CHAPTER SUMMARY: Rassilon tries to convince Genesis to use her abilities to help them take down the Pythia one and for all. However, seeing her future grow more and more from her sight, the ruler of Gallifrey tries to call out for her successor, Vael, but finds an new opportunity presenting it self right on Gallifrey, spelling danger for our group of friends.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: The parts involving the Pythia is something I pulled directly from the book again, "The New Doctor Who Adventures - Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible" by Marc Platt. That bit of writing goes to Marc Platt. Everything else is mine.
After having been gone from this story for a year, I'm not back in full force and have already prepared the other parts of this series. It's gonna be a ride and for those reading it, I appreciate it. This is going to be a long journey and it's just the beginning.
The Founders of Gallifrey
Chapter 6: The Fight for Power
Many thoughts raced through Rassilon's mind at that very moment. He almost wished he had the ability to block out his thoughts like the Individual's because of the look Omega started throwing his way. He could read his plan — the plan on their secret weapon and how they could stop the Pythia at her own game once and for all.
"Razz…" Omega stated roughly, "Don't involve my sister. She has nothing to do with any of this. This is our mission!"
"What do you mean she is not involved? She's been helping us out all along by getting an inside look at the Pythia herself." No one had ever been able to sneak past her defences before, but it seemed the old witch was starting to lose her sight and abilities. It was the perfect opportunity to strike. "We must use this opportunity while we have it!"
The Other stood between them, watching them go back and forth with each other. He knew the risk with getting Genesis involved, but if she could help them, they really needed her abilities. "I believe this is something for Genesis to decide herself." he stated calmly, causing the two friends to stop bickering.
They all walked into the room she shared with her brother to see her look up at them from a chair. Omega approached his sister with a warmth, helping to make her feel better under Rassilon's stare. "Our friends would like to know if you can help us with our mission?"
She reached out her mind towards her brothers, always finding comfort with him. Sensing the thoughts running through his, blue eyes looked to him with worry. "What if I can't control it? I don't want to hurt any of you." And the last thing she wanted to do was put them in any danger with the Pythia capturing them.
"We could help teach you to control it." The Other offered warmly, walking up to his best friend. Did they even really know how to help when they didn't even know much about an Individual's abilities? "We'll figure out a way at least. It shouldn't be too hard."
Genesis hugged her knees close to her. "I'm not sure. I don't feel comfortable about it."
Rassilon sighed, rolling his eyes at the girl. He couldn't keep waiting on this anymore. "I'm not going to wait around here for anything to happen. I'll meet with you all later."
They watched him walk off, not knowing that he planned to go speak with the Pythia over negotiations for his Neo-Techonologists, the faction run by Rassilon himself that favored science and reason over the Pythia's superstitious ways. He was going to show the Pythia exactly what she should fear.
The Neo-Technologists were becoming gratifyingly predictable as an opposition. They seized upon any issue to rant and rave, so the Pythia fed them a few tiny morsels now and then, and they went at them with such alacrity that major reforms could be slipped past unheeded. Show them a graffito and they missed the wall it was painted on.
But Gallifrey was still restless. The thoughts of the people had become petty and aimless. Away in the cities of the South, there had been riots and at least two public stonings. How simple it would be for Rassilon's empty promises to catch and turn the mood. Other plans had failed lately. The loss of the Time Scaphe and her agent preyed on the Pythia's thoughts. The auguries of the future had become obscure and uncertain. Yet the Old Order had stood surely for an aeon. It was unthinkable that the Order would crumble. What was needed was a mighty challenge in the games. A war. Or a legend from the Great Book.
Weary of the bustle in the market, the Pythia elevated the angle of the panoptic so that her screen filled with the cerulean blue of the sky. The morning haze from the still freezing marshlanes had lifted by noon. High in the air, an incoming shuttle from the West Marches glinted in the sunlight. Deep beneath the Temple, torchlight flickered around the Cavern of Prophecy. Five hundred and seven exalted Pythias had sat in the wicker cage where she sat, slung high above the smoking Crevasse of Memories That Will Be. There she caught the vapours that lifted her mind into the state of the clairvoyant and the clairaudiant.
She watched the City on the retina screen in the corner of her basket. Other sisters ranged around the rock chamber attended her, robed in the rust-red devotional vestments of the Pythian Order. Her personal Grelladian guard, the un-man Handstrong, waited at the foot of the granite steps leading to the adytum of the Temple above.
