Mystery smiled and tilted her head back, letting the sun warm her face. She opened her eyes and stared up at the clear blue sky, dotted with puffy clouds.
"That one looks like a rabbit," came Clara's voice. "Don't you think?"
Mystery rolled over, grass tickling her skin, and saw Clara and the Doctor sitting on a picnic blanket, watching the clouds. The Doctor frowned.
"I don't see it," he said. Clara laughed, and the sound filled Mystery with contentment.
"What do you think, Mystery?" she asked, pointing up at the sky. "That one there."
"Hmm." She looked up, finding the cloud in question. "I think it's a rhino. See the horn?" She blinked and paused for a moment. For some reason the thought made her uneasy. She shook it off - the day was too nice to worry.
"No," Clara said consideringly, "those are the ears. Definitely the ears."
"I still don't see it," the Doctor told them. Mystery shook her head, grinning.
"Somehow I'm not surprised," she said, flopping back on the grass.
The Doctor smiled happily. "Isn't this nice," he said to the sky. "A family picnic, of sorts."
"It's good enough for me," Mystery said with a contented sigh. Then she stiffened. "Is there a storm coming?" she asked, propping herself up on an elbow. "I'm smelling ozone."
The Doctor sat up, sniffing the air. "I don't smell a thing," he said easily. "Just grass."
"Besides," Clara pointed out. "There's hardly any clouds."
But this wasn't quite true anymore, Mystery saw. Those few clouds were quickly turning into a roiling white smoke that somehow seemed familiar. She moved slightly and got a sharp shock, static electricity that jolted her body.
"Ow!" she cried, looking down at herself.
"Mystery?" Clara asked, concerned. Her voice sounded flat, dampened. Mystery looked up and saw that this white fog was around her, obscuring her friends from view. "Mystery, no, don't go!"
"Mystery, stay with me!" the Doctor called, sounding frantic. "Come on, you can do it, stay with me!"
"I'm trying!" Mystery told him, then screamed as another shock coursed through her. "Doctor, help, I don't want to go!"
The fog thickened, blinding her. Sparks popped and fizzed around her, zapping her painfully with every touch. She covered her eyes, trying to claw her way back towards her friends. She tripped and fell forward, flailing wildly for something to break her fall. She plummeted down and down, into blackness.
Mystery opened her eyes with a gasp to a room ringing with the echoes of her screams. She tried to sit upright, but something was holding her back: metal restraints across her forehead, chest, wrists, and ankles.
"Good morning, dearie!" A voice rang out across the room, making Mystery wince. It was a woman's voice, Scottish and lilting. "Electricity's a nasty wake-up call, I know, but it's so much more rewarding when you can feel it." She seemed to be delighted at the thought. "Isn't it, Mystery?"
Mystery shuddered at the sound of her name. She tried to turn her head, but the restraints held her back. "Who are you?" she asked, her voice raw. "Where am I?"
"Hmm. Let's do the easy one first, shall we? You're still at the Shadow Proclamation. Or don't you remember? I suppose tranquilizers and near-death experiences can muddle some things, can't they? And you don't exactly have the sharpest memory." She giggled. The sound sent chills down Mystery's spine.
"I'll even tell you why you're here," the woman continued. Mystery heard footsteps coming around behind her, but still could not catch a glimpse of her tormentor. "A bonus, just for you. Ask two, get one free. You're here so I can torture you," she said happily. "Torture you until the Doctor-" she lingered over the name, savoring it- "tells them everything they want to know. And then I'm going to kill you. Won't that be fun?"
Mystery thrashed, writhing against her bonds, but the metal would not give. Over and over she threw herself against the metal table, hoping at least to pass out and avoid whatever was coming.
"Now, now," the woman said chidingly. "Mustn't fuss. See, I've got this lovely little lever that's ever so easy to press. So if my hand slips…"
Mystery screamed again as the metal cuffs hummed, crackling electricity arching into her body and targeting every nerve. It was pain like she'd never felt before, but she knew it would only get worse. It seemed to go on for millenia. When at last it ended, she fell back against the table, gasping.
"There now," came the strange woman's voice, smooth as honey. "See? Everything's easier when you play nice. I only hope the Doctor knows that too."
"You still haven't answered my question," Mystery croaked. "Who are you, and what do you want with me?"
"You? Oh, nothing," she informed her. "Nothing at all. You are simply a pawn, a tool to get to the Doctor. He so values his little friends." Mystery could almost hear her smiling. "As for the Doctor and I, well… We go way back."
"Way back? You mean… You're friends?" Mystery was having a hard time imaging the Doctor, her silly, happy, lovable Doctor, ever being friends with a woman like this.
"Of course we're friends!"
"Since when?"
"Since always," the woman informed her. "Since the Cloister Wars. Since the night he stole the moon and the President's wife. Since he was a little girl. One of those was a lie. Can you guess which one?"
Mystery shook her head - or tried to. This woman was insane. Surely there was no way the Doctor could befriend her. But suddenly, the Doctor's voice popped into her head, echoing from earlier that day. I had this friend, though. My best friend, really...he went mad. Mystery frowned. He?
"As for who I am, well. I've had so many names over the years, but I think you can call me…" A woman's face suddenly appeared in Mystery's field of vision, smiling cruelly. "Missy. Hello, my dear."
"Missy…" Mystery frowned. "But the Doctor said his best friend was a man."
"Oh, aren't you cute." Missy pinched the cheeks of the prone girl before her. Mystery grimaced and tried to wriggle away, but there was nowhere to go. "So old-fashioned. And so helpless." She flicked her face with one manicured nail. "I love it."
