Chapter 25 – Execution Day Part 1
It seemed like just another day to Rose Tyler. The routine was usual, waking up to their bland breakfast of white nougat-like chews and generally just wasting time until the Judoon came to take Leah. As per usual Rose kissed her good bye, and settled down to continue working out how to escape.
How long would it be until Jack commenced his plan? Well, at least he was here, now. As long as he did it soon then nothing else mattered. Time was ticking away, the baby due soon, Leah's testing was probably about to finish and the Doctor felt awful – it seemed like he was getting further and further away in a mental sense.
They had to get him out quickly before he completely snapped. Maybe he already had. And again it all came down to one thing... She had caused this. She had been to one to condemn him to torture. Perhaps she had also condemned him to insanity. She would gladly deal with the consequences of her actions, so long as her husband was alive at the end of it all.
She closed her eyes, and concentrated. She did this every day whenever she could. She threw love at him through the bond. She had no idea whether he could feel it, but if it helped him even a little tiny bit, then it was worth it.
"I love you, I love you," she repeated over and over again in her head. "I love you, I love you."
The Doctor was alone in his cell, though he didn't think so. There were voices whispering from the walls, screaming whispers directed at him, but he couldn't decipher any words. There were dark shapes rising, falling and flying in front of his eyes, assuming the faces of people he had known, dead friends, dead family, dead companions... taunting him for his situation.
Every time he tried to think – reason that they weren't real – the thought just slipped away like trying to hold water in his fingers. He was so hot. He hurt so much. He felt like screaming but he no longer had the energy to. He was always screaming, now. When he couldn't answer their questions, he screamed. He didn't even understand what they were asking him and he didn't have an answer to give.
Then he heard that voice again. It came through every now and again – a woman's voice. Telling him she loved him. His body responded with a need to follow the voice, because he got the undeniable feeing that there would be something really good waiting for him when he got to the source.
But who could love him?
He was a nobody. He was only a thing that was only to be hurt and humiliated. The voices in his head told him that much. Except her. Her voice made him feel like he was someone; made him think that there was something really important he'd forgotten. But every time he tried to think about it, it slipped away.
Time had become irrelevant. It was just one kaleidoscope of pain to the next. So he laid there absorbed in his own world, waiting for the next thing to happen.
Something scaldingly cold suddenly pressed against his upper arm and he flinched, waiting for the inevitable pain that would come with it. Whenever he got touched now, he instinctively knew pain would follow.
But they weren't trying to hurt him. Something gently held him down, a voice he couldn't place telling him to relax. He tried to see who it was but all he could decipher were the dark shapes flying around in front of his eyes – so he quickly closed them again, scared of the demons that they formed...
Then he felt something fire into his arm, sounding like compressed air. The cold object pulled away and an arm gently and slowly helped him sit up, something pressing against his lips...
This was unfamiliar. He recalled the feeling as water. It felt like heaven in his mouth, and it took him a moment to remember how to swallow. When he did it soothed the sides of his raw throat, like a cure-all...
The water suddenly stopped. The Doctor whined and tried to reach out for more, but the voice told him to stay still as something else was given to him... something to chew. It was food. He chewed and swallowed, the food such a shock he almost threw it back up again. He was given a little more water before the arms set him down again, and they left the room.
He was starting to get some of his thoughts back. Now when he reached out and tried to think, he could actually hold onto his thoughts for a little while before they slipped away. His fever was receding, his mind beginning to clear. But before he could remember exactly who he was and what he was doing here, there came the sound of a door opening. Had the person come back?
Strong hands grabbed him – he knew them well. Pain usually followed this. What were they? Jud... Judoon. They were Judoon. He opened his eyes, and for the first time in what felt like years, he could see his surroundings of a dank dark cell, and specifically, two Judoon carrying him out the door.
"Wait..." the Doctor began weakly, but he was ignored, carried between the two rhinos down the corridor. Pain was coming, and it was coming fast...
But this didn't feel the same. They were going in a different direction... Weren't they?
He was beginning to recall things, now. Faces and places, and suddenly he realised he wasn't insane. His wife was pregnant. Whoever had been in the cell had given him the suppressing drug for the symptoms. The persistent hallucinogenic fever was starting to leave him, and he was starting to see and think more clearly... But why now? Why today?
"Where are we going?" he suddenly demanded to know, but again, he was ignored. He was thrown onto a stretcher, fixed to it with straps and rolled down the corridor. He looked around frantically at the lights flashing overhead, and the signs on the corridor for any clue as to where they were going.
Then he realised they'd reached the lift. He was wheeled in and a button was pressed. With a technical whoosh and polite beep, they began to move down. Down. They were going down. If he could choose any direction to go in, it would not be down. Down was bad. Very bad. Many suitcases full of bad.
