"Tartarus has been good to me." - Persephone (Like Father, Like Daughter)
Tartarus always began with the dry fountain in the dusty courtyard. The Walls of Doubt rose around them in a forbidding stone labyrinth.
"Home sweet home," said Bo, surveying their surroundings. "Hasn't changed since my last visit."
Dagny released their hands and looked around, her nose wrinkling. "Is it always so dark? It's enough to give anyone seasonal affective disorder."
"Your father was never the type to set out a welcome mat," said the Rani, hefting a duffel bag over her shoulder. They had left most of her equipment behind, except for what she could fit into the bag. She took out her smartphone, which she had upgraded with her own custom sensors and controls. She peered at the screen. "Hang on... this is odd..."
"We're in hell: 'odd' comes with the territory," said Bo. "Along with the eternal darkness."
"Or not so eternal." Dagny stared over Bo's shoulder. "What the heck is that!"
Bo turned. A jagged sliver of white light ran vertically through the air, from a point just above her head to nearly the ground. It widened slowly, growing brighter until it hurt to look at. She shaded her eyes with a hand. "Ok. That is weird. Uh... Rani?"
The Rani swiped frantically at her smartphone, her worried gaze alternating between the screen and the line of light. "Shit. I thought I closed it... I did close it. Something latched onto us. It's prying the dimensional rift open again."
"IN-I-TI-ATE E-MER-GEN-CY PLA-NAR SHIFT!" The harsh, metallic voice came through the light in a distorted buzz.
The Rani pocketed her phone. "We can't stay here! Come on." She hooked a hand around Bo's arm, then grabbed Dagny's wrist. Bo allowed herself to be dragged into the labyrinth but Dagny dug in her heels.
"Not in there! There's something in there. I hear voices," said Dagny.
Bo didn't hear anything. She guessed that once you broke through the enchantment, it couldn't affect you anymore.
"We don't have time for this! That's the psychic repellents in the walls. Ignore it." The Rani pressed forward.
"She's right," said Bo. She gave Dagny a shove, then glanced back over her shoulder. The line of light had widened into a rough-edged rectangle. A distinctive silhouette appeared against the light: wide at the bottom, tapering upwards into a domed top, with stick-like protuberances and a single roving eyestalk. She recognized the shape from the Rani's nightmares. She hurried out of sight behind a wall with the others. "Was that..."
"A Dalek, yes," said the Rani. "If they're invading pocket universes now..." She shuddered. "Keep moving. Don't let them see us."
The three of them headed deeper into the maze. Dagny clapped her hands over her ears and her face scrunched up in misery. "I'm not listening!"
"Shhh!" Bo resisted the urge to slap some sense into her sister. She said in a fierce whisper, "Don't shout. You just have to believe in yourself."
"You wish I was never born," wailed Dagny. "You want my mother back. You wish Kenzi was here instead of me."
Bo hustled Dagny along. They were falling behind the Rani. "Look, you can get through this. You're a Valkyrie. Doubt is like your favorite pizza topping."
"That doesn't-" Dagny's objection was interrupted by a sudden chorus of unearthly howls. She dropped her hands from her ears and stared at Bo. "Dogs? Wolves?"
"Coyotes?" Some goblin creature had bitten her the last time she was in Tartarus, but Bo didn't remember any canids. At least the distraction seemed to help Dagny push aside her insecurities for the moment.
"The Doctor mentioned hellhounds," said the Rani, who had stopped to listen. A moment later, another sound cut through the howls. It was a hollow mechanical screech, repeated rapidly, after which the number of howling voices lessened noticeably. "And that's the sound of Dalek energy weapons being discharged."
"You mean like death rays?" wondered Dagny.
"Pretty much death rays, yeah," confirmed the Rani. "One direct hit, and it's curtains."
"Sounds like the dogs are losing," said Bo.
