Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who.
A Mother's Pain
(Missing Scenes - S5 E6)
Lady Storyteller has a girl talk with the big fish.
-o0O0o-
She stopped and blinked. Someone sat on the control unit… again.
"It seems that people have developed a habit of not only breaking into my house, but also sitting on my chair."
The woman smiled and traced the ornaments with her glove-clad fingers. "I humbly apologize. Such a masterpiece of art and comfort is just too tempting not to try. Perfectly placed in the room, drawing all the attention to it, and not only because it is the only thing in here. You have excellent taste, Signora."
"And you're not wondering about being the only one breaking into my house."
She rolled her eyes and sighed, rose from the unit and began to wander around the hall. "What is it about all that straight-to-the-point demeanor these days? Nobody ever holds a simple conversation anymore."
The woman turned back to her. "On the other hand, they just do not have the time anymore. Do you not think so?"
Signora Rosanna Calvirerri, as she called herself, couldn't quite hide her surprised snort. "Just how many of you are out there?"
The Time Lord raised one eyebrow in a silent but polite question. Right. She sat down on her chair.
"How many of you survived the war?"
"Oh, three. No, let us say two. I am not sure with that one."
"So, every existing Time Lord came to threaten me?"
"What gives you the impression that I am threatening you? I want to help you."
She froze and straightened up.
The Time Lady stepped closer. "You need to leave the town. Immediately."
Rosanna laughed out loud. Of course. If you knew the opinion of one of them, you knew them all. "For one second, I believed you. You can run right back to your friend and tell him I'm neither afraid, nor will I change my mind."
"If it were not for the fact that he is neither my friend, nor does he know that I am here."
Curiosity bubbled in her mind. "Why are you here?"
"I already told you, Signora. His conscience may be able to carry the weight of another dead race, but mine cannot. He swore he will turn down this house stone by stone and he is able to do so. We know about the males in the canals, about the plan to flood the city, about the tower, this chair, this control unit. He will stop you. You need to leave Venice."
"This planet is…"
"I didn't ask you to leave this planet, just this town. We'll help you search an island to flood so you can colonize it, but you will leave this town."
"Just like that? After everything this companion of yours spouted out?" Rosanna asked disbelievingly. "Sure."
The visitor sighed. "Not a long time ago, nobody would ever doubt the word of a Time Lord."
"Well, the Time War happened and those dusty, old bureaucrats remembered their sharp teeth."
Rosanna gifted her with her true smile. Being the snobbish person that the Gallifreyan high class always consisted of, the brown-haired woman just raised an amused eyebrow.
"So, what do you really want?" Rosanna continued, hiding her disappointment in the sharp tone of her voice.
"I already declared my intent. You need to leave Venice and in return, you get another place in this ocean to colonize."
"Colonize," Rosanna repeated mockingly. "Colonize. There is no need to colonize. This town is our colony, providing us not only with homes but also with enough life forms to save our species and nurture our future children. After all that I've done for its people, we have every right to this wonderful pearl of a city. I grew very fond of it and it became very important to all of us as our new home."
"Yes, but it is also very, very important for the history of this planet, which the Doctor has a downright unhealthy attraction to." The Time Lady abruptly locked her deep, age-old eyes with hers. "Have you ever heard of the oncoming storm, the bringer of darkness?"
"The Valeyard?" Rosanna remembered all the stories about the wanderer traveling through time, leaving nothing but destruction in his wake. A time traveler… some of the higher species even mentioned a Time Lord. "This man, this child… is this cruel creature?"
"Never judge a Time Lord from his outer appearance. You could get a nasty surprise."
Rossana crooked her head as she remembered another tale about this man. "He killed your race, his own race. Burned them, they said."
"Well, I did not choose to travel with this psychopath. Hiding himself behind a mask of light, child-behaving foolishness and mood, yet can still switch into a dark, monstrous killer any second. Have you seen his face? It is sickening how desperate he is to ignore and forget his crimes, surrounding himself with his beloved humans because they are unable to predict who he is until it is too late. And I am stuck with him as the only other one of my kind."
