devil is, in the end. An idea," the Doctor offered.
The cable finally ran out and the Doctor jerked to a halt.
"That's it. That's all we've got," Ida called out.
The Doctor pressed buttons on the device on his wrist.
"You getting any sort of readout?" Ida asked, curiously.
The Doctor shook his head. "Nothing. Could be miles to go, yet. Or... could be thirty feet. No way of telling." He paused, pondering. "I could survive thirty feet."
"Oh, no you don't. I'm pulling you back up," Ida said, hurriedly.
She pressed the button to hoist him back up. But the Doctor intercedes by pressing a button on his own end, stopping her.
Ida strode to the edge of the pit with an expression of fury. "What're you doing?!" she demanded, loudly.
"You bring me back, then we're just gonna sit there and run out of air. I've gotta go down." The Doctor said, slowly, soliciting her agreement.
Ida hitched in a choppy breath. "But you can't. Doctor, you can't." Her voice was thick with fear.
"Call it an act of faith," the Doctor offered, releasing one of the hooks securing him to the cable.
"But... I don't want to die on my own," Ida said, weakly.
The Doctor softened. "I know," he murmured, releasing another hook.
The Priestess swept into the exploration deck and without a second thought, picked up the communication device.
"Doctor? Are you there? Doctor? Ida?" she called out, roughly.
Theta? Answer me.
But there was nothing on either end.
Her hearts plummeted into her stomach without much ceremony, leaving her cold and bereft, not even the Doctor's mind there to keep her steady. She felt herself wavering, the sickening urge to let herself fall so tempting, but if she did, thirty years trapped in darkness with nothing but memories as painful as they were heartening to keep her company would lack significance and the Other would take her before she let all those monoliths inside her crack and falter.
"The comms are still down. I can patch them through the central desk and boost the signal. Just give me a minute," Zach suggested, starting to work at the computer, while the Priestess and Rose looked on, anxious, the latter her eyes wide.
The Doctor released another hook, his eyes moving upwards.
"I didn't ask… have you got any sort of faith, or...?" he asked, curiously.
Ida clambered onto the edge of the pit. "Not really. I was brought up Neo Classic, congregational... because of my mum, she was..." She paused, her eyes turning wistful. "My old mum. But no, I never believed," she mused.
"Neo Classic, have they got a devil?"
Ida pursed her lips, thinking it over. "No, not as such. Just um... the things that men do."
The Doctor flickered a smile she couldn't see. "Same thing in the end."
"What about you?" Ida returned.
The Doctor takes a deep breath, considering it. "I believe... I believe I haven't seen everything," he said, definitively. "I don't know... it's funny, isn't it? The things you make up, the rules. If that thing had said it came from beyond the universe, I'd believe it, but before the universe... impossible." He shook his head. "Doesn't fit my rule. Still, that's why I keep travelling. To be proved wrong." He stilled. "Thank you, Ida."
Ida jumped to her feet, a wave of panic hitting her abruptly. "Don't go!" she begged.
The Doctor looked up, his eyes darkening with emotion. "If they get back in touch... if you talk to Tess... just tell her..." He looked down, the courage leaving him.
Ida remained still, waiting for him to continue.
"Tell her I..." His hand tightened around the hook. His shoulders slumped. "Oh, she knows," he whispered to himself.
If he were braver, he would have opened their bond and told her goodbye himself, let her mind flood his (because Omega knew that would-she would be enough to stop him from doing something albeit necessary but reckless). But he had always been a coward, at least where she was concerned; it was easier to leave the farewell in the air than actually find the words to say to her (her, beautiful, kind, fierce, constant Annika who had done nothing but love him since they were those stupidly naïve children in the Academy and he had tripped over himself like the clumsy thing he was and had fallen at her feet and looked up at her and seen that divinity in her eyes that consumed him whole and made him right and significant), because how could he actually say those words to her?
He released the final hook and fell into nothingness.
Nikki. I'm so sorry.
If these were his final words, let it be her name.
"Doctor?" the Priestess called out, desperately, resisting the urge to dig her hands through her hair. "Are you there? Doctor? Ida? Are you able to hear me?" She gritted her teeth. "Are you there, Doctor?"
"He's gone." Ida's voice crackled over the communication device.
Her ribcage stuttered.
"What do you mean?" the Priestess demanded.
"He fell. Into the pit. And I don't know how deep it is, miles and miles and miles."
Oh, no. Oh, please, no.
She cleaved open her side of the bond.
Theta? Please, answer me.
But there was nothing. It was as empty as the black hole they were hovering underneath.
"What do you mean 'he fell'?" Her voice was rough with dread.
Rose placed a hand on her arm, tightening to the point of bruising, grief echoing in her eyes.
"I couldn't stop him. He said your name..." Ida trailed off.
The Priestess' nails dug into her palms, leaving half-moon indents in her skin. Zach gently tugged the device away from the Priestess, who stared straight ahead, emotion waning from her features until she was nothing but an empty shell.
"I'm sorry," Zach said, softly.