"Teeth versus death rays, you do the math," said the Rani. She set her duffel bag on the ground and knelt next to it, rummaging through the contents. "We have to stop them."
Dagny's eyes darkened and her face turned skull-like. "These are some kind of aliens? We'll see what they fear..."
"Daleks don't doubt," said the Rani, not bothering to look up. "And they aren't interested in sex, either, before you ask. As for your knives, forget it. They wouldn't even scratch Dalekanium."
"So what do you suggest?" asked Bo. "I didn't see any heavy artillery the last time I was in Tartarus."
The Rani held up a small glass vial. "One of the viral agents I was developing right before the Daleks attacked my space station. You just need to release it close enough to their air intake vents and wait. Preferably without getting shot."
Bo took the vial. It contained a cloudy whitish liquid. "Wait how long?"
"Ah. I'm not sure," said the Rani. "It needs testing. And I didn't have time to rig up a delivery system. You'll just have to shake it vigorously before opening it. Then..." She shrugged and mimed flinging the contents into the air.
"Right." Bo took a deep breath, mentally preparing herself.
The Rani scrambled to her feet. "Wait." She produced three more vials and handed another one to Bo and two to Dagny. "I heard at least two Daleks. I hope there's no more than six, because that's all the samples I have." She slipped two more vials into her jacket pocket. "Come on. I think I can keep them from seeing us."
Three Daleks. There were three Daleks. Their ghostly forms glided through the labyrinth, unaffected by the Walls of Doubt. The Rani, Bo, and Dagny tiptoed behind them, wary at first, then more confident when the Daleks completely ignored them.
"Cool! Invisibility," said Dagny.
"Is this one of your Time Lord powers?" asked Bo.
"We're not invisible, just shifted out of phase," said the Rani, sounding irritated and tense. Her forehead was wrinkled in concentration. She had one hand clasped around Bo's wrist and the other hand around Dagny's. "And I can only do this because it's easier in this universe for me to manipulate time."
As they watched, another pack of hellhounds leaped into view, charging the Daleks. They were big and black (naturally), with the speed, tenacity, and brute power of pit bulls. It wasn't enough. The Dalek rays shot out in bursts of glaring blue light that shone through their targets, exposing skeletons for an instant before the bodies fell in charred heaps.
"Damn." Bo felt sorry for the dogs. She shook her vial, then removed the stopper. "All right. Let's do it. In three... two... one... go!"
The three of them burst into motion. Back in phase with reality, and now in close range, Bo could feel the looming menace of the Daleks. She reached up and emptied her vial as close as she dared, practically pouring it onto the metal casing. She saw the Rani and Dagny do the same. Before the Daleks could spin around and shoot, the Rani grabbed Bo and Dagny and yanked them out of phase again.
"A-LERT! A-LERT! WE ARE UN-DER AT-TACK! UN-KNOWN E-NE-MIES MUST BE LO-CA-TED AND EX-TER-MIN-ATED!" the Daleks shouted, becoming ever more hysterical as they searched for targets. "IN-CREASE SCANS TO LE-VEL FIVE."
"Move!" hissed the Rani. The three of them scrambled back behind the cover of the walls. "I don't know what kind of technology these Daleks have. I've never seen this variant before."
To Bo's relief, even when the Daleks started firing methodically at all the walls, the Rani was able to keep them out of harm's way. The Daleks made it almost to the edge of the labyrinth, slowing as they went, until finally they stopped altogether. Trickles of greenish liquid oozed out from their casings. The Rani made them wait for a full ten minutes before venturing back into normal reality. The Daleks were suddenly fully solid again. They didn't react even when the Rani's smartphone flashed as she took pictures for analysis.
"Hmm. It worked. Twenty-nine minutes to complete loss of function," said the Rani.
Dagny poked a cautious finger at the Dalek. "That was easy."
