The Solution
The first and only time Adelaide had visited Missy was with the Mexican food in hand, after solving the mystery of Bill's new home.
Adelaide took in the entire vault as the door opened. It was larger than she expected, though very sparse. There were a few chandeliers – Missy's request, no doubt – and what looked like windows providing light, but the furniture was scattered about. In the center, on the top of an octagonal dais with pillars surrounding it, was a piano and Missy.
The other last Time Lady was still playing the piano, but Adelaide knew that Missy was highly aware of Adelaide's new presence in the room. Her back was turned to them, her body focused on her movement over the keys, but her head tilt, just slightly.
"Hello, Missy," Adelaide said.
Missy turned then. Her pale eyes, open and honest for a moment in a manner that shocked Adelaide before it returned to what she expected of the Time Lady, locked onto Adelaide's. "Why, lookie here. The protector has come to visit little old me." Missy pressed a hand to her chest, giving a small smile. "No wonder they called you first. You already have the right title."
Adelaide ignored the Doctor's slight shock at that admission. "Did they tell you they were trying me?"
"No. I didn't know for certain until now." Missy stood. "But it makes sense. You are the protector, after all." She nodded to Adelaide. "And possess much less of an obvious emotional connection to me, though we all know that you love me." She winked.
Very few people, after all, knew that Adelaide had helped Missy escape the Time War. "You look well for someone who was meant to be executed."
Missy shrugged. There was a severe elegance about the action. "Your sweetheart saved me. Although..." she looked between the Time Lords and how much distance there was between them, even now, "not sweethearts any longer." She shook her head. "Knew it would happen eventually."
The Doctor raised his eyebrows, moving forward to put the food on the small table set before the dais. "Did you now? You were the one who told us we were Aligned."
"Aligning doesn't mean you're sweethearts," Missy said, speaking slowly both to mock and give the words emphasis. "I would have hoped you understood that fact by now." She focused on Adelaide again, stepping down from the dais with something feral in her gaze.
"I understand that you wanted to thank me?"
Missy nodded. She'd stopped about a foot away from Adelaide. "Yes, I said something akin to that to the eyebrows quite a bit. Good to know that he actually listens." There was a pause before Missy held out a hand for Adelaide to shake. "Thank you for helping me escape Gallifrey." Adelaide didn't immediately take the offered hand. "The Doctor has made it quite clear that you don't like hugs and I'm being taught to respect people's personal boundaries." Missy wiggled the fingers of the extended hand.
Adelaide could not help but smile. She took the hand. "Thank you, Missy."
Missy used the held hands to step closer to Adelaide, whispering in her ear. "He doesn't remember Clara Oswald. Do not mention her directly." When Missy drew back, it was Adelaide's turn to watch her with wide eyes, though Missy pressed a finger to her lips. "Now, let's eat."
"Missy..."
Missy waved a hand. "Later, lovely protector. I still have quite a bit of time left in this vault. There's time yet for girly gossip." She winked at Adelaide.
|C-S|
When it came time for recordings to be made for the people of Earth, it was decided that the Doctor was the best choice. He was also the one they declared the best for actually writing the speeches. Adelaide would offer a few word choices where she could, but she had never been a particular master of language.
She stood behind the camera as the Doctor spoke, her arms crossed. Adelaide had found herself doing that quite a bit over the past six months.
"The Monks have been with us from the beginning. They shepherded humanity through its formative years, gently guiding and encouraging, like a parent clapping their hands at a baby's first steps," the Doctor said. The Monks would be overlaying images to this transmission, as they did with most. "They have been instrumental in all the advances of culture and technology. They watched proudly as man invented the light bulb, the telephone, and the internet. They were even there to welcome the first men on the moon. And they have defended us too. Who can forget the time the Monks defeated the Daleks, the Cybermen, the Weeping Angels? Two species, sharing a history as happily as they share a planet, humanity and the Monks are a blissful and perfect partnership. How luck Earth is to have an ally as powerful and tender as the Monks, that asks for nothing in return for their benevolence but obedience. So relax, do as you're told. Your future is taken care of." The Doctor finished the transmission with a grin.
Adelaide waved a hand to cut off the recording. Normally, Nardole would have been responsible for this job, but that humanoid wasn't currently available to man the cameras.
"How was it?" the Doctor asked, leaning back.
"You've quite lost your charming grandfatherly qualities."
"Are you saying I'm charming?"