The Priestess had nothing to say to him. An arm wrapped around her torso, as if to hold herself together in fear of falling apart.
"Ida? There's no way of reaching you," Zach murmured into the device. "No cable, no back-up... you're ten miles down..." He paused, as if the next words were difficult to say. "We can't get there."
Ida looked around, crossing her arms over her chest. "You should see this place, Zach." She sat back down on the edge of the pit. "It's beautiful. Well, I wanted to discover things..." She teared up. "And here I am."
"We've got to abandon the base," Zach told her, apologetically.
Ida bit her lip.
"I'm declaring this mission unsafe. All we can do is make sure no one ever comes here again."
"But we'll never find out what it was?" Ida protested.
"Well, maybe that's best."
Ida swallowed hard. "Yeah."
"Officer Scott-"
"It's all right," Ida sighed. "Just go. Good luck."
"Thank you." Zach cleared his throat, replacing the device. "Danny, Toby, close down the feed links. Get the retrotopes online. Then get to the rocket, strap yourselves in. We're leaving."
Rose turned to him. "I'm not going," she declared.
"Rose, there's space for you," Zach said, reassuringly.
"No, I'm gonna wait for the Doctor. Just like he waited for me." Rose nodded to herself, definitively.
"You are leaving with them," the Priestess said, suddenly.
"Like hell I am!" Rose shot back, her lips white with anger.
"I apologise; did it seem like I was encouraging a discussion on this topic?" The Priestess snapped.
Rose's voice lowered. "He can't be…" she trailed off, her voice thick with tears. "He's-he's not... and even if he was, how could I leave him? All on his own, all the way down there? No. I'm gonna stay. I have nothing left, I have to stay for him," she insisted.
The Priestess dragged her hands across her face, twisting them together to still the shake in her fingers. Unfortunately, it did nothing to diminish her frustration with the blonde girl in front of her.
"You sound like a child," the Priestess said, scornfully, sending Rose reeling from humiliation. "You have a mother that loves you, good friends, a home to live in, food on your table and the possibility of employment. Many others in this world do not even have that, yet even they would not say they have nothing else in life. Do you truly believe you are comparable to them?" she demanded.
Rose found herself flushing in shame. "I-I… I can't," she whispered. Her eyes shot up. "How can you just leave him like that?"
"The Doctor would want you safe," the Priestess hissed. "I am merely fulfilling that."
"I won't leave him," Rose cried.
The Priestess clenched her fists. She had never resorted to violence in order to get her way and she would not start now (even if the idea of swatting the stubborn girl was tempting).
"I understand that defiance may be a quality that the Doctor finds amusing, perhaps even admirable. But let me be irrefutable. You exist because the Doctor wills you into existence. He is incredibly compassionate and singular for one of our race and I leave him to his amusement. But do not make the mistaking of assuming that I am the same as him. I am not. My duty is to the preservation of this universe's time-space continuum. The moment you begin to interfere with that, your safety becomes irrelevant to me. You have already toyed with my patience many times before. Do not believe that I will be the same every instance. But it is your fortune that you have not tested me to the point where I would abandon you here. You are leaving with them. Even if I must render you unconscious first." She turned away. "And if you had seen the level of sins he, himself, has committed for a single cause, you would not believe him to be so exemplary," she growled.
"You can't make me leave!" Rose argued.
"Oh, but I can." The Priestess' smile was devoid of humour, but sharp like a knife.
Her hands were suddenly clasped against Rose's skull, her dark eyes boring into Rose. Rose struggled in her ironclad grip but soon felt her strength fading, her vision going black at the edges until her eyes rolled back in her head and she slumped forwards. Danny and Toby quickly caught her before she hit the ground.
"What did you do to her?" Zach asked, worriedly.
"Fear not, she is simply unconscious. She will wake, but not quick enough to prevent her departure," the Priestess said, simply. She eyed the syringe in Zach's hand. "I believe you are not one to balk at such measures."
Zach swallowed hard. "I have lost too many people. I am not leaving you two behind." He hesitated. "Are you going to argue too?"
The Priestess' lips twitched, although she felt no amusement (no, she could-would not feel anything until the Doctor's condition was confirmed for her). It was more of an instinctual reaction to his courage.
"I should not leave him here," the Priestess mused, ignoring the ache in her chest cavity that agreed with her. "But I know that he would be unreservedly furious with me if I stayed." She said, wistfully. "But in any case, if I were to struggle, your sedative would take twice as long to be effective than it would on a human." She eyed an insentient Rose, who was hoisted over Zach's shoulder. "I suggest we get her on board."
The four emerged into a corridor, which was littered with the Ood.
Toby pointed at one, shakily. "Did that one just move?"
The Ood in question opened its eyes and lifted its head, as if responding to Toby's comment.
Danny hissed in frustration. "The telepathic field, it's reasserting itself."
"Move it, get to the rocket, move!" Zach said, urgently, and the four hurried down the corridor.