"Don't touch it!" The Rani slapped Dagny's hand away. Then she took a breath, pushing the hair out of her face. "Yes, well, this was just three of them. There's trillions of them out there. They'd let a million die in order to develop a defense, and then a counter-attack."
"The arms race from hell, huh?" said Bo.
"More or less. Speaking of hell, we seem to have found our way out of the maze." The Rani pointed at a gap in the walls. "I see lights ahead."
"Lights?" Bo moved forward to take a look. Glaringly bright spotlights illuminated a giant hole in the ground. Then as her eyes adjusted, Bo saw the piles of dirt and the crane. Trucks were parked all along around the hole. It was a construction zone. "That's definitely new."
"What are they building?" asked Dagny.
"We won't know until we ask." The Rani hefted her duffel bag onto her shoulder and started walking towards the lights. Ten minutes later, the three of them stared at the billboard.
"'Future site of the Tartarus Grand Central Station and Town Square,'" Bo read incredulously, pitching her voice to be heard over the rumble of machinery. She squinted at the illustration. "Luxury townhomes? High end shopping mall? You gotta be kidding."
"Someone's putting a lot of effort into this makeover," said the Rani blankly. The construction crew, busy at their work, ignored their visitors. "The gentrification of the underworld doesn't sound like something Hades would bother with."
A flash of white blurred past them in a flutter of wings, morphing a moment later into a pale brunette in a white dress centuries out of fashion. "No. It was my idea."
"Hi 'Seph. Long time no see," said Bo. It was her stepmother Persephone, who looked younger than her but was in fact thousands of years older.
"I'm going to kill those augurs." Persephone scowled at the three of them. "No. I'm not having it."
"What?" Bo glanced at the Rani and Dagny, but they looked as confused as she felt. "What do you mean?"
"I am the wife of Hades," said Persephone. "Just because you're his favorite daughter, don't think you can waltz in with your alien friends and take over Tartarus!"
"I don't even want-" Bo began.
"See? I knew it. 'Favorite' daughter, huh? What am I, chopped liver?" interrupted Dagny, resentment bubbling over again.
"Oh, give it a rest," muttered the Rani. She looked at Persephone. "We have no intention of taking over Tartarus."
"Then why did your robots shoot my dogs?" demanded Persephone.
Oh, thought Bo, who then did her best to explain, with the Rani and Dagny chiming in to elaborate. Eventually, they managed to convince Persephone that they were only there to borrow the use of Hades's specialized equipment.
"I couldn't make heads or tails of it, so I had it all put in storage," said Persephone. "Cleared everything out so that I could start new Tartarus off with a clean slate."
"That was quick," said Bo, looking around at the construction site, "considering he hasn't been gone that long. How do you know he won't be back?"
"The auguries say that I will reign over Tartarus for the next age of the world," said Persephone. "That was why when you showed up, I thought-"
"Yeah, no, the whole Dark Queen thing, I'm so over it now," said Bo hastily, giving her stepmother a conciliatory smile. "So... storage, you said. Mind if we take a look?"
"If you insist," said Persephone. "It's this way." She set off on the path that led around the construction site.
Dagny trotted forward, overtaking Bo to catch up to Persephone. "So where did you get all these workers from?"
"They are shades," said Persephone. "There are architects, builders, construction workers, and all manner of other skilled folk among the dead."
"Cool," said Dagny. "Fae or human?"
"Both," said Persephone. "In this place, I have dominion over them all. Did you think my powers ended at taking the shape of a dove?"
"Hey, no offense, I was just curious. Professional interest, you know, what with me being a Valkyrie," said Dagny. "But we only do warriors."
"Valhalla must be a violent place," said Persephone.
"Surprisingly not," said Dagny. "So what's up with your renovation?"
Bo tuned out the rest of the conversation as Persephone went on at length about her plans. She glanced over at the Rani, who looked lost in her own thoughts. She leaned over and touched her arm, saying softly, "You ok?"
