Liantor waited until his father had gone far away, before he so much as touched Seo. And when he did, it was not using an implement of torture, as Seo had expected.
He placed his hand on her cheek.
"What does your Time Lord lover say, I wonder, as he undresses you?" Liantor mused. "What does he say, as he thrusts…?"
"It's none of your business," Seo cut in, before he could go on. She gritted her teeth. "If you want to torture me, just get out the thumb screws, already. I've had more than enough of your obsession with my sex life."
Liantor traced his finger down the side of her cheek. "Oh, but what could Narvin say or do," he continued, "that I couldn't say or do, better?"
Okay.
Seo was really not liking this, now.
"Get your hands off me, Liantor," Seo warned.
"It's strange — I've known you since I was a little boy," Liantor continued. "Yet, until I learned the secrets inside the Gem of Braxiatel, I never thought of you as anything but my parents' once-friend and now-enemy. You were a pawn. A tool." His smile broadened. "Then… I learned what you could do. What you had done."
Seo said nothing.
"There is so much beauty in conquest and destruction," Liantor continued. His eyes glowed, with the memory of what he'd seen inside the Gem of Braxiatel. "How much more beautiful does that make you — who has turned whole planets to dust?"
"How do you know about that?" Seo whispered. Her eyes flitted across the prison, checking to make sure no one had heard.
Liantor grinned at her. "My father wants to know where he can find the vampire who killed the Olitzitz. You almost confessed it, once — but I couldn't believe the truth. I needed just a little bit more, to be sure. The Gem of Braxiatel gave me more than enough to verify who and what you really are."
The breath caught in Seo's throat.
"I want an empire," said Liantor. "I want loyal armies who will do anything I say. I want doting subjects who will fall at my feet, eager to fulfill my every command. With your help… that wish can become a reality."
Seo didn't even hesitate. "No."
"You haven't heard…" Liantor began.
"I won't destroy or conquer planets for you," Seo interrupted. "Not now. Not ever. I'm not your soldier."
"I never asked you to be a soldier," Liantor said. He drew his hand along her curves. "You're a beautiful woman, Seo. The people of Rodia adore you. The people of Atrios adore you. Whole planets would follow you to Hell itself, if you led them. You already have an enormous collection of planets you've saved from the brink of death and rebuilt. With you, as my wife… I will use those planets to forge myself an unbeatable army, and create an empire that stretches through the stars."
To make his point, he grabbed her by the chin and tried to kiss her.
Seo forced her head to the side, to avoid the kiss.
"I changed your diapers, back when you were a baby!" Seo argued. "This is… just… wrong! On so many levels!"
"After being with me, for a night, you'll forget all about Narvin," Liantor promised. "I am a thousand times the man that he is."
And the whole Narvin-thing was just getting stupid.
Especially since the Time Lords were one of the least sexual intelligent-species that Seo had ever encountered. Liantor's fantasies about Seo and Narvin weren't just creepy — they were also wildly inaccurate.
"I love Narvin in a way you'd never understand," Seo said. "And he loves me. Trust me, Liantor — you can't hope to replace him." She glared at him. "Besides. You're not really in love with me. You only love power."
"But don't you see? That's why I have to marry you!" Liantor said. "Right now, I'm stuck making deals with aliens or using strange and unusual gemstones, in order to gain the power, respect, and devotion I need for my ambitions. With you… I don't have to. One word from you, and I will have complete loyalty. The people of Rodia would do anything for you."
He tried to kiss her, again.
But Seo still resisted.
Liantor scowled and stepped away from her — trying another tactic.
"If you don't marry me," Liantor threatened, "I'll kill Narvin."
"Oh, yeah?" Seo grinned. "He's on Gallifrey, right now. Wanna hop over there and try to bypass their transduction barriers and planetary shields?"
Liantor frowned.
He obviously knew he didn't stand a chance at kidnapping Narvin off Gallifrey.
So, instead, he moved on to plan B. He gestured at the door. "You showed some passing concern for your current Time Lord companion. I could destroy him."