"You were charming. The keyword there is 'were'."
The Doctor stood. He was fully embracing his refreshed ability to see, focusing on Adelaide's face. She still remembered his expression when the white light had cooled and the alternate history of the Monks in control had settled in.
The Doctor had blinked and turned his gaze until it landed on her. It had taken another moment for his gaze to focus, adjust, and then they'd widened. As though he'd forgotten what she looked like. As though he'd realized something for the first time in a long time.
She'd still been holding his hand and he'd squeezed it as though he wanted to pull her closer into an embrace. For a moment, something had seemed to stop him and Adelaide had a guess what that something was. So she was the one who moved forward and hugged him.
They clung to each other in their new reality and, over the past six months, had yet to stop.
"How are you doing?" the Doctor asked Adelaide now, moving closer to her. He reached out and took her hand. They were alone due to Adelaide's request despite the fact the Doctor had deprogrammed the majority of the guards assigned to them. They hadn't actually expected the Monks to agree to the Time Lords being alone for any length of time, but Adelaide had made it clear that she essentially needed to be solitary in order to work well.
That was a lie, of course. Adelaide and the Doctor merely liked being alone together, when they could manage it. Especially now, when the other was the only one they truly had left. It was how they'd been ever since Adelaide had first emerged from her fob watch, even when they'd been separated.
"You're truly certain Nardole will manage this?"
"He will proudly tell you that he is the only person licensed to kick my arse."
"I didn't realize someone needed permission to do that." The Doctor squeezed Adelaide's hand. "He'll be fine. Bill will be fine."
"I just wish that I remembered more about the Monks." If the Time Lords had known more about how the Monks had gained control over Earth, they would be able to depose them. They wouldn't have needed to bother about seeming loyal over the past six months. The deal may not have needed to be made – by Bill, for the Doctor's sake – at all.
The Doctor lightly smiled. "You don't have to know everything, Adelaide."
"That doesn't mean I won't try." It was her turn to squeeze his hand and she pulled him towards the camera. "Now, come see your lack of charming grandfather qualities. Even if they're being brainwashed, it's not wise to frighten the people of Earth."
"That's why you're not the one doing the speeches, after all."
Adelaide did not give the Doctor the kindness of a smile.
|C-S|
"Over the years, I have encountered innumerable civilizations, but never one as benevolent as the Monks," the Doctor focused on his paper. Adelaide glanced back at the door that, if everything was going by plan, Nardole and Bill would shortly be coming through. "Their grace and humility. No, their grace and philanthropy is matched only by their..."
The door opened and both Time Lords looked up, the Doctor matching Adelaide's expression. "Doctor? Adelaide?" Bill said, looking between them, hopeful. "It's me."
"Guards!" the Doctor called as he straightened, moving closer to Adelaide. Eight of their guards rushed into the room from the door opposite Bill, pointing their weapons at Bill. "What are you doing here?"
Bill spread her arms. "What does it look like? We've come to save you."
Adelaide looked to Nardole. It was uncomfortable lying as they were, but it was necessary. They had to push Bill to ensure she was fully conscious and not still brainwashed by the Monks. "This was your idea, wasn't it?" Back to Bill. "You shouldn't be here."
"I'll have to talk to the Monks now," the Doctor said, nodding.
"Doctor..."
He held a hand towards the human. "Stop. Don't. Don't move. They will kill you. Stay where you are." He picked up the telephone from his desk. "Epsilon. Fire. Jupiter. Lily." He replaced it, moving back closer to Adelaide. "The Monks are on their way. When they get here, let me do the talking."
"Wait, what was that? Did you actually just call them, you nutter?"
Adelaide smoothed her face, but she made it clear it was intentional. "You deserve an explanation." Bill nodded. "Human society is stagnating. You've stopped moving forward. You were regressing."
"This isn't exactly much better."
The Doctor shrugged. "It's safer."
"Not so much for the people the Monks are killing."
"The Romans killed people and saved billions more from disease, war, famine, and barbarism."
Bill shook her head. "No, wait. What about free will? You believe in free will. Your whole thing is, both of you. You," she pointed at the Doctor, "made me write a three-thousand-word essay on free will."
It was Adelaide's turn to shrug. "Perhaps our opinions have adapted. Your species had free will and multiple negative examples of what that meant."