He had to get out of here.
He started struggling against the ropes, pain shooting through what felt like every cell in his body. But the efforts were useless against the binds. Everything was a lot clearer now, and he could see the Judoon looking at him, as if daring him to try something. He offered his most innocent smile and laid back against the stretcher, thoughts buzzing through his head.
How long had he been apart from Rose and Leah? For all he knew, it could've been anything from a week to a year. Were they okay? They felt okay. They were still there, feeling normal with no extreme emotions.
The lift doors opened, and he was wheeled a little further. More metal doors, didn't really look much different to the rest of the Proclamation. But there was a feeling of something in the air that he didn't really like.
Finally they reached a room at the end of the corridor. He was pushed in. There was a screen at the side with seats behind it, and the other side had shackles attached to the floor. Then he knew. This was a room for execution...
"Are you going to execute me?" the Doctor said, utterly shocked.
The Judoon didn't reply, simply taking him off of the stretcher and carrying him over to the shackles, undoing the ropes around his wrists and ankles and instead fixing him to the shackles by his wrists, forcing him to stand up on his injured legs, facing the wall...
"Hey!" the Doctor yelled, fully alarmed now, but no one was listening to him. He forced himself to calm down, thinking rationally about this. How were they going to execute him? He could probably survive a few methods, or regenerate...
A few more people filled into the room. He checked over his shoulder... A few more Judoon, three women in black dresses, and... the Master...
Suddenly a surge of anger rose up in him and he tried desperately to get to the other Time Lord, to preferably throttle him with his own intestinal tract. But with the shackles around his wrists and the pain coursing through his body he quickly realised he wasn't going anywhere... and the Master just smiled back.
"You!" the Doctor grated instead... If he couldn't kill him with his hands he'd damn well try with words. "You murdered Koschei and now you've murdered Theta...!"
He trailed off as he realise the people were in their places. The executioner was ready – with a precision Judoon enhanced snipe laser gun... He was going to be turned to ash.
He was a completely dead man.
Rose was very confused. About ten minutes ago the Doctor had started becoming clearer, the picture of him in his mind becoming sharper, more focused. It had taken her a little while to realise that meant he was mentally healing, he was coming back...
But then she felt him start to panic. And it was panic on a whole new scale. She had never felt him like it before... What the hell was making him feel like that?
Suddenly she felt a lot of love flying towards her. He was telling her that he loved her. Why now? He was professing his love for her, and panicking very badly at the same time...
"Please be aware. Execution of the Gallifreyan male to commence, with the hybrid child's execution to commence one hour from now. Please be aware," and intercom buzzed.
Rose's jaw dropped.
"No!" she screamed, jumping to her feet running over to the door that had held her for two months as if somehow it was going to slide back now... "Doctor! Leah! No! No, no, no!"
She slammed her fist on the door repeatedly as tears exploded from her eyes, utter anger and grief bursting up from inside of her. She screamed to the sky, swearing at the Proclamation, begging, crying... But no one was listening.
Finally she sank down, her legs completely collapsing from beneath her as she sat on the cell floor, sobbing helplessly.
They were going to kill her husband and her daughter, and there was nothing she could do.
The Master looked between the executioner and the Doctor, who was gritting his teeth in pain, standing on his injured legs facing the wall, his hands tied. The executioner raised the gun to the back of the Doctor's head, steadying his aim...
The Doctor felt like crying, but he wouldn't let his audience see him breaking down in his final moments. He was going to die selflessly. He took a breath, tensing himself...
There was a sudden scream of pain. The Doctor blinked. Had it been his own? He couldn't feel anything. Was he already dead?
Then there were more screams, but he kept his eyes closed...
"Come on!" a voice yelled behind him and seconds later there was the familiar buzzing of the sonic screwdriver, and his hands were released. He turned, utterly confused before he found the Master pointing the sonic screwdriver at the ropes, the executioner and the rest of the spectators lying immobile on the floor.
"Koschei?" the Doctor whispered.
"I think I still owe you a favour, Theta," Koschei replied, tossing him back the sonic. Theta caught it in his now free hands, pain shooting through his arms. Suddenly the alarms exploded into life, the entire place flashing with red lights.
"Come on!" Koschei yelled, a grin spreading onto his face as he beckoned frantically. "Slow poke!"
Theta couldn't help but laugh. He pocketed the sonic and made forward to Koschei – but the pain in his legs suddenly shot through and he cried out in pain, collapsing to the floor with a hard smack. He struggled to get up, but his entire body felt like it was on fire. He couldn't move.
Seconds later there was someone by his side, slinging his arm around their shoulder. It was Koschei. "Leave me, Koschei..." Theta grunted. "Get out."
