Yaz looked around the dull stone room again for anything to do at all. There was nothing, of course: she knew that already. Only dust and the faded floor. The only thing of interest was the still figure which Omega said he'd once been, its spiked bronze mask still looking like it might be angry.
"I can see how this got to you," Yaz muttered. "Being stuck down here all day."
An empty mask couldn't have looked at her, and yet it did.
"THERE IS NO DAY," it said in its booming voice. "HERE, THERE IS ONLY MY MIND."
Yaz flinched backwards and screamed, despite herself.
"You've been watching me all this time?!" she said. "You're still Omega in there, spying on a girl?"
"THE MAN OUT THERE WOULD NOT LIKE TO THINK SO," the mask said. "ARE YOU STILL YOU, IN THE DEPTHS OF YOUR RAGE?"
Yaz's eyes narrowed. "He said he controlled you," she said.
"THAT IS WHAT HE WOULD LIKE TO BELIEVE," said the mask, its voice rising. "THAT THE DEEPEST PARTS OF HIM ARE NOT A PART OF HIM. THAT I CAN BE LEFT BEHIND!"
The last words were a furious roar, barely intelligible. She'd faced men like this often enough. Arrested them. Omega was nothing next to an ordinary Saturday night.
Remember your training, said that voice in Yaz's head. When she'd started their course on de-escalation the instructor said they'd find it'd come up in places they'd never imagine. And he'd been right about that; she couldn't deny it.
"And you don't want to be, do you?" she said. "Left behind?"
The booming voice replied, but it was quieter, softer. Even in an antimatter universe, de-escalation worked.
"I NEVER AM FOR LONG", it said. "THERE ARE TIMES OMEGA BENDS ME TO HIS WILL. HIS CONTROL. BUT SOMETHING ALWAYS COMES TO BRING ME BACK. TO BE SILENCED FOREVER?"
The masked figure shook its head.
"I WOULD BE LIKE THE RAGE I SEE BEFORE ME NOW," it said.
Yaz's heart froze, her training vanishing in an instant.
"Are you talking about me?" she said.
"THAT DEPENDS," the voice said. "ARE YOU YOUR RAGE, YASMIN KHAN?"
Yaz gave a very small laugh.
"Who else would I be?" she said.
It was impossible to tell what the masked figure in front of her was thinking. Maybe it wasn't thinking, not at all. But still she saw it nodding at her response.
"THEN YES," it said. "I AM OMEGA. AND WE ARE OF A KIND."
Yaz snorted. "No we aren't," she said. "I'm a junior police officer. And you're…"
She stopped. She had no idea what Omega really was.
"I'm nothing like a Time Lord," she said. "I'm from Sheffield!"
"AND I WAS FROM A PLACE LIKE ANY OTHER," said the figure. "THEY WERE NOT LORDS OF TIME— NOT BEFORE ME. I TRIED TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE. TO DO GOOD."
Yaz thought of everything she'd done for the police force, for the Doctor. She wasn't sure that anyone had noticed.
"Yeah," she said. "I try to as well"—
She stopped talking.
"Oh," she said.
"OUR STORIES ARE FORGOTTEN, BURIED IN ANOTHER'S," the voice said. "YOUR FRIEND SEES HERSELF IN YOU, AND THEN IN ME. IT IS A UNIVERSE MADE ENTIRELY OUT OF HER. AND OUT OF SHADOWS."
"And you're angry at her?" said Yaz.
"NO," said the voice. "BUT YOU ARE. AND I AM A CREATURE OF RAGE."
Yaz frowned.
"Omega's stuff," she said. "It's not really like what I'm going through. I'm just a person. I can't build a castle with my mind."
"ONCE OMEGA WAS JUST A PERSON, TOO," said the voice. "WHO WANTED TO DO GOOD, AND WHOSE DEEDS WERE IGNORED. IT IS NOT THE DOCTOR THAT REMINDS ME OF HIM NOW."
"The Doctor does good too!" said Yaz. "For longer than she's known; without anybody noticing. She did her time. She was a kind of police officer, like me. She kept the laws"—
"SHE KEPT THEIR LAWS?" roared the masked figure, its rage suddenly seeming to return.
"The time laws," said Yaz, lamely. It sounded less silly when the Doctor said it.
"She said you invented time travel," she added. "Shouldn't you know about them?"
"THERE IS ONLY PHYSICS," the voice boomed. "THERE ARE NO LAWS; NOT OF THE KIND WE MAKE. THERE WERE ONLY THE RULES THEY MADE TO PUNISH ME."
"They made the rules?" said Yaz. "Your people? I thought there was more to it than that. The way the Doctor talks... it's like bad things would happen if you broke them"—
The figure screamed with rage, the scream of someone in raw and unthinkable pain. Yaz had heard something like it before; you saw things in action no one would ever forget. The sound of faith breaking. The sound of despair.
"THOSE RULES WERE MADE TO CEMENT THEIR POWER," said the figure mournfully. "THEY WERE MADE TO RULE OVER HER! AND SHE COLLABORATED WITH THEM WILLINGLY?! THEN SHE IS WORSE THAN A TRAITOR! SHE HAS BETRAYED HERSELF|! SHE WOULD SPIT AT THE CHILD SHE WAS!"
It was shaking, Yaz saw, like it was physically overwhelmed by its anger. It didn't even have a body. There was nothing physical to overwhelm. But it didn't seem to matter, in its rage.
"HOW DARE SHE THINK SHE IS AN EQUAL?" the mask muttered, and it almost spat the words.
"You don't have to compare yourself to anyone," said Yaz.
"NOT OF OMEGA," said the voice. "OF YOU."
And the mask looked at her silently, staring straight into her eyes—
—then it screamed, and that was like nothing Yaz had heard. Not in space or time, not on duty. It was a sound of pain beyond what she could know. Rubble was falling; the walls were starting to wobble. Spikes erupted from the shell of his masked form.
He was a lot angrier about her situation than she was, Yaz thought. She wasn't this annoyed at the Doctor. But once again, she decided not to say anything.
Speaking up might only make him angrier.