A/N - This chapter has some trigger warnings for abuse and rape. Skip the bits between Susan and Rassilon, if you are sensitive to these sorts of things. I promise that I understand and won't be offended.
Chapter 16 – Gallifrey Falling
Susan sat in her room and looked out at the burning city below her. The bombs fell nearly every day now. The Dalek fleet was growing closer.
She however, knew little about the course of the War. She was a prisoner of the High Council. While they searched for the Master, she was left in solitary confinement, awaiting his capture, or death. If they caught him, if they killed him, then they would bring some stranger to her and force their way into her mind, force her into a binding, eternal link with someone whose sole aim would be to control her power.
They'd burn her out to achieve their goals. She'd be dead, but her body would be walking around, reduced to a mere housing for an ancient power of madness and destruction.
"That was a pleasant thought," she grumbled to herself. "Very cheery, Susan." She was praying that the Master was at his most brilliant, that he had found a place to hide that even they couldn't find him. Both of their lives depended on it.
The door opened and she gathered herself for the daily torture.
Rassilon swept into the room; his face hard and cold, his eyes like chips of glass.
She breathed out in relief. She dreaded the day he came in happy, for she would know then that Koschei was dead.
"Your Highness," he snarled, mocking her and she bowed her head, Princess of the Blood to Lord President. If this was today's game, she would play it with dignity and grace. He pulled a whip from beneath his robes and she made herself freeze inside. She would feel nothing and that would keep her from crying, or begging. Whatever happened, she would face it with courage.
She lay on the floor, bleeding and cold. She felt nothing, cared about nothing. She killed her feelings, her thoughts, became cold clay to keep herself safe from him.
He rolled her over and snarled.
"See for me, Seeress! Find him! You are bound to him! You must know where he is!" She gave him nothing; no reaction and he pulled his robes off, stripping in front of her. She closed her eyes, retreating farther into her mind.
When he pushed inside of her, a brutal invasion that mocked all that she'd had with her husband, she winced and then berated herself for her reaction.
"I can continue with this as often as is required, girl! You can lie under me for weeks, as I brutalize every part of you. Tell me where he is!"
She opened her eyes and saw the excitement and pleasure in his face. He was enjoying this, reveling in his power over her, in his ability to humble her, knowing her to be helpless to fight him. He was panting and sweating, the pain inside of her mixing with her body's reactions to the act itself.
"Never."
As horrific as it was, the pain was better than feeling any sort of enjoyment. He knew that, forcing her to feel everything, his mind inside of hers, stimulating her pleasure centers, making her feel ashamed of her body's response.
"Admit it, you like it, don't you?" he mocked her and she closed her eyes again, trying to force him out of her mind.
As guilty as she had felt about the dreams she'd had of the Master, this was so much worse. There could be no question of consent, no desire to surrender. She fought his mind tooth and nail, even knowing it was ultimately futile. She was crying now, tears pouring down her face.
She fought against the urge to reach for Koschei, to beg for his help, to do so would compromise him completely. Rassilon could follow that trail back to him; find him wherever he was hiding. So, she wept, bled, and fought, alone against the most powerful Time Lord in history, on the floor of her prison.
When he finally left, she was as close to broken as she had ever been. Not since she'd had to destroy Trinity had she been so lost, so devastated. She cried for a long time, before rising, going into the shower and scrubbing herself raw.
Then she went to her medic's satchel and pulled out her equipment. With meticulous care she healed every cut, scratch, bruise, and bite mite mark.
She only wished that she could heal her mind as easily.
The Master was in trouble. The blast from ripping open the lock had brought the Dalek Emperor through with him and the ship had fired on him as he tried to flee. His TARDIS wouldn't last much longer and he had so much to do.
He had to get himself through the Chameleon Arch, and then take himself somewhere the Time Lords would never find him. He hesitated though.
What if he never got back to her?
"To hell with her!" he shouted at the empty console room. Two hundred years of wanting, of needing, of being denied again and again, he needed to be done with this! It was obvious that she didn't want him! She hated him and for good reason! She should hate him! She could never have felt any of the terrible hunger that raged through him, or she'd have tried to find him, to reach him.
His mind returned to her standing, mouth opening to speak, as he was whisked away from her, but he shook his head in denial. That had been her making certain he was gone, he mustn't twist it in his mind into some sort of hope.
He recalled her gentle sweetness when their minds had touched, her laughing joy when he'd gone in to bring her back to life. Surely that had meant something. The Vision haunted him; they'd all die if he didn't get her out of there.
The Daleks were firing on him, there was no way he'd survive going back in there.
The Doctor. Yes. The Doctor would save her. He loved her, he'd never let her die in there. He was that sort of person.
The Master would become human, forget her, and when he woke he'd go find her! Yes. Or maybe he'd be free. Maybe he'd wake up and he'd finally be completely free of her, of Gallifrey, of all of them. Either way, he'd have won.
He jammed the Arch on his head and smiled.
Things were finally working out for him.