"You've gotta be joking," Koschei said, hauling Theta up to stand. "Let's go." Koschei armed himself with the executioner's gun, readjusting his grip on Theta before bursting through the door to the corridor. He half-guided, half-dragged the injured Theta down the corridor until the reached the stairs descending down to the cells. Making a snap decision Koschei lowered Theta to the floor, propping him carefully up against the wall before handing him the gun he held.
"Protect yourself," Koschei said quickly, wrapping Theta's fingers tightly around the gun handle. "I'll get Rose and Leah," he said, getting to his feet. Suddenly he felt a hand grab his arm and he turned back to find Theta looking up at him with wide brown eyes.
"Be careful," he said.
Koschei nodded, and then disappeared down the steps.
The second the Master burst into the cell Rose was already moving forward to punch him in the face, and hopefully worse if she had her way. But his words came as something of a surprise.
"I've got the Doctor," he said, quickly holding up his arms. "We're getting out. You coming?"
Rose stared at him for a moment. "You're lying..."
"Rose," the Master said gently. "I know you probably don't trust me but honestly, he is at the top of the stairs. I promise you. Please come with me, we don't have much time."
Rose swallowed, utterly paralysed with the indecision. But the Master had suddenly lost interest in her, looking around the cell in confusion.
"Where's Leah?" he asked anxiously.
"They took her earlier..." Rose croaked.
The Master's eyes widened. "Let's go and get her. Coming?"
Suddenly she realised she didn't have a choice. She quickly nodded and he waved a Judoon device over her metal wristband, which pinged open. She followed him as he ran out the door, leading her past two unconscious guards and up a long flight of stairs where an injured man was sitting clutching a gun tightly...
They reached the top of the stairs and Theta suddenly spun around, pointing the gun at them in trembling hands. Koschei quickly held up his hands and Theta groaned and lowered the gun, breathing hard through the pain.
"Doctor... Oh God," Rose whispered, staring at the bloody mess that was her husband.
"Focus, Rose," Koschei said quickly, wrapping his arm around Theta. "Gimme a hand."
She nodded quickly and move to support the Doctor on the other side, pressing a quick kiss to his cheek as together she and Koschei hauled him up. Theta cried out in agony, shivering in their grip as they began to drag him down the corridor.
"Where's Leah?" he gasped.
"Just gonna get her," Koschei assured him.
Suddenly there was the crackle of the intercom, and one of the Proclamation woman spoke in frantic tones, "Escaped prisoners! Escaped prisoners! Execute the hybrid immediately!"
"No!" another voice yelled over the intercom. "Let go!"
"Leah?" Theta gasped.
"Move faster!" Koschei urged as they piled into the lift back, descending down to the execution rooms.
"Six!" Leah's voice yelled again. "Uncle Koschei, Daddy, Mummy, six!"
"Hold her still!"
"Let go!" she wailed.
"Kill it before he gets here!" the woman squeaked.
There was a shot over the intercom.
"No! Daddy!" Leah screamed, then another shot.
Theta, Koschei and Rose were panicking to say the least. It felt like years before the lift hit the intended floor, and they burst out into the wing of execution rooms.
"Leah!" Theta yelled, seeming to accelerate to an impossible speed for a man in his condition.
"Daddy!" a tiny voice yelled from one of the rooms. The three searched the rooms down the corridor until they reached room number six, but the door was locked.
"Kill it!" the woman shrieked again as Koschei pushed back Rose and Theta and raised his foot, kicking the door down to reveal a executioner trying to hold Leah in place with the execution gun to her head, the three-year-old struggling for all it was worth.
Theta stepped forward instantly, raising his own gun to the executioner.
Words weren't even needed.
The executioner continued to restrain the toddler, who was screaming and trying to fight him off – not that her strength was in anyway comparable to his. Theta's jaw visibly tightened at the screams of his only daughter begging for her parents, his grip visibly tightening on the gun.
Theta and the executioner stared at each other; their eyes boring into each other's with pure malice and rage.
Seconds passed.
The executioner opened his mouth.
BANG.
The executioner collapsed to the floor, dead.
Theta blinked in surprise. He hadn't pulled the trigger...
Someone stepped up beside him, and he turned his head. Koschei, holding a gun in his hand with smoke coming out of the end.
Koschei looked at him, and gave a half-smile as he lowered the smoking gun. "I couldn't let you do that, Theta."
They stared at each other for a moment, unspoken words buzzing between them. Koschei smiled gently and after a moment Theta smiled back...
BANG.
Koschei's smile dropped as suddenly he grunted breathily in pain, collapsing face first onto the floor with blood seeping out from and obvious bullet hole in his back. Theta gasped in horror, hardly able to breathe as slowly he realised what had happened...
"They're in here!" a voice yelled and Theta looked up at the doorway, finding the guards pouring in like water breaking a bank, leaving them completely trapped...