The woman - Missy - reached down and unlocked Mystery's head brace. "I used to be a man," she told her, tossing the metal aside with a clang. "Now I'm a woman, and perfectly happy with it. Much sexier this way." She winked at Mystery.
"You used-" Mystery was having trouble processing all of this. "But the Doctor said you died. In his arms. How can you be here?"
"Oh, I don't let a little thing like death stop me," Missy said breezily. "He never does either. Surely you ought to have figured out at least that much by now."
"Alright," said Mystery, choosing to accept now and think later. "So you're a Time Lord, then."
"Of course I am. What else would I be, human? Don't be disgusting." Missy sounded genuinely offended. "And it's Time Lady, please. I'm old-fashioned."
"And the Doctor, does he know? That he's not the only one?"
"Not yet," Missy told her conspiratorially. "But he will. Oh, yes he will. I've made plans… Yes, he'll see me very soon."
"So then-"
"Enough questions!" Missy said sharply, pulling down on the lever. "You're getting dull, and I do so hate to be bored. Just another way the Doctor and I are meant to be, hmm?"
She smiled at Mystery, sickly sweet. Mystery saw her face through a haze of pain. She tasted blood - she must have bit her tongue.
"I'm supposed to be torturing you," she said over Mystery's screams, "and here I've been letting you ask all the questions! Because I've got questions for you too," she continued, walking over to where Mystery was thrashing and placing her mouth very close to Mystery's ear. "Very important questions, and you'll answer me, too. See, that's the thing about pain," she mused, walking slowly back to her lever and laying a gentle hand on it. "It brings you back to what you are."
She pulled the lever, cutting off the electricity and leaving Mystery groaning. "What do you mean?" she gasped, almost choking on the words. She could smell something burning, and guessed it was her hair. Don't think about it, she ordered herself. The Doctor will save you, he always does. He always does. Just hold on.
"It all comes down to instincts," Missy informed her. "We're all formed from our instincts, even you. We all fight to avoid pain. You'll do anything, anything at all," she pulled the lever again, "just to make it stop."
"What do you want?" Mystery gasped. "Why not just kill me?"
"I work for the Shadow Proclamation," Missy told her. "Their brightest new acolyte. I provided them with all sorts of lovely technology, just to get at the Doctor. And they're using you to get at him as well. But me… I need you for something else."
She shut off the electric current. Mystery closed her eyes, hoping to just black out. "See, I'm lonely," Missy said, as if sitting down for tea and a chat with an old friend. "So terribly lonely since the Doctor hid our planet away. Oh yes," she said at Mystery's exclamation of surprise, "hid, not destroyed. He doesn't know that yet," she whispered. "Won't he be surprised?"
Mystery could well imagine what the Doctor would think if he only knew. She'd seen him sometimes, when he thought no one could see him, when all the sadness in the universe poured into his eyes. Maybe this was why.
"And those Time Lords aren't very happy," Missy continued. "No, not happy at all. The naughty things are making cracks in the universe, all over space and time, trying to get through. Trying to come back, and you how they will? You know what they need?"
Mystery shook her head, then instantly regretted it - the simply movement sent bolts of pain pounding through her skull. She was almost afraid of the answer.
"They need the Doctor's name," Missy said softly. Mystery paled. "I see you know what I mean. Just his name, that's all. 'Silence will fall when the question is asked.' Not any longer. Can't you see what this would mean?" she continued, her subtle voice winding its way into Mystery's pain-shattered brain. "For me, for him? Never alone, never again. He'd have a place, a planet. a people. I'm lonely, Mystery, and so is he. Just tell me his name, and I can end it all."
"Why can't he say it himself?" Mystery asked sluggishly. Missy's face hardened.
"He's afraid," she hissed. "Afraid of what it might mean, afraid of not being the last one. He's committed terrible crimes, child. He's not the white knight you imagine him to be, not at all. But I know him," she continued, her voice soft and persuasive. "I'm his oldest friend in the universe, and I know him better than anyone. Don't you think I should be the one to make this decision?"
"But you're mad," Mystery told her. "He said so, you're insane. He said you keep trying to kill him."
"He keeps trying to kill me!" Missy said, affronted. "We've been at it for ages. It's sort of our texting."
"You are mad," Mystery said decisively. "I won't tell you. Let the Doctor decide."
"Oh, very well, have it your way," Missy said with a sigh. "But remember what I said about pain?" She bent down and whispered in her ear. "You do anything to stop it." She danced over to her lever, humming a waltz. There was a dial set into the wall, marked 'Volts'. As Mystery watched, Missy spun it from green to red, then spun around and looked her directly in the eyes. "I wish I could say I was sorry," she said simply. "But I'm really not." She pulled the lever, and in the moments before she blacked out, Mystery could see white bolts shooting across her vision.
"What is the Doctor's name?"
A.N: Again I say: Yowza! I'm kind of on a roll this week. Thank you all for the reviews and messages I got! I've never had such a positive reaction ever, and it definitely made me want to work on this more! So if you want to see another update sooner, you know what to do! I'm pleased to announce we have now passed 6,000 views, so thank you all for that! Also, I've passed the 50,000 word mark, which is amazing. I must say, when I started this, I never imagined it coming this far, or being this popular! (Or this intense) There's a whole lot going on, I know, so just try your best to keep up and I'll (hopefully) get it all explained! Only a few more chapters to go! Thank you sticking around this far, and I will see you at the finish line!
-Forever the Optimist