INSERT LINE HERE
The Doctor lay face down at the bottom of the pit, his helmet in pieces around him. He stirred finally, groaning to himself, as he pulled himself upwards, his arms and legs aching with every small movement. He was sure that the glass from his helmet had sliced into him somewhere – which has when he realised that it had, in fact, broken. He gasped, a hand flying to his mouth.
"I'm breathing," the Doctor murmured in wonder. He removed whatever was left of the helmet and looked around. "Air cushion to support the fall..." He mused, turning on the communication device. "You can breathe down here, Ida." The device crackled. He paused, worriedly. "Can you hear me, Ida?" he asked, cautiously.
Tess, can you hear me?
But not even she was answering.
"Dislocating B-Clamp, C-Clamp, raising blue nitrates to maximum. Toby, how's the negapact feed line?" Zach twisted his head around.
"Clear! Ready to go, sir. For God's sakes, get us out of here!" Toby exclaimed, his face etched with panic.
Rose stirred awake, slowly.
Danny looked at her, worriedly. "Captain... I think we're gonna have a problem passenger..." he trailed off.
"Keep an eye on her," Zach said, sternly.
"Wait... I'm not..." Rose looked around, desperately.
"It's all right, Rose, you're safe-" Zach soothed
"I'm not going anywhere!" Rose shouted, tugging at her seatbelt. "Get me out of this thing! Get me out!"
"And... lift-off!"
The three men whooped and cheered as the rocket lifted off.
Ida looked up, as did the Doctor, at the bottom of the pit.
"A rocket..." the Doctor whispered, watching it fly further and further away.
Rose spotted the bolt gun, but before she could snatch it for herself, the Priestess had already seized a hold of it.
"What are you doing?" Rose demanded.
"Did you believe I would let you coerce him into delivering back to that monstrosity of a planet?" The Priestess quirked an eyebrow.
Rose's voice slipped lower until she was begging. "I have to go back."
The Priestess stared at her for a moment. There was nothing but unabashed panic and worry and desperation in the girl's eyes. Clearly, Rose had some sort of feelings for the Doctor – be they love, like Rose thought, or something infinitely more complex. While it galled her (and it did, for she wasn't so evolved that the idea of another woman wanting her Bondmate didn't aggravate her, even if no one, not even Rose Tyler, could possibly feel for the Doctor what she had or she does or she will), as someone who had spent most of her very long existence agonising over the Doctor's safety, she found herself softening.
"The Doctor would not want your safety to be compromised because of his decisions," she said, gently.
Rose held her gaze for a moment and finally slumped back in her chair, her eyes suspiciously wet.
"Sorry, but it's too late anyway. Take a look outside. We can't turn back," Zach approached, hesitantly.
Rose looked out of the window.
The Doctor shone his torch on the wall of the underground cavern, where there were crude drawings of a horned beast and tiny stick figures surrounding it.
"History of some big battle. Man against Beast. I dunno if you're getting this, Ida. Hope so. Anyway, they defeated the Beast and imprisoned it," the Doctor muttered.
Nikki, come on, if this is you ignoring me, I'm going to be furious.
The light of his torch fell on what looks like a large vase on a stand. Surprised, he turned the torch light back on the symbols of people carrying the vase on their heads. He approached the vase, seeing that there was another one in line with the first.
"Or maybe that's the key..." the Doctor mused, touching the vase, which led to both of them lighting up. "Or the gate, or the bars..."
The Doctor stilled and turned upon hearing a quiet growl. His mouth opened in terrible shock, as he found, before him, in a pit, a huge horned beast, chained down, which roared at him in fury.
In the rocket, Toby started to laugh quietly to himself, as Rose clicked her seatbelt closed.
"What's the joke?" Danny's brow furrowed in confusion.
"Just... we made it. We escaped. We actually did it," Toby commented, half-heartedly.
But no one else shared his mirth.
"Not all of us," Rose murmured.
"We're not out of it yet. We're still the first people in history to fly AWAY from a black hole. Toby, read me the stats," Zach instructed.
Toby was still smirking. "Gravity funnel holding, sir. Always holding."
"I accept that you exist. I don't have to accept what you are, but your physical existence, I'll give you that," the Doctor offered.
The Beast growled in reply, and the Doctor took a few steps forwards.
"But I don't understand. I was expected down here. I was given a safe landing, and air. You need me for something. What for?" he asked, cautiously.
The Beast lunged forwards, straining against the chains holding him.
"Have I got to... I dunno, beg an audience?" the Doctor suggested. "Or... is there a ritual? Some sort of incantation or summons or spell, all these things I don't believe in. Are they real?" he amended, curiously.
The Beast just looked at him, smugly.
"Speak to me! Tell me!" the Doctor said, loudly. But there was no reply. "You won't talk. Or... you can't talk." He frowned. "Hold on, hold on. Wait a minute, just let me..." He paused, contemplating. "Oh! No. Yes! No... think it through, you spoke before. I heard your voice. An intelligent voice. No, more than that, brilliant! But, looking at you now... all I can see..." The Beast growled. "Is..." Another growl. "Beast. The animal. Just... the body. You're just the body, the physical form! What's happened to your mind? Hmm? Where's it gone? Where's that intelligence?" He glanced upwards as realisation dawned. "Oh, no..."
