CHAPTER SUMMARY: The Pythia's reign of magic and superstition over Gallifrey has finally come to an end, making way for new changes involving the future of it's people. However, Vael's mysterious warning he leaves Genesis makes her question if things will only get better from here.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: As always, the parts involving the Pythia is bits 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. The parts with Genesis is mine.
This will be the last time I pull from the book. From now on, it's entirely my own twist with influences from Lungbarrow and Cat's Cradle.
The Founders of Gallifrey
Chapter 7: The End of a Reign
Watching and feeling his sister's life slipping away before him, Omega could briefly see the image of Vael choking her before pushing his own mind towards the boy, trying to break his connection with his sister. However, another person suddenly appeared in the mental web, a sight all too familiar: the Pythia.
She had gotten a glimpse into Genesis' mind. She knew she was an Individual. And she had plans for her.
Before the priestess could turn her sights to Omega and get anything out of him, he used all his will power to serve the link they all had to his sister. Feeling the pull of the sudden force, The Pythia and Vael had disappeared, leaving Genesis safe. "They're gone." He declared, going to the Other's side as he held Genesis in his lap, checking over her pulse and spotting bruising starting to form around her throat from Vael's grip. The state his sister was in broke him apart. "How is she?"
"Her heart is still beating, but…" the Other trailed off, glancing at the bruises around her neck. "She needs medical attention."
Snapping himself out of his current anxiety over losing his sister, Omega got into action. "Okay, let's take her in."
Vael, her chosen one, was trapped in some closed nightmare prison beyond the bounds of reality. He fought against her call with his thoughts like a caged animal, but he could not resist one so ancient and wise as she. There would be ways to bring him back to heel.
The eye had returned the powers she had lost. The Pythia had spotted the red headed female who was the sister of one of Rassilon's supporters and an Individuall. The girl had been getting a special sight into the Pythia and her workings on Gallifrey, something she hadn't even seen. It didn't make sense. There was only supposed to be one Individual and that was Vael!
So...how did this girl come to be? She couldn't possibly be the next Pythia in line? It was usually the case, but The Book of Future Legends foretold her successor being a man this time. It was part of the Prophecy! It only made sense that it was Vael with his abilities.
However, this new predicament only made the Pythia's fear grow more, feeling frustrated at being denied to see how her future would play out. What was the point in being a Seer if she couldn't see what was coming her way anymore?
Time was growing murky. Seeing was no longer an easy gift. The Pythia foresaw a point when there might be no more seers. The web of thought that linked the augurers and oracles of the Universe was broken. The veil of Time would no longer be pierced by thought, it would have to be physically travelled. She had foreseen that long ago. Why else had she instigated the Time program? Her powers, branded as superstition by the faithless, were drawing to an end. The Universe would become an empty and desolate place. She would be a lone voice.
That is what the eye of the Sphinx showed her. But such visions could be clouded or misunderstood. She reached for Vael's mind again. Vael held keys that would unlock the future. In the darkness where Vael was trapped, she had touched another mind as well. It was a mind of great power, a mind beyond the strictures of Time. In that briefest encounter, she had immediately recognized an equal. She would find this mind again and consult its wisdom, just as the mighty had once come to consult her. For she must know the future.
But in that mind she had also glimpsed thoughts that chilled her. It claimed to be born of Gallifrey. But she was Gallifrey, knowledge and life. How could she not know this mind already? Unless...unless it had yet to be born. And in this complex, bewildering mind, she had also glimpsed the name of Rassilon.
Above all things, she feared that name.
She must know the future.
In the empty void beyond Time, she found Vael again. He no longer resisted, dealing the impact from Omega pushing them back. His thoughts were dull and confused. The Pythia could no longer see, but she must know. Her luck was cursed. Only the Sphinx could see truly, so she must have the Sphinx's sight.
The formal assembly of one hundred councillors, who sat in the cavern below, watching her cage, awaiting her death, were deafened by the Pythia's scream. Clinging to the wicker of her cage, she gouged out her own eye and inserted the eye of the Sphinx in its place.
Genesis jolted up at the sound of the piercing scream to find herself in a medical bay, the concerned looks from her brother and the Other greeting her. "It's okay. You're okay, now." He told her, resting a hand on her shoulder to comfort his best friend.
Her mind started to recall the terrifying events before everything went dark. The powerful grip of Vael's mind and hands against her throat. The way her lungs burned for air. Her voice rendered useless and her mind slipping into the darkness. Vael had tried to kill her.
But then…
Apparently her mind barriers were wide open as Omega and the Other shared a concerned look, knowing the Pythia had found her out. Genesis couldn't help but break into sobs, realizing that everything was starting to come undone. Her and her brother's fears were finally coming to light.
Omega reached out, taking her into a hug as she sobbed into his chest. "Sister…this doesn't change anything. We are still going through with our plans and I will keep you safe."
"S-She's chosen him as her successor for Gallifrey." she said with a raspy tone, finding it difficult to speak. However, she wanted to have her mental walls up, not allowing anyone a chance to get inside her mind like that again.
The Other exchanged a knowing look with Omega, seeing they would have to follow through with their plans sooner than they thought. "Let's tell Razz. It's time to gather the other Neo-Technologists and start the Intuitive Revelation."
The Pythia had reached out to Vael again and managed to gain full control over his mind, having a conversation with the Doctor currently in another place and time with the boy. The Time Lord revealed the Pythia's own future to her - the future of Gallifrey, the future now ruled by Rassilon - and she didn't take it quite well.
"Vael, my successor!" ranted the voice in his mind. "The future. I must know it. Bring me this ship!"
He twisted and clasped his head. "No! I'm an Individual! It's mine! I'm the future. Not you!"
"Obey me, Vael!" cried the Pythia.