A sister, one of the adepts, had entered the Cavern and stood before her. "Well?"
"Highness, there is a man at the sanctum gate who seeks a private consultation."
The Pythia's screen flicked to a view of the inner Temple. Besides the wrought copper gates barring the innermost chambers stood two figures in fur cloaks, cowled in the pious and correct habit for men who entered the halls of the Gods. "He is a trader from the South, Highness, with his servant."
"Admit them." Was this what the omen had warned of? So soon? The Pythia had no hesitation in facing what must be faced. The other sisters withdrew to their daily tasks. Headstrong positioned himself in the hollow pillar, where he could overhear and be called in case of danger. The adept returned quickly, leading the two hooded figures. "Clean let the hearts be of each seeker," she said to them in turn.
"So shall we never doubt," they responded, and the Pythia knew from their tones that they were liars.
"Well, masters," she called from her cage, "How are affairs in the South?"
The trader stepped forward, a small shape who moved with a deliberate reverence which was too knowing, like a performer in the Jagdagian circus. His face was hidden and his servant lingered in the shadows behind him. "The South is disturbed, Highness." said the trader. His voice was honeyed and obsequious. "I thank you for receiving me unannounced."
"Disturbance is a perception." She had already sent searching tendrils into his mind. As she suspected, it was blocked. "In what do you trade?"
"In anything that needs an advocate, Highness."
She nodded. "Then your business must be thriving. What could you possibly wish of me?"
"An audience with your Highness is already a great boon and honour."
"And?"
"Some inkling, Highness. Some glimpse of the future."
"The Gods and Stars do not deal in trade statistics. I am here as their servant and mouthpiece. I advise and counsel. And I rule in their name."
"But can you see how long that rule will continue?"
The threat was barely veiled. She fingered a diamond talisman, squeezing it until it bit into the flesh of her hand. Blood on the jewel. She knew him. She wanted to blast him away for daring to come here. His hood turned slightly and she saw that he heard a warning from his servant.
"Well, Master Trader from the South ," she declared, "there are some who publicly reject the mystic faith in favour of a new God of Reason. Or is this a disturbance in my own perception?"
"I have no Gods."
"Save for your own ambition, Master Trader ," she accused.
"I am told ambition feeds upon itself, Highness ."
"For those who cannot see their own fate. So beware."
He came closer, having to tilt his head higher. The torchlight fell across the side of his mouth. "What better reason to consult the exalted Pythia herself? Tell me mine, if you can."
She recognized the insult and regarded him in silence. He must have known that she would see through his conceit. This was the little man who threatened everything her Order and rule stood for. He was foolhardy to come here, or more dangerous then she had imagined. Why should she do this for him? The answer was simple. She would look and then confound him with the inevitable future she read. She sent a thought to her attendant adepts.
"I am ready."
At the touch of a control, a concealed pipe below the lip of the crevasse released a fine spray of water. A blend of steam and smoke began to billow up around the cage. The Pythia grasped at the wicker struts of the cage, taking gulps of the rich, bitter vapour. Soon, like gauze lifting on the evening breeze, her mind would rise into the canyons of stars and see infinity pricked out like a map in the drum of Time. Again the horror would fill her as the energy of the Gods she served spoke through her frail body. The instrument to dream another's dream.
She waited. The steam began to choke her. Her mind stayed earthbound. The vision that never failed eluded her. "I cannot say," she intoned flatly.
"What?" mocked the figure below. "Where are your powers? Not lost surely?"
The Pythia gasped for breath.
"Shall I tell you then?" he continued. "I foresee the end of your reign, O exalted Pythia. The end of your barbaric line! But not the end of the world. After the demise of the Old Order, i see a bright future. The Gallifreyans, scourged for so long unde your yoke, will emerge as the true Lords of Time!"
"Rassilon!" reprimanded the servant in the shadow.
"Remember," her opponent warned, a thrill of power in his voice, "Our secret. I have foretold it!"
He turned to go and was face to face with the massive figure of the guard. Headstrong raised his ceremonial dagger in anger. "No!" called the Pythia. "Let them go! The game has yet to be played out." She watched as the two figures mounted the steps and vanished.
Back at the twins house, the group of friends continued to talk with one another about their concerns over Rassilon. "You don't think he's gone to do something to anger the Pythia?" asked the Other.