Nikki, please answer me. Nikki, come on. Answer me. Just let me know you're okay. Please, Nikki, SAY SOMETHING.
"Stats. at 53, funnel status at 66.5. Hull pressure constant. Smooth as we can, sir. All the way back home," Toby told Zach.
The Priestess stared simply ahead, not allowing herself to think beyond the motion of the spacecraft.
"Coordinates set for Planet Earth," Toby murmured, the corners of his mouth twitching upwards in an unpleasant smile.
The Doctor shone his torch on the symbols covering the walls.
"You're imprisoned," he mused. "Long time ago. Before the universe, after, sideways, in-between, doesn't matter." His eyes widened. "The positioning is perfect. It's absolutely… it's eternal. Oh, yes!" He crowed. "Open the prison, the gravity field collapses! This planet falls into the black hole! You escape, you die. BRILLIANT! But that's just the body. The body is trapped, that's all. The devil is just an idea. In all those civilisation, just an idea." He paused. "Omega, I wish 'Tess could see this." He edged forwards, slowly, as he worked it out. "But an idea is hard to kill. An idea could escape. The mind, the mind of the great Beast, the mind can escape! Oh, but that's it!" He rounded on the Beast. "You didn't give me air, your jailers did! They set this up! All those years ago! They need me alive. Because if you're escaping, then I've gotta stop you." He said, fiercely.
The Beast roared in fury, straining against the chains. The Doctor picked up a rock.
"If I destroy your prison, your body is destroyed. Your mind with it," he growled.
He swung the rock over his head, ready to bring it crashing down on the vase, and then stopped, dropping it in the end.
"But then you're clever enough to use this whole system against me," the Doctor murmured. "If I destroy this planet, I destroy the gravity field. The rocket. The rocket loses protection and falls into the black hole." He eyed the Beast, grimly. "I'll have to sacrifice 'Tess."
Because not even she could survive that.
There was a look of mild disgust on his face, as the Beast laughed mirthlessly.
Rose looked at the Priestess, suddenly, leaning closer.
"It doesn't make sense. We escaped, but there's a thousand ways it could've killed us. It could've... ripped out the air or... I dunno, burnt us, or anything. But it let us go. Why?" she murmured.
"Perhaps it wanted us to escape," the Priestess replied.
"Hey, Rose, do us a favour..." Toby canted in her direction. "Shut up," he growled, rudely. Rose stared at him, shocked, but he looked away. "Almost there. We'll be beyond the reach of the black hole in 40... 39..."
"So, that's the trap. Or the test or the final judgment, I don't know. But if I kill you, I kill her. I kill them," the Doctor amended, suddenly remembering a hopeful Rose that he was sure that Nikki would have strong-armed onto that ship, with or without Rose's permission.
The Beast laughed, then roared at him.
That sent a righteous, incredulous anger hurtling straight through him.
"Except that implies, in this big grand scheme of Gods and Devils, that she's just a victim," he mused. "And if you knew 'Tess, at all, you would know that anyone who has ever tried to make her a victim has gone up in flames. She'll never stop fighting, not until she's nothing but atoms in the wind, and I don't expect that to happen for a long time. You are not the thing that kills her." He said, fiercely. "I've seen a lot of this universe. I've seen fake gods and bad gods and demi gods and would-be gods, out of all that, out of that whole pantheon, if I believe in one thing... just one thing..."
He gritted his teeth.
"I believe in her."
And with that, he picked up the rock once more and smashed the vase without even a second's hesitation.
The rocket began to shake violently.
Danny held onto the armrests of his chair, desperately. "What happened? What was that?!" he exclaimed.
"What's he doing? What is he doing?" Toby cried out.
"We've lost the funnel! Gravity collapse!" Zach cursed.
"What does that mean?" Rose asked, worriedly.
"We cannot escape," the Priestess said, grimly, locking her feet together before she toppled forwards. "We will fall into the black hole."
Just as she predicted, the rocket turned back on itself and spiralled towards the black hole.
The Doctor smashed the other vase.
"This is your freedom! Free to die. You're going into that black hole and I'm riding with you," the Doctor swore, as flames erupted from the Beast's mouth.
Rose looked out of the window. "It's the planet. The planet's moving. It's falling," she muttered.
She slumped back in her seat and glanced at Toby, reeling backwards in shock. His eyes were red and seething, black symbols painted onto his skin.
"I am the rage-"
"It's Toby, Priestess, do something-" Rose smacked at the Priestess' hands.
"And the bile and the ferocity."
"Just do something!" Rose shrieked.
"I am the Prince and the Fall and the Darkness-"
"It's him! It's him! It's him!" Danny scuttled against his end of the spacecraft.
"Stay where you are, the ship's not stable!" Zach snapped, but Toby expelled a burst of flame from his mouth. His eyes widened. "What is he?! What the hell is he?!"