"Worse than that, you had history. History was saying to you, look, I've got some examples of fascism here for you to look at. No? Fundamentalism? No? Oh, okay, you carry on. Adelaide and I had to stop you, or at least not stand in the way of someone else who wanted to, because the guns were getting bigger, the stakes were getting higher, and any minute now it was going to be goodnight, Vienna." The Doctor started to turn but paused. "By the way, you never delivered that essay, anyway."
"Because the world was invaded by zombie Monks!"
"And whose fault was that, huh?" The Doctor narrowed his eyes. "I didn't ask for my sight back. No, you took it upon yourself to ignore me, to do what you thought was best." He shook his head. "All I can say is that we are lucky it was a benevolent race like the Monks, not the Daleks." He held up a hand. "Yes, I know the Monks are ruthless. I get that. Yes, they play with history and we, especially Adelaide, are not exactly thrilled about that. But they bring peace and order."
Bill crossed her arms. "Okay. Yeah, yeah, I get it. It's like the time we discovered that huge fish creature in the...in the Seine in Paris."
"You couldn't think of any other river?" Adelaide asked her before glancing at the guards. "It was a coded message. The big fish creature – I'm still working on determining its actual species name – was under the Thames. If the Doctor and I had played along, she'd have known we were tricking you."
"Guns down," the Doctor ordered. Bill looked close to crying. He sighed. "I'm sorry, Bill. I just...I just...I really want to make you see."
"This...this is real?" Bill gestured between the Time Lords and the guards. "You...you're actually...you're actually doing this? Do you have any idea how hard the past few months have been? How hard it's been to hold onto to the truth? It would have been so easy to just...just...just give in and believe their lies. But I didn't. I fought against it, for you! For when you two came back. And now you're saying you've joined them? You're helping them?"
Bill turned and grabbed a weapon from a guard nearby, pointing it at the Time Lords. Since they were next to each other, she easily alternated between the two, but the Doctor was quick to stand and move in front of Adelaide. The other guards pointed their weapons at the human again. "Bill, put...put...put the gun down."
"I'm serious, Doctor. We'll think of something else. But you'd better tell me now, because if you two help the Monks, then nothing will ever stop them. They'll be here forever."
The Doctor hardened his expression. "It's not a trick, it's not a plan. We have joined the Monks. Whatever it takes, Adelaide and I are going to save you from yourselves."
That, as guessed, was the tipping point. Bill fired three shots into the Doctor's chest and then, after a pause, two more. He fell to his knees, clutching his chest, and Adelaide took a step back. When regeneration energy started to flow from his hands, Adelaide hated how real her terror was, even if she knew it was supposed to happen. She wondered if this was anything like how the Doctor had felt when Adelaide had let herself get shot – which was the reason, honestly, that she was not the one being shot now.
With a cry, his face beginning to glow, the Doctor stood, but it all vanished as he clapped his hands. "Good girl!"
Everyone else in the room, besides Adelaide, laughed. The guard whose pistol Bill had stolen gave her a nudge and a thumbs up.
"Regeneration a little bit too much?" the Doctor asked Nardole.
"No, I thought it was a nice touch," Nardole frowned. "Too much was Richard asking for our identity papers."
"I couldn't resist it," Richard said, laughing again. "Your face."
Bill waved a hand. "Er, hello? Could somebody tell me what the hell is going on?"
"The Monks are using some type of control over the population of Earth," Adelaide explained. "It's clear that they've manipulated memories, but there's something more. They don't completely trust the Doctor and me yet, so, before we truly trusted you, we needed to ensure that you weren't under their influence. It was an experiment, of sorts, which you, very thankfully, passed."
Bill blinked. "So you...you...you haven't...you haven't turned. You're not working for them."
The Doctor shook his head. "No, of course not. Adelaide and I've spent the last six months planning, and also I've been recruiting all these chaps." He gestured over to the guards. "Deprogramming them one by one, talking some sense into them. And there's loads of them. I could do with a Strepsil." He stepped back to stand beside Adelaide.
Bill looked down to where she'd dropped the gun. "But I shot you."
"Yes, that was the plan," Adelaide said. "We had everyone exchange their ammo for blanks."
One of the guards coughed and the Doctor turned towards him. "Did you forget, Dave? You forgot? Well, that would have really blown the plan, wouldn't it?"
"But you called the Monks."
"I called the kitchen." The Doctor glanced at another guard. "Oh, could you pop down and explain it to them? They're going to be really confused." The guard nodded and left.
Bill turned to Nardole. "And you were in on this too?" Nardole gave a very cheery wave.