The Rani nodded. "I got the results back from my initial analysis." She gestured with her smartphone. "Those Daleks. They contained Gallifreyan genetic material."
Bo's eyes widened. "You mean...?" She wasn't sure what it meant, but it probably wasn't good.
"They must be converting my people. Either prisoners or slaves or... or Gallifrey is already lost," said the Rani. "I need to talk to the Time Lords."
Persephone's 'storage' turned out to be a double row of shipping containers, and the Time Lord equipment was all packed neatly in one of them. After persuading Persephone to supply them with electricity and tools, the Rani set to work. Dagny soon became bored and wandered off when Persephone offered to show her around Tartarus. Bo stayed with the Rani, supplying moral support and coffee, having found a coffee machine in the tiny office at the end of the row.
They were at it for hours. The sunless gloom of Tartarus wore on Bo's nerves, while the Rani became increasingly worried and frustrated when she could get no response to her signals.
"It's as if Gallifrey isn't even there. But it must be! I've looked at the record of your father's correspondence, and they were happy enough to talk to him," said the Rani.
"Is there some way we can just go and take a look?" suggested Bo.
"Do you see any time capsules around here?" snapped the Rani acerbically. "No. No, I'm sorry. We're trapped here."
"But those Daleks got in somehow," said Bo.
"Damn the Daleks!" Then the Rani stopped. She stared at Bo, her eyes unfocused as she chewed on her lip. "The Daleks..."
They ended up borrowing a few shades to transport the Dalek carcasses to the storage area, where the Rani quickly dismantled them. She combined her salvaged components with parts from Hades's equipment to build something she called a 'dimensional cannon.' "It can propel us between universes. Tricky to steer, but I've set up a biodata link between you and your father."
"Ok, sounds good," said Bo. In her experience, people traveled between planes through mirrors, magic shoes, and near-drownings in bathtubs. So even if it sounded like a carnival ride, she trusted the Rani to make a cannon that could shoot them to another dimension. "When do we leave?"
"In half an hour, after it's done charging up," said the Rani. "Do you want to say good bye to Dagny?"
Bo shook her head. "I'll leave a note. If I tell her in person, she'll insist on tagging along. If we're really going to my father, it's too dangerous for my sister."
It didn't look like a cannon. It was more of backpack filled with alien technology and hooked up to Bo via a headband fitted with telepathic sensors (according to the Rani). It was heavy enough that she hoped the journey would be quick. The Rani, who had her own bag slung over her shoulder, took Bo by the hand and reached over with her other hand to flip two switches in rapid succession. The darkness of Tartarus gave way to the empty lightlessness of the void.
Bo shot through the void, helpless to control her direction or speed. It really was like being fired from a cannon, she thought, trusting the Rani to have aimed them correctly.
Then everything went white.
They were somewhere again rather than nowhere. Bo's ears popped with the change in pressure. The air smelled dry and sterile. As her eyes adjusted to the light, she realized that she was inside some kind of giant white honeycomb. A continuous low hum filled the lower edge of her hearing. Thrown forward by the dimensional shift, Bo found herself falling onto a waist-high console that formed the central feature of the honeycomb chamber. The Rani in turn collided with Bo, the duffel bag swinging around and sliding off to the ground. On the other side of the console, an older woman stood frozen, seemingly staring at them.
Just as Bo began to speak, a high-pitched whine pierced the air. Time turned to molasses. She and the Rani were caught mid- collision, Bo angled awkwardly in the air over the console, both of them now as motionless as the original occupant of the room. Bo fought down her panic, finding that with effort, she could still move slightly, albeit with excruciating sluggishness. Her fingers tightened around the Rani's hand.
This is the control room of a war TARDIS, came the Rani's thought directly into Bo's mind. Don't let go. As long as you're touching me, the stasis is weakened.
Huh? Bo slowly turned her head to look at the Rani. She tried to speak aloud, but no sound came out. What stasis?