"My Lady Susanatrevalar," a stranger's voice spoke and her eyes flew open in sudden hope. Another dream? Was it him? She blinked up into the face of the CIA agent from before. It was interesting how they kept meeting like this, she thought with a touch of hysteria.
"Agent…" she realized she couldn't remember his name.
"Captain Darginian, my Lady," he reminded her and then handed over her robes. "Come quickly please." Her mouth went dry with fear.
"Please tell me that they haven't caught him!" she begged and his eyes on hers were searching.
"No my Lady, he's not been caught," he answered and she slumped in relief. "Please, my Lady, we have very little time." She caught the urgency in his voice and rose, pulling the robes on over her night rail.
"What is it?"
"Please my Lady, the Lady Professor requests your attendance." She was gaping at him in confusion, but following after him regardless.
"I'm a prisoner," she pointed out.
"I'm your guard, my Lady, if I am with you, then technically you still are," he replied and she caught the gleam of amusement in his eyes. She smiled at him and nodded.
"Quite true, Captain, quite true."
She slipped on her shoes and followed him through the dark corridors. The Citadel was blacked out for night, all generators shut down to keep the Daleks from being able to pinpoint targets. The Great Dome above them still arched protectively, but everyone knew that it was just a matter of time.
Darginian led her through the twisted maze, keeping to little used corridors until they reached a single ancient Trans Mat.
"If we use this, they will quickly trace us, Captain," she pointed out and he nodded. Flipping back his cloak revealed a d-mat gun at his hip.
"Yes, my Lady, I am well aware," he informed her and she fell silent.
The minor disorientation of travel passed quickly and she watched him methodically destroying the machinery.
"I will assume that you have some plan, Captain?"
"The Lady Professor is the one with the plan. I am just following her orders." He finished what he was doing and then, still kneeling at the controls, looked up at her with an earnest expression. "He never stopped wanting to get back to you, my Lady." She felt her hearts skipping a few beats and then she nodded, tears in her eyes.
"I would have done anything to reach him, Captain, but if Rassilon had ever even guessed…" she whispered and it was his turn to nod his understanding.
He rose and waved her forward and together they ran down the dim corridors.
"He's quite mad though, not a safe fellow," he added and she shot him a wry smile.
"I've been in his head, Captain, I am quite well aware," she shot back with some asperity. "There's a lot more in there than just the insanity, though." She tried to find words and then just shrugged. "At the very core of him, he's utterly beautiful."
"Yes, my Lady, I can see that," he replied and she beamed up at him, finally having found someone who could understand why she'd protect Koschei, why she'd want to find him, to be with him, despite the madness, despite the vicious hurt done to him.
"If I could just get to him, I could repair much of the damage, bring him back to himself." She so desperately longed to reach him, to pull the bulk of those terrible black cords from his mind, to free him from the bondage Rassilon had bound him into.
"I'm sorry, my Lady, but he's blown a hole in the Time Lock and escaped." She stumbled, falling to her knees in shock. He grabbed her arm and hauled her to her feet. "Sorry, didn't mean to be so blunt." She shook her head.
He was gone. He'd left without her and the betrayal of that was so terrible it was as though a yawning chasm had opened beneath her. She shook her head. No. Darginian said he'd never stopped trying to get to her. If he had left, if he'd saved himself, then it was that the commands laid into him by the High Council had overridden his will.
A second Trans Mat was stepped thorough and the two of them were now in her family's light flyer hanger.
It was filled with Void ships and as she watched, one of them vanished.
"Captain Darginian, Susan, thank Omega!" her Great Gran announced. "Your young man has opened a way for us out of the Time Lock." Only the Lady Professor, Susan thought to herself, would call the Master her "young man", as though it were a perfectly ordinary courtship.
She hugged the elder lady briefly and then went to where Romana was helping Leela get the last few ships loaded.
Another ship blinked out of existence, and another, until only four remained.
"But the Doctor!" Romana protested, her raven black hair hanging around her face in sleep tousled waves. We've switched, Susan mused, I used to be black haired, now I'm a blond.
"He is already outside the Lock, he will be safe, Romana, and we don't have time!" Great Gran scolded and shoved her towards the Chameleon Arch with little ceremony.
Romana's screams were frightening and Susan turned to watch Leela, as she dragged the float gurney with her unconscious husband's cryo-coffin on it, into the Void ship, to take her mind off of what she would soon be going through. She waved goodbye and Leela nodded grimly at her, face filled with purpose and worry.
Darginian shouted and Susan saw the guards coming from the house interior. They must have direct transferred from the Citadel. She ran forwards, grabbing at the door controls, trying to shut them out before they reached the launch bay.
She had to give Great Gran time to finish with Romana.
Darginian hauled on the door, trying to hurry it along, and then a sudden pain screamed through her left side, just before they got the door sealed, the beam of the guard's weapon burning along her body.
"My Lady!" Darginian shouted and caught her as she fell. Golden light was filling up her vision and she swore fiercely.