"You'll have to catch him, first," Seo replied. She met his eyes, evenly. "And you won't."
Liantor scowled, again.
"I'm not going to give you what you want, Liantor," Seo said. "And if you take me, by force, word will get out — and this whole planet will hate you."
Liantor knew it.
He stepped away from her.
"I'm still under my father's orders to torture you, though," Liantor said. "And until you agree to marry me, I don't have the power to overrule him." He picked up a torture implement, off a rack by the door. "So if you want this to stop… just whisper: 'I do'. And I can end it."
Seo bit her tongue.
She'd never, ever say it.
"Let's begin," said Liantor.
The Doctor's TARDIS materialized on the planet Rodia.
"Fifty seventh time's the charm, then!" the Doctor said, as he finally saw that the coordinates matched the ones he was aiming for.
The Olitzitz War really had mucked up local space-time, hadn't it? The TARDIS didn't like it, one little bit. It had been all he could do, to get her to land here!
The Doctor shrugged on his jacket, and stepped out the door. He'd already made a replacement psychic amplifier, for the Gem of Braxiatel, and he was prepared to use it.
The Doctor found himself outside a hospital.
He stepped forwards, to examine what was going on. The hospital was overflowing. There were sick people lined up, outside, begging to get in. Meanwhile, out a side door, orderlies kept bringing bodies to dump into a mass grave.
"An epidemic," the Doctor said, tucking away the Gem of Braxiatel. He couldn't use the gem to stop a disease.
The Doctor stepped forwards, to ask what this was all about… but before he could, he found himself grabbed from behind and dragged out of the street and behind a pile of crates.
"What do you think you're doing?!" a voice hissed, in his ear. "Are all Time Lords this stupid, or just you?"
The Doctor wanted to point out that, actually, he was rather brilliant.
But the person holding him clapped a hand over his mouth and whispered, "Sh!" into his ear.
Beyond the crates, the Doctor could see a military patrol marching down the street, well armed and on the lookout for trouble. The moment they spotted his TARDIS, they surrounded it, and called up their Supreme General.
"Yes, a big blue box," one of the patrol confirmed. He squinted up at the top. "Police public call box, it says. Never been here, before." He paused, listening to the response. "Yes, sir. Right away, sir."
He turned to his fellows.
"You three, secure the box," he commanded. "Everyone else, spread out, find the Time Lord. He can't have gone far."
"We should move," whispered the voice in the Doctor's ear.
The hands let him go, and the Doctor turned, to discover a female Rodian with coarse skin, blistered hands, and sunken eyes. She looked like she'd been running for a very long time, and hadn't had enough to eat in days.
"You know who I am?" the Doctor asked.
"I know you've got pink skin, five fingers on each hand, and you appeared out of nowhere in a trumpeting roar," said the Rodian woman. "I could guess the rest." She wiped away some of the filth, on the street — to reveal a manhole cover. "Elsiwith."
"El… what?"
"My name," Elsiwith said. She gave a hacking cough that shook her to the core, then managed to drag the cover off the manhole, and gestured at the Doctor to follow her. "Down here. I'll take you to the freedom fighter base. You'll be safe, there."
The Doctor followed her, replacing the manhole cover as he descended.
"So… this Ergun fellow," the Doctor said, "doesn't like Time Lords, much?"
Elsiwith shrugged. "It's not all Time Lords he hates, just the one who usually visits, here," she said. "Man named Narvin. You know him?"
"Unfortunately," the Doctor sighed.
Elsiwith seemed to agree with this sentiment. "I hear you. Stuck up. Arrogant. Rude. Always talks down to people. Definitely not the easiest guy to get along with."
Elsiwith reached the bottom, and climbed off the ladder. The Doctor leapt down, and followed her, as she crept along the side of the sewer.
"Still, the Great Rebuilder is very fond of him," said Elsiwith, "and I'd never displease her by being rude to Narvin."