The Beast writhed around, burning up.
"I shall never die! The thought of me is forever! In the bleeding hearts of men, in their vanity and obsession and lust-"
The Priestess thumbed the bolt gun in her hand.
She tugged on Rose's wrist, impatiently. "Unbuckle his seatbelt, once I give you the signal," she ordered, quietly.
"What?" Rose hissed.
"Just do it!" the Priestess snapped, lowly.
"Nothing shall ever destroy me. Nothing!"
The Priestess aimed the gun at the front window.
"Go to hell," the Priestess said, darkly.
She fired the gun, shattering the glass, and nudged Rose, pointedly, who reached over and undid Toby's seatbelt. The vacuum of space yanked him through the window and into the void beyond the spacecraft, pulling whatever he had become towards the black hole, despite his furious and incredulous roars.
"Emergency shield!" Zach exclaimed.
He pressed a button and the emergency shield activated, covering the gaping hole in the windshield. The rocket continued to shake and shudder, headed towards the black hole.
"We've still lost the gravity funnel. We can't escape the black hole!" Zach swore.
"But we stopped him. That's what the Doctor would've done." Rose looked at the Priestess, commiserating, who nodded, patting her on the hand.
"Some victory," Zach scoffed. "We're going in."
The rocket continued to spirals towards the black hole.
The Beast was burning up, struggling against his chains.
Danny looked at the computer screen. "The planet's lost orbit! It's falling!" he called out, terrified.
The Doctor ran back down the tunnel, away from the Beast. A blast of air knocked him backwards, straight into something solid. He looked up and beamed, when he found that he had inadvertently slammed into the TARDIS, making him laugh with delight.
The computer screen indicated that the planet had fallen into the black hole, and then went blank.
"The planet's gone." Danny looked at the Priestess and Rose, who remained silent. "I'm sorry," he murmured.
The Priestess couldn't hear anything over the destructive sound of her heartsbeat.
Theta?
Her plea was broken; the bond hadn't snapped, so he wasn't dead (logic told her this, but when that twisted feeling in her stomach reared its ugly head, it was difficult to argue). But it didn't help her already shattering composure that he wasn't answering her. He could be hurt or-
But what could stop him from answering her?
And she had just left him there. Omega, what sort of Bondmate was she?
"Accelerate. I did my best. But hey, first Human Beings to fall inside a black hole. How about that? History," Zach said, weakly.
Rose closed her eyes and reached out to hold onto the Priestess' hand, who gripped it firmly, reassuringly.
At least she wasn't alone.
They held on tight as the rocket shook violently, their eyes screwed shut, ready for the impact, when it stopped.
Silence fell.
Rose opened her eyes. "What happened?"
They all leaned to one side as the rocket turns.
"We're... turning," Zach stumbled, confused. He looked at the screen. "We're turning around. We're turning away!"
Nikki?
The Priestess' hearts stuttered. Theta? You are-you are safe? You are unhurt?
Omega, it was like all those invisible wounds he had carved into her with his disappearance were stitching back together.
I'm fine, I found the TARDIS, which I'm inside of, by the way. I'm the one turning your ship's trajectory.
You should know… I am beyond cross.
The Doctor's wince was a ripple across their bond. Yeah, I thought so. Possibility of atoning for it?
She huffed. Perhaps, if you are creative with your efforts.
The Doctor would have waggled his eyebrows if she could've seen him. Wouldn't you like to know? He paused. I should probably let them know it was me, right?
Humour wound around the Priestess, something she thought would never happen again. I believe that is appropriate.
The onboard speaker flared to life.
"Sorry about the hijack, Captain. This is the good ship TARDIS," the Doctor called out, cheerfully.
The Priestess flickered a smile. While most of the time, she good-naturedly rolled her eyes at his eccentricity, she had careened inwardly thinking she would never see or hear his arbitrary thought process. Hearing it now, it made her hands shake with the need to throw her arms around him once more.
Rose's mouth dropped open and her eyes lit up.
"Now, first thing's first, have you got a certain Time Lady and one, Rose Tyler on board?" the Doctor asked, curiously.
Rose jumped in her seat from her joy. "I'm here! We're here! It's us! Oh, my God!" she cried out, laughing, dragging her hand across her face, giddy with relief and happiness. "Where are you?" she demanded, immediately.
"I'm just towing you home. Gravity-schmavity. Our people practically invented black holes," the Doctor scoffed.
The Priestess' lips twitched. "In fact, they did," she drawled.
"In a couple of minutes, we'll be nice and safe. Oh, and captain, can we do a swap? Say, if you give me 'Tess and Rose Tyler, I'll give you Ida Scott? How about that?" the Doctor offered, brightly.
"She's alive!" Zach exclaimed, delighted.
"YES!" Danny shouted in relief. "Thank God."
"Yeah! Bit of oxygen starvation, but she should be all right," the Doctor's voice lowered, solemnly. "I couldn't save the Ood. I only had time for one trip. They went down with the planet." There was a beeping sound on his end. "Ah! Entering clear space, end of the line, mission closed."