"Never!" he railed. "Get out! Get out of my head for ever!" In the blind rage he would never master, he turned his burning fury on the eye in his own mind. Knowing exactly what it would entail, Vael knew he didn't have much time left anymore. The Doctor and the others were already starting to leave the explosion, and the Pythia had no choice but to look away now, leaving Vael to reach out for the one mind he had constantly hunted down, just as the Pythia had done to him.
After everything he had done, all his rage, Vael had to warn Genesis of what was to come. It was time for Individuals to unite with one another instead of remain alone. He realized his mistakes of being too caught up in himself, wanting the power for himself.
Feeling the barrier of a wall, Vael knew he had found Genesis and used every ounce of energy he had left appearing before her for the final time. Blue eyes widened in the medical bay, the bruises he caused her still around her neck as a reminder of what he did. "GO AWAY!" She shrieked, instantly trying to push his mind back, but Vael fought hard.
At least until she noticed the fire starting to engulf him, causing Genesis to stop and listen to what he had to say. Vael's brown eyes held a genuine apologetic look. "I don't have long now! Just listen - LISTEN - the Pythia...she's gonna probably start coming after you because of what I've done. Look, you need to learn to embrace your abilities as an Individual and learn how to not let them take over you." He gave a dry chuckle, indicating his current self combustion to rid the Pythia from his mind. "Don't become like me...it's up to you now, Genesis, to be the one true Individual. The future has been revealed to me through a person called the Doctor." Genesis raised an eyebrow in confusion, trying to make sense of Vael's words. "Just watch out for the Pythia's true successor...he's closer than you realize…"
And with that, Vael was finally out of time, meeting the same fate he gave his classmate Loie as he disintegrated from her mind and existence. Genesis fell to the ground with fear and confusion, wondering the meaning behind his message to her.
A tongue of flame lept up from the abyss and touched her cage. There was a gasp from the assembly of lords and councillors in the cavern, but the Pythia was unscathed. Only in her mind were there real flames. Vael had burned away the cords that she had woven. The threads that united them — that bound him to her. The anger that compelled him had finally consumed him.
How wasteful. Now she was alone.
Their eyes were all on her. One name, they all thought. That was all they wanted. A tiny boon so that their teetering Empire would go on forever. She gave a deep groan. She owed them nothing. The world tasted of dust. She felt her age for the first time. Her hands were only mottled skin stretched across brittle bone. Her world was corrupting. The people squirmed like maggots on the filthy accumulation of Gallifrey's past.
The eye of the Sphinx began to weep. The great tears of the Cat rolled down the Pythia's gilded face. It wept for the age that passed with the coming of the future. The Pythia's remaining eye stayed dry as ice. "My successor! Where is he?" she cried. "Where?"
Figures scurried in alam below. She heard drums beating outside and the distant fizz of the Council Police guns. Handstrong stood by the stair with his ceremonial sword raised. The future had rejected her, now she would take her revenge upon it's snub.
"Sisters. My sisters." she called to them alone. "This world is doomed. I curse it. As i die, so shall it wither. Go now my followers, and flee this world. Seek out the fire fountains of Karn. There you shall endure for ever. The gods shall protect you in their cupped hands."
She gripped the weave of her basket and cried aloud, "Let the world hear my curse. I am Gallifrey, sky and rock, flame and flood, womb and bone. When I am no more, the world shall be barren and empty of new life. It will live a slow ageless death and come to nothing in its own dust. I have spoken these words. Let them be fulfilled."
From her robe she pulled an ancient sacrificial blade. She reached up and cut the umbilical rope that held the basket. It plunged into the abyss and there was silence.
"But she gave no name, my lord." called one of the secretaries, scampering to keep apace. "There is no successor."
"She said, 'He '," proclaimed his lordship.
"A man, my lord? Surely not."
"Did she speak any other name? He will suffice. She foresees the future, but who says it has to be propitious for her? The Empire's just been spared a revolution."
The secretary nearly dropped his document files. "But you cannot mean…?"
"We can all hazard a guess as to His identity. We have the successor from the crone's own lips! He! "
He burst into a great rolling laugh as he picked his way throught the riot debris in the snowy courtyard. The place was deserted, but the frosty air was thick with rumor. The driver was waiting at the gate with the covered skimmer sledge. Dowtroyal snapped his fingers as he heaved himself inside. Another figure leant back in a mound of cushions.
"Right into our hands," blustered Dowtroyal. "Just as was predicted! She's dead, of course."
"I hate predictions." said the Other gloomily.
Dowtroyal looked to the driver. "Back to the Academia now. The new Pythia won't want to be kept waiting!"
He burst into another fit of laughter as the sledge pulled away. The merriment echoed up through the walls of the silent city. Finally it was drowned by a cry — the anguished shriek of a mother faced with the limp form of her stillborn child.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Before anyone asks, yes, there was a reference to the Doctor in there. In fact, it's the Seventh Doctor because it takes place exactly from the novel. When Vael and his crew travel to the future from Ancient Gallifrey, they end up colliding with his TARDIS and discovering the future of Gallifrey and it's people through him. The Pythia gets a glimpse of this, having possessed Vael's body and learns that she is the last of the Pythia and Rassilon leads after her...but not as a Pythia.
Now...as for the famous question about why there is Two Individuals when there was supposed to be one...it has been hinted in this chapter. Although the Pythia knows her next successor is supposed to be a male, Genesis is actually hinted to be the next TRUE ruler in the Pythia line. This follows the fact that back in Ancient Roman Times, the Pythia was usually a virgin girl chosen by the sisterhood. However, my twist with it is the fact that since the Pythia's powers are fading, it's because they have been transferred to Genesis who is meant to be the successor.
But, obviously Genesis isn't going to be the next Pythia, and there are consequences for it that will be revealed in chapters to come.