Temporal grace is enhanced in a war TARDIS, explained the Rani. The interior dimensions are not in normal spacetime, but held outside, buffered against time distortion. In a sense, no time elapses while we are here. The TARDIS makes small exceptions to allow its crew to function. That exception can be revoked to create a perfect prison for anyone who violates the integrity of the ship. Meaning us.
Things must be bad if the Rani had gone into lecture mode, thought Bo. With no walls, doors, or locks, there was nothing to break out of. 'Perfect' prison indeed. But what did she mean about weakening the stasis?
It's because you aren't from this universe. You carry a tiny bubble of your native time. That's what's allowing you to move and think.
Ok, that was a start, thought Bo. Now she just needed the Rani to teach her how to operate this thing.
Isomorphic controls, came the Rani's glum thought. Basically a biometric lock.
Can we get around it? Bo turned her head slowly back to look at the array of unfamiliar controls.
I'm thinking. No, wait, I know. Move to the right around the console. See if you can touch that plate there.
Bo followed the Rani's instructions, managing to press three fingers onto the edge of the indicated plate after easing herself around the console as far as she could without losing touch with the Rani. Now what?
You're very, ahem, persuasive. Use your succubus powers to seduce the ship into cooperating with us.
What? Bo gaped at the Rani. Seduce the ship? She had always thought that thing with men and their cars was just one-sided anthropomorphism.
Time Lord tech tends to be more sentient than human tech.
How could a spaceship even have sex? wondered Bo. Were TARDISes actually some kind of weird space animals?
It's complicated. Equations are involved. Complicated equations.
Forget I asked, thought Bo. Luckily her powers didn't require too much in the way of conscious thought. Even so, she had never formed this kind of rapport with a machine before. Not quite a machine. She closed her eyes, imagining the ship in human form. The impression of a woman appeared in her mind's eye. Bo imagined herself touching her, caressing human skin. To her surprise, it actually worked. The atmosphere in the ship took on a distinctly warmer tone. The Rani must have sent some kind of mental command through Bo, as a moment later, both of them were released from their stasis.
Bo straightened, stretching out her cramped limbs. Then she remembered the other prisoner. She nodded her chin at the woman, "What about her? Should we get the ship to release her, too?"
"Ah. Not quite yet," said the Rani. She followed Bo's gaze to frown at the frozen figure. "That's your father. Um. Mother now? English is not good with these nuances."
"Shit! Are you sure?" Bo leaped back in alarm. The woman (Hades?) did not react in any way. "Why is she stuck in the stasis thing? What's with the ring on her head?"
"Maybe the Doctor trapped her here," said the Rani. "They've been playing these stupid games since they were children. They've never grown up - they just play for bigger stakes now."
Bo gave Hades a sidelong glance, hoping she couldn't hear them. Bo wouldn't put it past her to be faking the stasis.
"Damn." The Rani thumped the console in irritation. "The ship won't let me into its systems. I can't even get the scanner to work to see where we are."
"We are on Skaro," said a female voice, the sound emanating from a point above the central column of the console. It continued, rattling off a string of numbers that meant nothing to Bo.
"Skaro!" The Rani sounded both startled and frightened at the name. "Why are you here? This is too far back in the timeline. What's happened in the war? Did the Time Lords send the Master here? Why have you imprisoned her?"
"The war is over," said the voice. "Gallifrey endures, hidden at the far end of time. The Daleks live on, but the war is locked. We are here to reweave a thread that was lost. As for the one you call the Master, Grandfather asked me to hold her until his return."
"Over!" The Rani glanced at Bo, a look of relief spreading over her face. She murmured, "Sounds like a stalemate." Then worry creased her forehead again. "But we met Daleks containing Gallifreyan genetic material..."
"There were such in another timeline," acknowledged the voice, "but they were destroyed, except for a few that Grandfather cast into the void. Those may have escaped to the current layer of reality."