The Time Lord nodded slowly. "Oh, believe me. I am one of the few people able to understand you completely. Your desire for a home, to keep everyone else left safe, even if you hate him for what he has done because there is no one else. No one else who will ever truly understand how you think or what is important to you because they simply cannot, because they are aliens. I know exactly how it feels, this focus to be forced to live in the here and now, always worrying what will happen in the next circle but not daring to think further. The restlessness, the worry for each other regardless of what they have done. Let me ease that pain and give you a home, let you finally rest. We will build you a town and send it to the ground of the ocean. Let me bring you brides, not many but enough to repopulate, to give you children and save your species. But you will leave Venice. Do we have an agreement?"
Her expression was dignified but her eyes sparked with compassion, resolution, and honesty. It amazed yet frightened Rosanna at the same time this much that she had to look away. This woman was here to help, to offer real help…..
No.
This Doctor… the Doctor wouldn't allow it.
"You promise things you can't keep. This Doctor will never agree to bring more brides. He is a monster."
"The latter I can agree. We will see about the former."
An disbelieving smile escaped her. "You're completely serious."
"Character trait since my youth, I am afraid. We will pick you up, let us see, at sundown. To show you your new home." She stretched out her glove-clad hand.
Who was that woman? All Time Lords were dead. Exept the Doctor who did it, of course, so how could she...
There was a famous Time Lord, one that could have survived the War -if she had ever existed. But this was impossible…. She took in the appearance of the woman, but she was so small, petite. Brown hair, not platin-blonde and her eyes were... well they were not this pale icy grey they said. She could have regenerated, but she didn't have that presence… But the necklace…. She squinted her eyes in suspicion, eyeing the golden necklace. "What's your name?"
"I'm called the Storyteller."
Oh. "The Celestial Storyteller?"
The glint of hope in her heart disappeared. The Time Lord didn't move.
Rosanna took her hand carefully. "Until sundown."
The woman nodded. "Splendid. Until then, you should go and tell your husbands."
"They're my sons. I will."
An emptiness darkened the Storyteller's bright eyes. "You are a lucky woman, sister of the water. A lucky woman." With that, she turned and left traceless just like she arrived.
Rosanna closed her eyes. The Storyteller.
The Storyteller was a myth, nothing more. A ghost of the Time War. For a second she really believed the Time Lord but not anymore, not after this obviously blunt lie. It was nothing but a trap to buy time, so obvious considering who her opponent was. So, the Doctor really did fight with such low tactics.
It seemed that the plan had changed.
-o0O0o-
"If we use the canals we can get in from…"
"That's not necessary. They'll leave the city."
The four people around the table turned.
"Tella! Where have you been?"
"Hello, Amelia. I am pleased to see you back healthy and all right. Roderick. Guido."
"What do you mean they'll leave?" The Doctor disrupted and jumped up.
"And what about the girls?" Guido added. She ignored him.
"Exactly what I said. Signora Calvirerri and I had a little… girl talk. I convinced her to leave."
"Oh, stop that. She's a big fish. She will never leave unless you promised her something."
She sighed and sat down. "She will leave if we build her a town and flood it. Sacrifice a little island, nothing important."
"We will build them a city and flood it," repeated Rory.
"Yes," nodded Tella.
"A city. A whole city."
"Yes, Roderick!"
"You're able to do that."
She locked her eyes with the Doctor's. "More importantly, will you do that?"
Instead of answering he asked suspiciously, "What about the girls? They want this town because of the amount of people and not because of the architecture. Nice architecture, but still."
"I promised her… brides, for her sons. Well-behaved, educated, beautiful brides."
Horrified, the Doctor exclaimed: "Tella!"
Guido sputtered in disbelief. "You want to give these monsters even more innocent daughters, so they can turn them into… this?"
"I did not specify how many," she reassured quickly, "just enough to save her species, which will be around forty. Maybe fifty."
"Fifty," he hissed. "Fifty! You want to sacrifice fifty girls for—"
"Humanity's entire history, yes."
The Doctor gulped and leaned back, in search for words with a helpless and sad expression.
Amy's gaze wandered between both aliens. "Doctor… You can't do that! Those things are evil. They turn people into monsters."
"To survive," declared the Storyteller. "The world is not black and white, Amelia Pond. They killed people and did horrible things to them, but so did the Doctor. He killed countless people and did more gruesome things to them in order to save others. We let a whole ship explode back on the Leviathan so they were not able to follow us, remember? We killed them."
"They attacked us!"