The Doctor frowned, thinking of the polluted and diseased world, overhead. It was a stark contrast from the beautiful verdant landscape of Atrios.
"She rebuilt this world, too?" the Doctor asked. "Must have been a rushed job."
Elsiwith turned on the Doctor, with such hurt in her eyes that the Doctor actually felt a little guilty.
"The Olitzitz War left half our world dead — and the other half dying," said Elsiwith. "The Enemy didn't just suck the life out of our people. They sucked the life out of our soil, as well, so that nothing could grow. And they left behind monsters, who continued to ravage our world. After the war, we were preyed upon, starving, and abandoned. We had no hope. No future. Even the gods had died."
"Gods?" the Doctor asked.
"The Olitzitz," Elsiwith said, as if this were obvious.
"They called themselves gods?" The Doctor whistled. "And I thought my lot was bad."
"Ergun and a few other war heroes returned, to help us battle the monsters who remained," said Elsiwith, "but not even they could restore life back into the soil. We were as good as dead."
Ah.
Elsiwith's eyes shone. "But then, one day… on a world of dead gods and dead hope… an angel appeared."
The Doctor could see just how much hope that appearance had given people like Elsiwith. In a world where they'd all thought that Heaven, itself, had fallen, and no one was coming to rescue them…
One person who cared could mean everything.
"The Great Rebuilder created life, where there had been only death," said Elsiwith. "She restored the soil, destroyed the monsters, and planted forests and forests and forests! Flowers and trees and ferns, food and fruit and…"
"The Lady of Trees," the Doctor muttered, remembering one of the names that Astra had used to describe her.
"A Lady of Life!" said Elsiwith. "She grew us food, when we were hungry. She built us homes, when we had no shelter. She taught our children, when we had no teachers. And always — always — she showed us love, kindness, and compassion. It was as if… she'd seen how much life and love and future the Enemy had stolen from this world… and gave that all back to us, a thousand times over."
The Doctor quite liked that.
It was beautifully poetic, and very just.
"Strange thing was… she never wanted any written record of what she'd done, in our history books, our art, or our religion," said Elsiwith. She reflected on it… still somewhat puzzled. "If we tried, she'd get rid of it. She even tore down a whole religion, once, because they dared to venerate her as a saint."
That was high-handed of her.
Although, the Doctor suspected, it probably was mostly so she could cover up where she'd invested all the money she stole. The Doctor had a feeling that if the Daleks or Sil or Garundel or any of the other people she'd stolen from figured out about Seo's hobby of rebuilding planets — they'd tear those planets apart, in revenge.
"This planet was so beautiful, twenty years ago," said Elsiwith. "So peaceful. She'd made it a paradise…"
"What went wrong?" the Doctor asked.
Elsiwith's happiness fell. "Ergun," she said. Gestured for the Doctor to follow her, and continued down the sewer. "The Great Rebuilder was once his friend, you know. She helped him. Went out of her way, to be kind to him. And he hated her for it. He accused her of trying to bribe him, of controlling his government, of wanting nothing but power."
"And he built up the Rodian military," the Doctor guessed.
"Every cent she gave us to build schools or improve our healthcare or rebuild our infrastructure," Elsiwith confirmed, "he diverted into the military. Every man or woman of age has to go into the military. But lately… the age restrictions have loosened, and the recruitment has gone up."
Elsiwith doubled over, coughing.
"And now, an epidemic's broken out," the Doctor observed. "People are dying, all over, and Ergun isn't bothering to find a cure. Just pouring all his money into the military!"
Elsiwith nodded, trying to get her coughing under control.
"The Great Rebuilder gave him 3 billion dollars," said Elsiwith, through coughs, "to fight the Mahrizka virus and develop a cure. He used it to develop dark matter bombs, instead."
The Doctor could just imagine Seo's reaction to that.
"Well, I won't have it!" the Doctor said. "When this planet was dying, you may have needed a Great Rebuilder. But now… your planet is sick." He grinned. "So, it seems to me… you need a Doctor."