Omega couldn't help but chuckle, knowing his best friend all too well. "I wouldn't doubt it…" He was always one for stirring up trouble, looking for any opportunity to gloat. The blonde sighed, brown eyes landing on his sister. "At this rate, he's going to put a target on our backs for sure." The Pythia would come knocking at their door in no time, and despite everything he had done his whole life to keep Genesis safe, they would be coming to take her away soon thanks to Rassilon.
"Should I go after him then?"
"No…" trailed off the older brother. He was trying to think desperately for a plan — anything, to fix this all.
However, it was Genesis who came up with the solution. "I'll do it." she swallowed with a nervousness and uncertainty. "I'll learn how to use my powers to help the cause." After all, if she could provide with some insight onto the Pythia to help Gallifrey and it's people advance into a world of reason and science for the better, then Genesis would try to conquer her fears. "But I'm doing it for you two and Gallifrey, not because Rassilon said so."
The Other chuckled at the way she stuck up her nose concerning their friend. "Of course."
Despite her attempts to keep up her mental walls and hide the terror she was feeling, Omega was able to sense it, and came to take her into a hug. "Don't worry, the Other and I won't let anything happen to you. I've kept my word so far, haven't I, sister?"
She smiled at him, nodding. "I know."
The Pythia beat her hand against the Gate of the Future, but it stayed firmly shut. She, most adept of the Wise, who once held the key to all sights of the Future, was denied entry. She knew the voices that laughed. Rassilon and his ignoble confederates had barred the doors against her. She opened her eyes and stared down from her basket at the sisters who were in attendance below. They took it in turns to sit and watch her. Her servant, Headstrong, never left his place at the cavern mouth.
Let them wait. Fifteen days now since she had spoken a single word. And she had stayed locked in her cage above the crevasse all that time. Private audiences and public levees had to be cancelled. Anmers-Tonanstide, the Festival of the Timewright, went unblessed. The sisters daily turned a crowd of petitioners away from the Temple gates. She had always travelled in the City in her state palanquin, ready to meet the people in the streets. Each morning she had walked in the herbal knot gardens of the Temple. These rituals meant nothing to her now.
The sisters read any news aloud to her each day, unsure if she could hear or comprehend their words. Her withdrawal from public life was causing anxiety and speculation throughout Gallifrey. The mutual pool of people's thought, impossible to ignore, chittered with unquiet rumor. It was reported that she had lost her powers. Speculation became fast in the media, which vomited out quarter-truths and exaggerations and then fed greedily on its own spew. The Neo-Technologists were already making political capital out of it. There were rumors that Rassilon would be called upon to challenge her authority. Worried communiques arrived from governors on the farthest reaches of the Empire. The suet workers threatened to strike. At noon on the sixty-third day of spring, it snowed.
The Court of Principals patched over the day-to-day running of the state, but the Pythia was Gallifrey and its Empire, both constitutionally, by divination and by the investiture of the Gods. The cracks started to widen.
Rassilon remained silent, apparently content to observe where the situation would lead without further interference. And the Pythia waited too. Or so it seemed. Only her hands moved, picking over the jewels and talisman on her smoky robes. All would be well when the Scaphe returned. Once the Scaphe returned, she would put things right. In her mind she searched for Vael. Turning and returning every memory, searching for a chink in the wall that blocked her sight. She was locked in with herself. In her thoughts there was no passage of time.
Vael was there somewhere. Her pawn. She had only to find him in her thoughts. But there was a figure in the shadows who mocked at her powers. She thought it was Rassilon. He pried among at her thoughts like a thief sifting through stolen booty. She would drive him away out of the shadows, and out of her head.
Listening into her sisters down below, their words caused the Pythia to feel the future, and her power over Gallifrey slipping from her more and more with her own followers starting to doubt her abilities. She had to find Vael. Maybe...just maybe, the eye of the Sphinx could help her get back in contact with her successor.
Something went wrong on the time flight to their destination. Vael and his team had collided with a blue police box and found themselves crashing into a city covered with sand in the future. Much worse, a giant time-sand worm was chasing after them. With nothing but pure survival instincts. Vael would gladly sacrifice his teammates in order to remain safe.
The red head tried to remain vigil on his mission, but the damn old crone of a woman kept trying to reach out to him, trying to claw away at his mind and get a glimpse of the future she so seeked to see, but Vael being the Individual he was, kept his mental walls up.