"They wanted the serum, nothing more. Their approach is definitely in need of discussion. But at the end of the day, we killed them for it. Have you ever thought that maybe you're standing on the wrong side? Morals are nothing but your own view of the world. That is the reason why Time Lords choose not to interfere. Justice—real justice—is impossible. I tried and found a solution where we are able to save your planet and another species, too."
The Doctor rubbed his forehead. "And it's the only possibility, I know, but I can't walk around here and abduct innocents from the street. It's impossible, the sheer number of it."
"Who said something about abducting? You've got a time machine."
He shot her an unbelieving glare. "What!"
She nodded unfazed and he lent forward, utter horror in his eyes. "You want me to travel through the epochs, pick up girls, and gather them here? Tella, listen carefully. I will NOT kidnap people. Who do you think I am?!"
She persisted on her idea. "Apparently, if I remember correctly, the people of the 21st century had a fondness for vampires."
"NO!" He flinched and wielded around.
She rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on, Doctor. There are forums on the Internet for cannibals, where people sell themselves for food and discuss with their customers where to meet to get killed and eaten. I'm pretty sure you'll find some girls who'll follow you voluntarily with a time machine into 16th century Venice to marry a vampire. A fish to be precise, but you get the point."
"What?" The Ponds' mouths hung open.
"The Internet is a strange, strange place." The Storyteller nodded. "Stay away from it, honestly."
The Doctor shook his head unbelievingly. "Never call ME a time meddler again!"
"Oh, I'm sure you came up with crazier plans to save some species."
"Shut up."
"Is this a yes?"
"No! What happened to your precious laws of time you were ready to kill Amy for to preserve them!"
She sighed and closed her eyes. "I've erased dozens of species, myself. It's enough, Doctor. Yes, this violates the law of time, but I remember you telling me to judge carefully when and when to not put it first. With this, we are able to save two whole species with minimal impact in the fabric of time. Please consider it at least."
"Don't turn my words around like that."
"I beg your pardon? When I follow the law of time you want me to discard it and when I do, I am still wrong?"
"It depends on the situation!"
"Which I have carefully evaluated. I am not fully consent with this solution, either. But I will not destroy another species who only tries to survive and keep themself from extinction if there is another way. How... mutilating it may be."
He growled and looked away. "Yeah, I got that." He thew his hands in the air and whirled around. "Listen, I-"
He stopped and knocked with his fist on his brow, eyes squeezed shut. " I hate when I have to do that. I hate it. Don't do that!"
"Doctor?" Amy rose slowly.
Tella stood there, completely unfazed. "Your TARDIS, your choice. I need you to pilot her, after all."
"Signor, don't! This is madness! You can't steal children, you won't be better than them," Guido pleaded. Amy was sure, he had no idea what exactly was going on, but this, this he understood. "Signora, please, don't you have children?"
"Had. Nobody was there to help them."
Guido recoiled visibly with wide eyes, but Tella continued stone-faced as always. "Doctor, are you willing to carry out the plan?"
"No, I'm not willing." His warning finger hovered a half-inch away from Tella's face. "Voluntarily. Do you understand?! They will follow you voluntarily. You get the TARDIS and carry out that madness. I want nothing to do with that! All clear?"
"No, Doctor! You can't do that. That's not you!" Amy squeaked.
He didn't look at her. "That's exactly me, the man making the impossible decisions. By the way, thank you for that, Tella!" He shot her a dark glance. "It's all your responsibility. Yours alone! Understood?"
"Of course," the Storyteller smiled and nodded, "I will —"
A rumbling sound disrupted her.
The Doctor listened to the ceiling. "The people upstairs are very noisy."
Guido warily looked up. "There aren't any people upstairs."
"Did you know that I knew you were going to say that? Did anyone else know he was going to say that?"
Outside the window, some pale, white-clothed girls appeared. They tilted their heads and opened their mouths to reveal nasty and spiky teeth.
"No," whispered Tella.
Rory stared at the window. "Are these the vampires?"
-o0O0o-
She failed.
She failed her sons, her family. Only because of this gruesome, terrible Time Lord.
He destroyed everything.
He killed the brides. He destroyed the transformer.
She stopped.
There in the hall, the same spot he informed her of the brides' death, the Storyteller stood. The Time Lord didn't turn and simply stared at the now visible control panels of the unit.