"'Grandfather'? Hang on, I thought you were the ship," said Bo. "How can you have a grandfather?"
"In my memory, he is 'Grandfather'," said the voice of the ship. "Others name him 'Doctor'."
"Ah," said the Rani. "But he's always been attached to his wreck of a Type 40. Did she finally give up the ghost?"
"Data unavailable," said the ship.
"Never mind. Bo, it's probably best if we just stay out of their way. Your father and the Doctor pretty much cancel each other out, but heaven help anyone caught in between," said the Rani, speaking in tones of weary experience. She flipped one of the switches on the console. Nothing happened. "Oh come on. Just let us out. If the war's time-locked, we should be safe enough on Skaro in this era."
"I will not permit your interference to endanger the mission. You will wait inside until Grandfather returns," said the ship.
"Please? Pretty please with sugar on top?" tried Bo. "We don't even know what your mission is. How could we endanger it?"
The ship repeated her refusal. Bo glanced at the Rani, hoping she had a better idea.
The Rani didn't answer aloud. She guided Bo back to the console, taking her hand and placing it squarely on top of the same plate as before. A whisper of thought came into her mind. The same as before, only more so. If you drain enough energy out, I'll be able to force the door open.
Bo raised her eyebrows at the Rani, then shrugged and gave it her best shot. She had never fed off a spaceship before. It tasted nothing like a fae or a human, and she felt that most of the energy leaked out of her hold, but she pressed on, past the point where a mortal would have died. She hoped the ship was less fragile. The lights flickered and dimmed.
The Rani knelt by the doors, her duffel bag open at her side. She removed one of the circular panels from the wall and began fiddling with the exposed circuits.
Bo began to feel dizzy from the strange energy, not quite chi, flowing through her. Just when she thought she would pass out, the lights dimmed even further. The constant background thrum ceased. She thought she heard someone say, "No! That's not-" The voice cut off abruptly, but Bo already knew it wasn't the Rani or the ship speaking. She looked up to see the previously- paralyzed woman step free.
The stunned expression on her face had turned into a confident smile. She shook her head lightly, lifting a hand to catch the metal ring as it slid off. She saw Bo looking at her and said, "Bo, sweetheart, what a delightful surprise. Do I have you to thank for freeing me?"
Bo was still too dazed to manage more than a feeble snarl in response. In the back of her mind, she wondered why Hades now had a Scottish accent.
Her father (mother) chuckled at Bo's reaction. Her eyes flicked over the assemblage on her daughter's back. "A dimensional cannon? Surely you didn't rig that up by yourself?" She glanced around the room. "Rani. A fortuitous intrusion."
The Rani looked up, a resigned grimace on her face. "Master."
"I'm going by 'Missy' now." She strode over and leaned down to peer at the opened roundel. "Here, let me do it, or we'll never get out of here before the ship recovers its wits."
Bo moved forward, but the Rani shook her head at her. Right. At least her father - mother - Missy - whatever - wasn't trying to kill them. Yet. In fact, she was working with an urgency that belied her tone of amused indifference.
"It's a war TARDIS," said the Rani defensively. "They have extra security - is the war really over?"
Without looking up, Missy waved her left hand ambiguously. "Close enough. Is that what brought you out here? Were you worried?"
"The Daleks," said the Rani. "I wanted to assess their current status."
"They're a swarm of tin cockroaches, scurrying everywhere they're not wanted." There was a whir, then a click. "Aha. Bo, dear, don't just stand there. Go pull the doors open."
Bo glanced for confirmation from the Rani, then moved to the supposed doors. They lacked proper handles, forcing Bo to pry them open with her fingertips around the edges. The Rani stood up to help. The doors were heavier than they looked, but as Bo was still pumped up from absorbing the ship's energy, she had plenty of strength to spare. A moment later, all three of them were scrambling out the opened doors. Bo and the Rani, slowed by their baggage and uncertain of what they would find outside, lagged behind Missy.