"Not now!" she urged, but it was too late. Her mind was filled with rage and fury at the bad timing. She'd delay the whole thing now! A red haze was rising in her mind, as Darginian hoisted her in his arms and dropped her onto a spare pallet, his face creased in concern.
Great Gran shot her a worried glance and then quickly helped Romana into her cryo- coffin and then loaded her on board her ship and launched it. Andred and Leela were already gone, Susan noted. It was just her, Darginian, and Great Gran now.
"Susan, this is going to be difficult for you and I'm so sorry." The words were meaningless as Susan realized that this regeneration had barely lasted her ninety-eight years, which was quite disheartening.
She could feel the regeneration just starting to settle when the Chameleon Arch was clamped onto her head. Her eyes flew open in alarm. Too soon! The regeneration process needed time to fully complete before the Arch was used! This could really kill her!
"Lady Professor!" Darginian cried in alarm.
"Great Gran!" she choked out and the Lady Professor lowered her head in sorrow.
"There is no more time! We must go now, or never," was her answer and then the agony began.
Near the End of Everything
Professor Yana was startled from a daydream and looked down to where his hand had been idly sketching. A woman's face had emerged from the scribbles, a face full of laughter, a face full of strength. He stared at it, baffled. All of his life, he'd dreamed of this same woman, sometimes she was blond haired and blue eyed, sometimes her hair was chocolate brown and her eyes were emeralds, but no matter what she looked like, in every dream he'd burned for her.
During his waking hours no woman could hold his interest for even a few moments, he just couldn't bring himself to care that much. The few experiences he'd had as a young man had convinced him that there was simply something wrong with him. No matter how good it was in the moment, he was left feeling hollow, as though he was starving, but no food was ever able to fill him up.
"Chan Professor Dahl?" his assistant called his attention back to his work and he crumpled up the paper and tossed it away. He was a stupid old man to be dreaming of a lover's arms at his age. He shook his head and went back to work; there were so many lives depending on him.
2006 MTL/2009PWTL
Susan Campbell stepped into the offices of HC Clements for her first day of work and looked around with a nervous, perplexed expression. This was the third temp job she'd had in two months, and she still felt lost. She never seemed to feel at home anywhere, though.
"Hello! You must be the new girl, I'm Donna Noble!" a cheery ginger bounced up to her and extended a hand, her voice loud, and her walk full of energy and vigor. "And you're a ginger too! Finally! I'm not alone anymore!" The other woman's smile was broad and infectious and Susan found herself grasping the offered hand firmly and smiling back. The woman had large brown eyes that seemed filled with a joy in living that Susan was far from feeling herself. She had a broad cheerful smile and an energy about her that seemed to take up far more room than she could physically occupy.
"I'm Susan Campbell," she introduced herself and the other woman cocked her head in bright-eyed interest.
"Campbell? Are you Scottish?"
"No, my husband was," she answered slowly. The grief was fading now, but she still missed him a lot.
"Divorced?" she asked with sympathy and Susan shook her head.
"He was killed in a car accident last year," she answered, though it still didn't seem quite real to her. Sometimes she dreamed that he had grown old, withering away while she stayed young, but the hospital therapist told her it was probably a metaphor for how she felt about being widowed.
"I'm so sorry!" Donna blurted and Susan could see that she really was. Donna Noble was a warm generous soul and there was no pretense in her at all. "Well, you come along now, Susan, I'll get you settled. This place is a bit posh; most of the folks are a bit snobbish too, but still its good money!" Susan smiled and followed along behind her. She felt like a dingy being pulled along in the wake of a steamer, but there was something so comforting about the other woman, that Susan hardly minded.
Near the End of Everything
He opened the watch, felt the terrible pain of being re-written of remembering that he had been living a fiction. Yana died and the Master was reborn.
The little bug was staring at him in distress and the bitter anger overcame him. Sixty years he'd been stuck as a human, sixty years spent being some sort of wandering saint! How nauseating.
"Chan Professor Dahl?" she was babbling at him again. Why couldn't she just shut up! He needed to think. The Doctor was here, was he trying to bring him back, to return him to Gallifrey? Where was Susan?
Damn it! He should be over this, back in control of himself! Why did he still ache for that woman?
The bug was still talking! The stupid bug that hadn't even thought to ask about the watch! She was responsible for this whole situation, he could have been gone years ago! He turned his blazing eyes on her and watched her step back from him in sudden alarm.
He had the Doctor's TARDIS here, he realized, and that gave him a plan.
He'd regenerated; his body was strong and vigorous again. He jumped up from the floor of the TARDIS and laughed.
He could feel the TARDIS trying to reject him. It had never forgiven him for calling her a "Stupid Antique" during that Axos incident. Still, his connection to Susan kept her from kicking him out completely or locking up the controls. Now, if the antique piece of junk could just take him to her!
"HA!" he shouted and the soft, faint voice deep inside of him drew him. He'd go back to Gallifrey, find her, claim her, and destroy everyone that got in his way. He'd dreamed about her even as a human, yearned for her body against his, and he would have her now, finally and at last.