"Why?"
"What?" She as to exhausted and angry to be polite anymore.
"Why did you do that," the Storyteller clarified, still staring at the unit. "We had reached an agreement. All you had to do was wait until sundown and then your species would have been saved. We were ready to allow those anachonisms. We even planned to travell thorugh time to steal children for your sake, to abduct innocents."
She froze.
No. The Doctor destroyed them. He could never, ever… no!
"You were able to convince this man to do that for us ?"
The Storyteller turned her head. "I told you to leave the rest to me."
Rosanna gulped at the calm, curious presence. There was nothing different, no wrong feeling of ...otherness on her like she was described by everyone back then. Yet, she was able to convince the Doctor to steal children. A master of words.
The person able to do that, could easily devastate the second Antares-Vector.
Time poisoined the quadrant now only known as the lost 74 systems.
Helt the Gates of Elysium together.
She was the Seer.
The Matrix-slayer.
The Celestial Storyteller.
Never judge a Time Lord by its outer appearance or one could get a nasty surprise, indeed.
She was the Storyteller. Good graces, she really was the Storyteller.
"You, It's you," she whispered.
"You did not believe me," the Storyteller concluded sadly.
"Still, " she continued, "One would think a mother would take the well being of her children over everything, would she not. If she had a choice between a plan that could either work or get everybody killed because it happened straight under the watch of two Time Lords, or one rather obscure one who needed a bit longer but definitely ensured her sons survival, what would she really choose? And even if she did not believe the person proposing that obscure plan to her, would she not still wait until the agreed time to see what happened, because that other plan could get started any time anyway? That is what I do not understand. Out of your own selfishness you threw your future away. You condemned your family and everything you love, everything you worked so had for, to death."
"You were willing to help. You were willing to tell a story?"
"I was. That is why I came here in the first place. I promised. A town at the ground of the ocean and fifty brides."
A strange calmness overcame her as the realisation hit her. She straightened her back.
She failed. Her, and her alone.
"May you excuse me, please? I've got an errand to run."
"Of course," nodded the Time Lord, and in her ancient eyes was cold, calculated understanding.
The mother turned around and stepped back into the hallway, down to the river to face her children.
-o0O0o-
The Doctor stared at the still surfacing bubbles in the water. "You could have stopped her. You should have stopped her!"
Tella's silhouette didn't move in the shadow of the entrance to the backyard.
"I don't know much about rescuing people and all these things, but I learned that you can never save someone who does not want to be saved. Signora Calvirerri made her point very clear in that matter."
AN: Wow.
I hope this builds the rest of the tension for the big explosion, from which we unfortunately didn't get much to see. Yes, Tella destroys the Doctors happy illusion and forcing the Regeneration who choose to forget to remember. And the Doctor is this dark, remember him blowing up the Vesuvius? Thousands of people in exchange for the world. He choose to not make any decisions like that anymore, as we can see in Victory of the Daleks, but Tella is reminding him of this aspect of his personality. And he's angry about that.
It's the first time with her chip deactivated and as you can see she not quite changed. At least she gives us the reason why she still sticks with the Doctor. There is a little bonus scene with Rory (and everybody else) meeting Tella for the first time (after the deactivation of the chip), but I'll post that later. It didn't quite fit.
And yes, there is a good reason for this chip. Boy, it was so difficult to not slip up when Rosanna realized, Tella is indeed who she claimed to be. I had to delete a whole paragraph to not spoil the fun, even if it makes not so much sense anymore.
This started as a clean-up for a little mistake in the script, because from one second to the next Rosanna went from total cluelessness about the Doctors identity to knowing exactly who he is. Maybe a Time Lady confronted her and told her exactly with whom she was dealing with? XD
Kelliox is a Time Lord they meet in their first Adventure, which plays on a space-ship called Leviathan (just to clean up the confusion about that part) where they also pick up Tella. I'm sadly still working on that thing.
Oh and everybody getting the jtwo hidden puns gets a digital cookie. I couldn't resist XD
So, in three days I'm going on Christmas-vacation and I'm so excited for The Return of Doctor Mysterio. But I probably won't post anything here until next year so I'll wish you a merry Christmas and a happy, glorious Year of 2017 full of ideas, friends and adventures.
As always Read and Review,
Happy holidays.
alkatie
18/12/2017