Rose smiled to herself, so happy and relieved and proud of him, all at the same time. Finally, she turned to the Priestess, who had her head tilted backwards, her eyes closed. She hesitated before tapping her on the wrist, and the Time Lady's eyes snapped open, looking at her curiously.
"That was pretty badass," Rose commented, shyly.
The Priestess cocked her head in amusement. "Badass? I assume that is a compliment?"
Rose nodded. "Yeah, it is."
The Priestess smiled. "Then, thank you. And your unbuckling of his seatbelt was also very… badass, as you say," she said, awkwardly.
Rose laughed (honestly, she didn't think a conversation with the Priestess had gone so well before). "Thanks, Priestess. And just…" she stammered. "What you said earlier about me having things to go back to. I… I just wanted to say I'm sorry," she said, gently, swallowing hard. "I mean, you lost your planet and your home and your family and your friends and here I was, complaining about having nothing left. I didn't mean to offend you." She whispered.
The Priestess sighed. "It is alright, Rose."
Rose bit her lip. "Sometimes… I just get caught up in the Doctor and travelling and I-I lose sight of what's important, I guess." She shrugged, looking off somewhere into the distance.
The Priestess swept her hair over one shoulder. "That is understandable. You are young and from what the Doctor has told me concerning your past, I imagine this is the first period in your lifetime where you have felt the freedom to do such things. But you should not forget where you come from, Rose. From what I have seen, being a human is an incredible feat. I would not want you to lose that," she said, gently.
Rose swallowed hard. "My priorities get screwed up sometimes." She paused. "Yours never seem to." There was actual admiration in her eyes.
"Well, for one, I am much older than you," the Priestess said, pointedly. "When I was your age, I was slightly more reckless. Not as much as the Doctor, of course. But more than I am now. But my childhood, if you are able to refer to it as that, was uncompromising, to say the least. My father was not a kind man and he demanded greatness from me. Needless to say, I disappointed him frequently." She mused. "And he perished long before I achieved the aspirations he intended for me. Therefore, I never had the opportunity to enjoy the freedom you are currently enjoying. I would never wish for you to lose that freedom, Rose." Her touch on Rose's wrist was affectionate. "I only ask that you also consider what you already possess. There is much you have that I long for – family, friends, a home. All of that which was mine ceased to exist long ago."
Rose sucked in a breath. "I think I might go and spend some time with my mum for a while," she murmured.
"If you believe that is what you need," the Priestess offered, cautiously.
She wasn't deliberately manipulating Rose to come to that decision herself (no matter how much she preferred space between the infatuated human girl and her Bondmate), but it didn't mean that she would actively discourage her from that decision.
Rose's nod was firm. "Yeah, maybe, I need some… perspective sometimes."
But the Priestess knew it wouldn't be as simple as that.
Rose swung open the doors of the TARDIS, the Priestess following behind her. The Doctor looked up from the console and grinned. Rose raced towards him and the Doctor caught her in his arms, lifting her clean off the floor. Rose giggled in his embrace, squeezing him tightly, and then the Doctor placed her back down.
The Doctor shot the Priestess a questioning look, at which she simply waved off. He found the microphone. "Zach? We'll be off, now. Have a good trip home." He paused. "And the next time you get curious about something-" The Priestess scoffed, which made him smile. "Oh... what's the point?" he sighed. "You'll just go blundering in. The human race..."
"But Doctor, what did you find down there? That creature, what was it?" Ida asked, curiously.
"I don't know!" The Doctor shrugged. "Never did decipher that writing." He exchanged a fond look with the Priestess, who ducked her head. "But that's good! Day we know everything? Might as well stop," he commented.
Rose bit her lip. "What do you think it was? Really?"
"I think..." the Doctor took a deep breath. "We beat it. That's good enough for me."
Rose swallowed hard. "It said I was gonna die in battle," she whispered, deliberately.
The Priestess placed a hand on Rose's arm. "Then it lied." She said, lowly.
Lying was a sin that she found loathsome but necessary, from time to time. But perhaps this lie was one of the worst she had ever told.
But she would live with it, nonetheless. And the alternative – having Rose look over her shoulder for the rest of her time – wasn't all that attractive.
So, she would bear this lie as she had all the others.
And hope that the Doctor would forgive her for her part.
Rose smiled at her, confident in the older woman's reassurance.
"Right, onwards, upwards. Ida, see you again, maybe!" the Doctor said, cheerfully.
"I hope so."
"And thanks, boys!" Rose called out, beaming.
"Hang on though, Doctor. You never really said... you three... who are you?" Ida asked, curiously.
"Oh..." the Doctor looked at the Priestess and Rose. "The stuff of legend."
He pulled a lever and the Doctor, the Priestess and Rose watched the rotor rise and fall with smiles on their faces.