"Oh, it was partly his idea."
"Oh. My. God. I am going to beat the sh-"
"Language!" Adelaide interrupted.
The Doctor placed a hand on Adelaide's back. "Oh, come on, come on, we've got the band back together again." He grinned at Adelaide before looking back to Bill. "Now, lovely as it is to have you onboard, literally and metaphorically, Adelaide and I've agreed that we're going to need some help."
Nardole frowned. "So, who're we going to get?"
"The only person we know almost as smart as Adelaide."
Nardole, clearly, looked uncomfortable. "Oh. Oh, I see. Blimey. Has it really come to that?"
|C-S|
The Doctor was very careful as they approached the vault. He didn't seem to want to step away from Adelaide or release her hand, but Adelaide made him in order to step up to the door. "Move into the containment field, please," he told Missy. There was no sound of confirmation beyond the same perpetual light piano playing, but he still soniced the door to reveal the locks, and, slowly, the door opened.
Missy was, indeed, sitting at her piano. She did not turn at the sound of their arrival, instead continued. The Doctor finally stepped away from Adelaide, but it was only to sit in his preferred chair, eyeing the other Time Lady. Adelaide stayed closer to Bill.
"But it's...it's just a woman," Bill said. Missy stopped her playing and turned, clearly curious about this new development. The Doctor and Adelaide had mentioned Bill, though not by name, so Missy was at least aware of the human. But it was clear by the way she stared that it was still surprising and intriguing. "God, the way you two and Nardole have been carrying on, I thought you had some kind of monster in here, or something!"
The Doctor didn't take his attention off of Missy. He'd been far more casual about watching her when it was just Time Lords in the vault, but the addition of Bill clearly made him more nervous. "We do. Missy, Bill. Bill, Missy, the other other Last of the Time Lords."
Bill blinked. "Wait a sec. Why have you got a woman locked in a vault? Because even I think that's weird, and I've been attacked by a puddle."
"She's going cold turkey from being bad." Missy scoffed at that, but said nothing else.
"We wanted to know if you've had any dealings with the Monks before," Adelaide asked.
Missy nodded. "Of course. I've had adventures too, just like you should have had, darling, when you had the chance." She winked at Adelaide. "My whole life doesn't revolve around you two, you know."
"Did you defeat them?"
Again, she nodded. "I did."
Bill moved forward. "How?"
Missy looked towards Bill as though shocked the human dared speak again before turning back to the Time Lords. "I've got some requests. I want some new books, some toys, like a particle accelerator, a 3-D printer, and a pony."
Adelaide raised her eyebrows. "Even I understand that nice people generally don't haggle over the fate of a planet."
"I once built a gun out of leaves. Do you think I couldn't get through a door if I wanted to? I'm here, all right? I'm engaging with the process."
"Okay," Bill said, speaking quickly. "Yeah. Yeah, we can, we can get those things for you."
Missy clapped her hands. "C'est super. So, what have you got so far?"
Adelaide clasped her hands in front of herself as the Doctor stood, beginning his pacing as he thought. "They maintain their power by targeting the section of the brain that specifically works with memory and perception?"
Missy closed the lid of her piano. "Getting warm. Fingers tingling."
"But they target it with what exactly? How do they sustain it?" Missy tracked the Doctor as he spoke, moving to sit on the piano lid. "How do their lies infiltrate the brains of billions? Is it some kind of airborne psychoactive?"
"No, no, that's very, very cold."
"Something that's constantly being fed to the populace, constantly consolidating its hold. Is it in the water?"
Missy leaned on the lid of her piano. "God, no. It's freezing, freezing. Absolutely freezing. Couldn't be colder. Very, very chilly. So, so chilly. This is why you should just let Adelaide do theories, you're terrible at them." She flashed a smile to Adelaide, who didn't reciprocate it. "Oh, come on. I'm bored! You haven't been to see me in six months, neither of you. No one has! Not even that bald bloke who looks like an egg."
"What, you left her alone in here for six months?"
The Doctor frowned at Bill. "We were in prison for six months."
"Adelaide, start at the beginning," Missy turned on the piano lid again to face Adelaide. "How did they get a foothold on a planet?"
"Someone asked for their help."
"Well, not just any someone. It has to be a properly consenting human mind."
"Not proper consent," Adelaide corrected. "I doubt the Monks would allow that someone to be truly informed."