Or so he thought...until he came across the familiar red headed girl again. The other Individual — something that shouldn't have been possible, yet the reality was right here mocking him. She was frozen with fear, realizing they were seeing each other again, something continuing to draw them together despite her wishes. She was surrounded by the men he had known from the Academia and the group of Neo-Technologists against the Pythia: the Other and Omega. Her guards were down around them for that short time, giving him the ability to get a small glimpse into her thoughts before she noticed him.
However, the others didn't.
Vael couldn't help but smile with amusement. "I'm sorry for last time. I didn't mean to cause you any harm." he lied through his teeth. "I'm Vael Voryunsti Sheverell, though you probably already know that."
Genesis remained still, clearing her throat nervously. She couldn't shake the bad feeling over him, her keen ability never letting her down from potential danger. "It didn't seem like that. In fact, it felt like the opposite."
She was clever, he would give her that. But that didn't mean she wasn't naive or not easily impressionable. "I'm currently in the middle of a mission right now away from home. My crew has been abducted and some members are trying to attack us. I thought you would do the same to me...so I tried to defend myself." A lie, that if she was like he thought she would be, easily bought into.
Seeing the frightened look on his face, and despite her gut yelling at her over this, Genesis couldn't help but feel empathy for him, especially since he was an Individual like her. However, she was going to carefully and slowly start to open up to him. Clearing her throat, she started to speak. "Fine, Vael, I'll take your word on it this time."
The Other and Omega looked around, not noticing who she was talking to before the brother put it together, whispering to their friend who looked confused. "She's seeing that other Individual again…"
"Thank you." He smiled as a silence washed over them briefly before he continued. "It's rather weird to know of someone else like me, especially since you know my name, but I don't know yours." Genesis briefly glanced at her brother, sharing a look of worry and approval, but he couldn't read her blocked off mind. However, Vael could already guess what she was getting to, having seen that brief glimpse into her thoughts. "Must be cool to have Omega, one of the Neo-Technologists, as your brother?"
This made Genesis suddenly go ice cold, blue eyes going wide at him, realizing he got a glimpse into her head. "Leave him alone…"
"Genesis?" Omega questioned.
Having received his answer, Vael looked at the red head with a smile. "Your name is Genesis, meaning beginning or origin. What a symbolic name." He chuckled warmly. "Don't worry, I'm actually a supporter of your brother and his friends' work."
"R-Really?" she questioned, relaxing a little. It always made her happy to hear someone supporting their work.
"They believe that Individuals such as ourselves are destined for greatness." He smiled before a sad look befell him. "You know how lonely it must be being the way that we are. It's hard for us to connect to others, to fit in, and much less control our abilities that are run by our pure emotions."
Genesis understood exactly where he was coming from with it, having felt the same way. She was just about to let down her guards when she remembered what he did to his classmate. "Loie...you were mad with her over what she said to you."
"Oh...you saw that?" Vael said, sounding hurt by it as he recalled. "I didn't mean to hurt her. I was just so...angry and hurt. You heard what she said about us Individuals being freaks and outcasts." He scoffed. "Others like her are just jealous because we are meant to surpass them, that's why we are different, special. And despite only one supposed to be born every 1,000 years, here we both are together. Why is that you wonder?"
Seeing the way his eyes narrowed in curiosity, and almost anger, Genesis swallowed. "I-I don't know exactly. Cosmic fluke?"
Vael chuckled dryly. "Maybe this error is why I'm having a hard time achieving anything." The way his look upon her changed terrified her, like an animal targeting it's prey. "Maybe the only way to achieve my greatness and power... is to take it back from you ."
Suddenly, Vael lunged forward towards her again, gripping his hands around her throat. Despite not being there physically, her lungs tightened, gasping for air. She tried to reach for his arms, but found herself unable to shake him off. Quickly, Omega and the Other found an invisible force choking her and ran to her side, trying to figure out a way to help her.
Vael could feel her mental barriers slipping as her mind started to weaken in order to fight for air, leaving her mind wide open for him to step into and see everything. It was in this moment that the Pythia could sense the mind of another Individual, not her male successor she had already chosen, but someone else. A female. A sister of the Neo-Techologists. Someone exactly like Vael...another potential successor despite the prophecy's saying of a male.
Genesis tried to gasp out in fear, realizing she had finally been discovered by the Pythia despite her brother's best to keep her safe, before everything went black.