After some quiet conversation, the Time Lord and Lady dropped Rose at her mother's place with the promise of returning for her in a few days, leaving the Doctor and the Priestess alone in the TARDIS.
"So," the Doctor drawled. "No hug, then?"
The Priestess smiled, ducking her head down.
"I thought I would allow Rose the opportunity of first reuniting with you," she offered, casually. "She was truly… stricken by the thought of your death."
If something secretive and heartbreaking flickered in her eyes once she had finished, it was gone as quick as it was there, and he had just missed it.
All those secret things she kept twisted inside her (in fear of his reaction, in fear of his unhappiness, in fear of her resentment, in fear of her imperfection), it was painful, but she forced herself to remember the consequences of the choices she had made and could make.
The Doctor trailed a hand across the console. "And you?"
The Priestess tensed. "If you do not yet know how it would hurt me to think of your demise, then-"
The Doctor interjected. "No, sorry, that's not what I mean. How are you doing?"
Omega, it was as if they were adolescents in the Academy, barely understanding their burgeoning feelings for one another, having to resort to sentence fragments in order to convey their affection.
The Priestess stared at him for a moment, before she hurtled into his arms, the Doctor wrapping his arms around her immediately. She curled a hand around the nape of his neck, pulling him down so that she could kiss him fiercely on the mouth. Once she pulled away, more out of want than need, pride bloomed in her chest at the dazed look in his eyes, his mouth streaked with the red from her lipstick.
"You almost died." The Priestess's voice was rough.
"Yeah," the Doctor stammered, still reeling from that kiss.
"You will not do that to me again," the Priestess said, lowly, almost a threat.
The Doctor swallowed hard. "Okay," he said, weakly.
Wasn't that just a threat he could abide by.
"Now," The Priestess rocked back on her heels. "I believe you promised me atonement." She smiled that sly little smile with those hot eyes that had his hands shaking with lust. "And creative efforts?"
"Right." The Doctor's throat was too dry to say much more.
"Shall we withdraw to our bedroom?" the Priestess offered, provocatively, trailing a hand down from his collarbone right down to his pelvis, where she lingered deliberately.
She took the Doctor's hand in hers and led him, stumbling and speechless, out of the console room, as he watched her hips sway in that damning rhythm.
The Doctor spanned the curve of her hip, pressing her against the door, silencing her satisfied moan with his mouth. His hands trailed up her torso, until they were winding in her dark, soft waves, his kiss turning fierce, and she was hooking an ankle behind his knee.
She arched her hips into his, one hand curling into his thick hair and the other caressing between his shoulder-blades. She tugged at the hem of his suit jacket, impatiently, and he pulled it off unceremoniously. In response, the Doctor pulled her dress up and over her head, tossing it somewhere, leaving her bare from the waist up.
He groaned at the sight and palmed a single breast in one hand, her nipples tightening. She hurriedly unbuttoned his shirt, slipping it off his shoulders, and pulled him close so that skin touched only skin. Her hands went for his belt buckle and unzipped his pants, pushing them down restlessly, until they pooled around his ankles, his amusingly-printed boxers going with them.
"How are you not naked?" he groaned into her mouth.
She laughed, tilting her head back as he raked his teeth down her neck. "Perhaps I am just more effective at this than you are," she teased.
The Doctor growled at the challenge. "I'll show you effective."
He knelt down in front of her, hooking fingers in her leggings and pulling them down to her ankles and off her feet, leaving her in a simple pair of black underwear – no lace, no silk, just plain cotton (productive, but powerful, just like her).
He kissed her hipbone, over the cotton, smiling at her sudden swill of air. His mouth settled over the damp material between her legs and a hand tightened around her smooth thigh. After a moment of lazy lapping, the Doctor moved away slightly to roll her underwear down her thighs and past her ankles, flinging it somewhere in the vicinity of her dress and leggings, leaving her just as bare as him.
The Priestess threw her head back, when his tongue found where she was all slick and wet and soft for him. She tightened a hand in her hair and hooked one of her thighs over his shoulder once more, wondering if there would a bruise where his fingers gripped her (she thought she would like that bruise very much). She gasped out a myriad of his name and words in Gallifreyan – prayers and pleas – which had him groaning against her flesh as he licked into her, all tart and sweet and heady.
Her pelvis rocked against his jaw when she tugged at his hair and the moment she knew she would fly into pieces, she pulled him up by his shoulders with a show of strength that had him smiling in delight. He trailed a hand up her warm flank, all smooth and supple and the colour of honey, watching her pink mouth part and gasp his name as he tugged at a nipple, making her muscles clench.
Then, he was the one gasping when she calmly reached down and fisted his cock, biting into her lower lip with a smug smile when he hissed out of gritted teeth. Even when she felt she had done everything under the thousands of suns she had seen, being with him, like this, felt like she was-they were new all over again. He hooked her thigh over his lean hip, and watched one of her hands stretch up over head to curl in the doorframe above them and felt the pain-pleasure of her other hand twisting in his hair, when he pressed inside her slowly.