Missy nodded towards her. "Fine, the not-properly-consenting human mind, but still one with a pure request, one without agenda or ulterior motive."
Adelaide's eyes widened. She played at not having realized this, although both she and the Doctor had concluded the truth over the six months they'd had to think. They'd just been hoping that they were wrong, at least on something. "And it's with them that the Monks create a psychic link. This forms an anchor that keeps the Monks in power. It makes a lynchpin."
"Scalding. Ow."
"But the brainwaves of a single person are not powerful enough to contain an entire planet. So they use the statues." The Doctor had had quite a bit to say about the statues the Monks had put up everywhere around Earth.
"You're on fire, you're literally on fire you're so caliente. That's Spanish for hot." Missy winked at her. "I think I'm in love."
"The statues are transmitters. They boost the signal and beam it over the entire world."
"Boom! You've exploded." Missy mimed the matching action. "Now, all you two lovebirds have to do is find whoever opened the door to the Monks in the first place."
The Doctor grinned. This was where their theorizing had stopped. This was where the Doctor had started hoping and Adelaide had tried not to crush him. "Say we already have."
"Oh! Well then, you're sorted. Just kill them. That weakens the Monks' grip on the world."
Adelaide hated that she was right. The Doctor's face fell. "No, no. No, no, that can't be right. There are planets that the Monks have ruled for thousands of years. That's how Adelaide knows about them."
"It's passed on through the bloodline. Usually the lynchpin goes on to lead a normal life, have their own family, and the link is passed down through the generations."
"But the Monks must have worked that out. They've been doing this for millennia."
Missy shrugged. "Why? If the link is passed on, the Monks stay in charge, through they think their ruthlessness and efficiency. But if the lynchpin dies and the link isn't passed on, and the Monks get booted off the planet, well, they just chalk it up to experience. Those are probably the ones you've," she nodded at Adelaide, "heard of. Otherwise, the Monks are quite skilled at not being noticed." She twisted down again and sat at her piano, beginning to play.
The Doctor moved closer to Bill, fists clenched. Adelaide was trying not to look at her. The human held up a hand. "No, it's okay. I want to speak to her."
Missy turned again, stopping playing. "Yes?"
"So when you defeated the Monks, that's how you did it?"
"Well, at this point, all that was left of the bloodline was a wee girl, and I just pushed her into a volcano."
Bill swallowed. "It's me. The lynchpin is me."
Missy looked at the Time Lords. "Awkward."
"So you're saying I have to die."
Again, to the Time Lords. As though she was searching Adelaide's face for any sign of true fear. Matching her to the Doctor. "No. If you were just to die, everyone's false memories would have to fade, and that would take ages. It's actually better if you keep breathing, if your brain just keeps transmitting, well, nothing. That would blot out the residue false memories."
"What would be left of me?"
"You'd be a husk. Completely and irrevocably brain-dead." Missy chuckled. "You couldn't even get on Celebrity Love Island."
The Doctor rushed forward and pulled Bill back from Missy, stopping beside Adelaide. "Even if that was the truth, the fact that you're suggesting it shows there's been no change, no hope, no point. We don't sacrifice people. It's wrong, because it's easy."
Missy exchanged a look with Adelaide as though she would understand and Adelaide did, in a way. Before the war, she hadn't had too much of an issue with killing and death while she'd been doing her experiments. She always attempted to limit excessive death, but if someone needed to die in order to solve something or finish something, she was willing to do it.
She was different now. The Doctor and Caroline had made her different. But that didn't mean she completely disagreed.
"You know, back in the day, I'd burn an entire city to the ground just to see the pretty shapes the smoke made. I'm sorry your plus one doesn't get a happy ending, but, like it or not, I just saved this world because I want to change." Missy glared at the Doctor. "Your version of good is not absolute. It's vain, arrogant, and sentimental. If you're waiting for me to become all that, I'm going to be here for a long time yet."
Adelaide forced herself to unclench her own fists. She knew that, if the Doctor had met her before the war, if they'd interacted, then she may have ended up in a vault. And she may have been different now, she may have liked Bill, she may have wanted something different to happen, but if it was necessary...every rational part of her mind told her that her feelings didn't matter.
If the only way to defeat the Monks was to make Bill braindead, Adelaide was willing to do it. But she was going to attempt to find any other possible solution.
A/N: I've really loved exploring Adelaide and Missy's relationship in this story. They have such a complex history but have only barely gotten to spend any time together until now.