Bo blinked as she stumbled into a sunlit alley. She glanced back over her shoulder, but the doorway had vanished into thin air. On the other hand, the brick wall now in front of her looked so ordinary that she wondered if she had just walked out of a dream.
"So, we'll just leave you to it and be on our way," the Rani was saying to Missy.
"I don't think so," said Missy. Bo saw her point her phone (or was it a small tablet?) at the Rani like a weapon. "I have other business here, and the last thing I need is you two nicking the TARDIS while I'm distracted."
"I wouldn't dream of it," the Rani assured her.
"Whatever," said Missy, clearly not believing a word. "Anyway, I may need you. Walk." She gestured with her device.
The Rani sighed, rolling her eyes. "Come on, Bo."
Bo nodded, knowing the drill. They would wait for a better chance to make their escape. "What do you need us for?"
Missy didn't answer.
"Let me guess," said the Rani. "Cannon fodder? Bait? Or what have you been doing this far back in Skaro's history?"
"Just walk," snapped Missy, obviously on edge. "There should be a back door around here somewhere..."
They followed the wall around the corner to the rear of the building, where Missy found a loading dock. It was guarded by two soldiers in strange uniforms, but even as Bo wondered if the uniforms were real (were they truly on an alien planet or was it a trick?), Missy had reduced the soldiers to ashes with two quick shots from her device.
At that point, Bo decided to make a run for it while Missy was occupied with the locked door, but the Rani held her back. "Something's wrong here. We need to find out what - ignorance could get us killed. The temporal currents are distorted. It's like a bad taste in the back of my mouth."
Bo opened her mouth for a rebuttal, but it was too late. Missy had already wedged the door open and was waving them inside, the weapon still in her hand.
"You can blame the Doctor for the time distortion," said Missy as they stepped through the doorway. "The Doctor, or Zagreus, whichever one he thinks he is at the moment. Possibly both, in which case he'll be too busy arguing with himself to actually do anything. But if he's Zagreus, we're all in trouble."
"Zagreus?" The Rani's tone was skeptical. "He said that before, but most of what he says is just random bullshit. Zagreus is a nursery rhyme! Don't tell me the Doctor bamboozled you into believing he's the boogey-man?"
Missy laughed shortly. "Zagreus is real enough now. And if we hurry, we may be in time to prevent him destroying the universe."
"Wait, what?" Bo was depressed to find that she believed Missy. After having seen her uncle (aunt) Zeus nearly bring about the end of the world and been instrumental in Hades's global takeover bid, she was no longer surprised by apocalyptic threats.
"What kind of doomsday weapon did you get your hands on this time? You guys seriously need a new hobby," said the Rani. But Bo could sense the uncertainty beneath her flippant words.
"He is the weapon this time." Missy glanced at her device. "Upstairs conference room!" No longer bothering with Bo or the Rani, she charged upwards, taking the stairs two at a time. Bo followed close on her heels, catching the conference room door before it slammed shut in her face. She held it open, and only after the Rani and her overloaded duffel bag had squeezed through the doorway did Bo follow her inside.
A few dozen unmoving figures were slumped in their chairs around a large U-shaped table. The Rani was already scanning the nearest with her phone, frowning worriedly. On the far side of the room, Bo saw the Doctor, his back turned towards them, holding a woman Bo found vaguely familiar but couldn't put a name to.
"You idiot, what are you doing, don't you dare-" Missy slid to a halt in the center of the room. From somewhere, she had conjured up the music box that she had once given to Bo. Now Missy set it down on the table and began turning the crank.
The Doctor spun around with a strangled gasp, staring in shock at Missy. He had a long-bladed knife or dagger clutched in his right hand. Behind him, the woman cried out once, her voice strangely distorted but otherwise identical to the ship's voice. "Grandfather!"
Then she dissolved into smoke and was gone.