He dragged it out, inch by inch, keen and content to watch every expression flit across her sharp features (lust, awe, admiration, satisfaction like there was nothing that made her whole than him inside her).
When they were younger and had lain together, there had always been that touch of rebellion to all of their acts, knowing how all those austere Time Lords and Ladies would have balked and condemned the idea of using flesh and sinew to communicate base, shameful emotions like lust and affection like they were nothing more than animals. The Priestess had been that decent good girl, all proper and faultless and everything her father had wanted (the perfect President in waiting), until she had met the Doctor, and fallen into that pit of defiance that she had been so unwilling to drag herself out of (she could have, but those glinting eyes of his had always given her second thoughts and she had never regretted it).
Their first night together had been in a haze of lust and love and disobedience and she hadn't regretted a single moment of it – not even when her father had found her the next day, the imprint of the Doctor's teeth still on her skin, her lips raw from his mouth and red still staining between her thighs, and struck her across the face. While she had loved the Doctor more than anything else in existence, she couldn't deny it had been rewarding to win against her domineering father for once in her life.
Nowadays, or at least since they had three children and settled into their somewhat quotidian life (even if it involved her Bondmate running off with pretty young humans to travel the universe, and no, that was not resentment), lovemaking had been slow, careful; they had been content to take their time with each other, no longer needing that hurried fumbling of their youth to feel close to one another because they already knew everything about each other. The Doctor knew exactly where to stroke, to bite, to lick, to thrust in order to leave her a trembling, writhing mess, and the Priestess knew exactly when to twist her hand, to clench, to rake her nails down his back, to pull on his hair to have him shaking against her and groaning in her ear.
He bottomed out, just as slow, and she smacked the doorframe in frustration, much to his amusement. His second rock against her hips was more forceful, and had her smacking into the door. His fingers tightened against her hipbone and he began that glorious, pagan rhythm that had her holding him tightly against her, as if she were afraid he would leave if she loosened her grip.
One particular thrust left her keening against his mouth as he couldn't bear not to swallow the sound. His teeth dug into her neck, to the point of pain, as he focused on that slick-wet sounds coming from between their hips. He loved these moments – where he could get her to that point where she was panting I love you I love you I love you in that breathy voice of hers, all that stoicism turning to cinders.
"More," she sighed. "More."
As if he could deny anything she asked of him.
His hands made their way into her hair and tugged, fiercely, knowing that she could handle the pain (in fact, she loved it, made her all the more wet between her legs).
"I love you," the Priestess whined, scraping her nails down his back.
His true name was a cry from her throat, her legs tightening around his waist, as she finally hurtled over that sweet edge, her muscles clenching tight around the base of his cock. She smacked the doorframe, nails digging into the wood, as every one of her nerve-endings were convulsing, her toes curling against the small of his back.
Just the sight of her orgasm was enough to having him coming as well, groaning her true name in her ear, rutting against her thighs uncontrollably until he was spilling inside her, leaving her even slicker. Her back arched and her head hit the door behind her (not enough to hurt, but the sharp thud brought her back to the real world). He panted against her neck, nudging against the damp, warm skin of her throat. He trailed a hand down her smooth flank and pulled her close and away from the door, until he was hauling her towards the bed, where they both inevitably tripped (their legs nothing but sap at this point) and fell down onto the mattress with a laugh.
She lifted her head slightly, so that he could slide his arm underneath her neck and she could rest her cheek on his forearm, turned into him. She threw an arm across his torso, her hand warm on his side, as her lips pressed against his collarbone, and their legs entwined together. His hand curled in her hair, letting it spill across his chest in a dark ripple, and he pressed his mouth against her hairline, gently.
"So, were my efforts creative enough?" the Doctor teased. "Or do I need to atone more?" His voice turned rough with intent.
The Priestess laughed against his chest. "Well," She trailed a hand down until she was palming his spent cock, as it hardened against her palm. "Perhaps more atonement would be advantageous, especially in the future. I believe the humans refer to it as… paying it forward?" she crooned, provocatively.
She straddled him, her legs on either side of his hips, and leaned down, her mouth pressed against his solidly, her dark waves covering both of them like a cloak, hiding them from the rest of the universe.
A/N: Hopefully, you guys enjoyed the sex scene; it's been awhile since I wrote one for this story, actually, and it was more of a 'yay, we all survived' kind of sex scene, as well as a comforting thing as well. Anyway, this chapter had the Doctor and the Priestess separated for most of it, but I thought it was nice that Rose and Tess got their bonding moments in the middle of it, even if they had a bit of a rocky start at the beginning of the chapter.
The next one will be an original chapter that ends with Love & Monsters (honestly, I was tempted to just completely ignore it because it was such a stupid episode). Of course, if you guys just want the original chapter, I can always just not include Love & Monsters at all. But we're leading to the home stretch, guys, another five chapters to go and we'll hit the end of this story in the series. And Season 3 is… hell. I can promise you that.
Anyway, I will see you guys in the next chapter and don't forget to leave a review!
Reviews:
NicoleR85: Thank you!