Chapter 18 - Cold Steel, Warm Hearts

2007 Main Time Line/2010 Pete's World Time Line

Susan was waiting for her microwave to beep when the high pitched 'download available' tone started. The night was dark and she had a moment to be surprised at the late night activity before the pain started.

Something was trying to control her mind and there was no version of herself that would ever tolerate that.

She fell to the ground and her father's old pocket watch, the one she'd carried around with her since his death, tumbled from her hand. Golden light wisped from under the cover and with trembling fingers, she fought the compulsion in her mind, and reached for it. She grabbed it and then flicked it open.

She screamed as pain coursed through her, her ear buds falling, smoking, from her ears, but she hardly noticed, the agony was so intense.

"Help me!" she screamed. What was happening to her? Terrified and confused, Susan Campbell, the temp from Chiswick, died.

Susanatrevalar was lying on the floor, the open pocket watch lying beside her. Oh God, it hurt so much. She hadn't even completely finished her regeneration when she'd been changed into a human and now her Time Lord biology was making up for lost time, and with a vengeance.

Her ears, still bleeding from where her ear buds had been trying to possess her, were healing up and golden light was still licking along her skin.

Memory was overwhelming her and she was horrified as she realized that her whole world had died and for six months she hadn't even been able to mourn for it. She was crying, sobbing out her grief and loss.

Her memories of this world confused her. Where was she? Where had Great Gran sent her? Zeppelins, in London of the early 21st century made no sense to her.

She recalled the dream she'd had of Koschei. He'd changed his face, asked where she was. That was an odd thing for her to dream about. He was a psychopath, a mass-murderer, an insane narcissist, and yet still she dreamed of him, wanted him, and needed him. She still clung to Darginian's words, remembered that he's said the Master had still been trying to get to her. It ought to terrify her that he hadn't forgotten her, instead, it made her feel better.

How utterly pathetic.

She lay on the floor and the pain was finally subsiding. She was hearing people shouting, screaming, and the sounds of booted feet. She knew that she had to rise, to help, but she could barely move. This regeneration wasn't going well at all. Having it delayed by six months was causing problems.

She had to get to her TARDIS. She'd be safe in there, unlike the rest of London's citizens…

"Oh, God! Donna! Mr. Mott!" she cried, dragging herself upright and then struggling from her flat. She had to find them and get them to safety!

2007 MTL

Harry Saxon smiled down at his wife and tucked her arm in his. Lucy was looking up at him with glowing eyes and he reveled in her worshipful adoration of him. Here was a woman that wanted to be with him, that wanted to lie beneath him, and was flatteringly responsive.

It wasn't as good as the dreams had been though.

Nonsense. The dreams weren't real. Mrs. Lucy Saxon was real. Flesh and blood, her skin so hot under his fingers and his mouth. Susan didn't want him? Then fine, he'd show her, he'd make Lucy scream every night, proving again and again that she'd been wrong to spurn what he'd offered. He'd prove that he'd been right to leave her to die on Gallifrey.

Even if he still burned for her. Even if the memory of her made his hearts beat faster and his eyes burn with some unnamable emotion.

The wedding had been the talk of the society papers, of course. The British were such snobs, marry a Lord's daughter and you could be the lowest form of life and they'd still smarm all over you.

He pulled Lucy into a kiss, enjoying every bit of her instant submission to him. Her pulse fluttered with excitement and her simple little ape mind was instantly aroused. She was so cute, like a puppy.

Flashbulbs popped and he smiled at the cameras, Lucy looking becomingly flustered. Yes, she was working out well, she smoothed his rough edges in the press, they were so busy fluttering over her, that they were easily swayed by his lies and deceits.

Of course, Archangel helped with that. He waved at the paparazzi and stepped into their lovely home. It wasn't yet 10 Downing Street, but that would come soon enough.

He shut the door and then pushed Lucy up against it. His hands and his mind reached into her, arousing her, enjoying the power he had over her. He He went slow at first, enjoying the way she whimpered, the way she pleaded, and finally he let himself go. As he did, he saw Susan's face in his mind, huge brown eyes, waves of ginger hair, looking at him with a sad, almost pitying look.

He jerked back from Lucy, suddenly revolted by the thought that he'd been mounting this little ape.

"Harry?" she asked uncertainly and he shook his head.

"Sorry, Love, I just suddenly felt so foolish," he lied smoothly. "I should have at least gotten you to the bedroom." He forced a chuckle and she smiled shyly at him.

"Oh Harry, you know I like it when you lose control like that," she told him and he was hard pressed not to laugh. Lose control? She'd never seen him lose control and he very much doubted that she'd like the real thing at all.

"Then let's try that again, this time in a bed," he murmured seductively. To hell with Susan, she was dead and gone, there were no Time Ladies left in all the universe, so Lucy was the best he was going to get.

At least Lucy liked what he did to her. He made sure of that. Every time he went into her mind he made sure that the craving she felt for him only became stronger. It would probably drive her mad one day, but that would be fine too.

He wouldn't be alone anymore.

2007 MTL/2010 PWTL

Susan was so tired, so weak, but she made it to Donna's house anyway. She banged on the door.

"Donna! Mr. Mott! Are you okay?" she called and the door opened suddenly. Hands grabbed her and pulled her inside. Mr. Mott was looking at her with tears running down his face.

"Sylvia and Geoff, they just got this blank look and marched away! I couldn't stop them!" he cried and then Donna launched herself at Susan, hugging her hard.

"I've never been so glad to be poor in my life, Susan!" Donna sobbed. "I never could afford to buy ear buds!"

"I'm so glad you're alright!" Susan murmured, hugging her tightly back. "Look, I've got to get you two to safety, and then I'll go looking for Sylvia and Geoff!"

"To safety?" Donna wailed. "Where the hell is safe in London right now?"

"Ruskin Park," she answered, because that's where her TARDIS was parked.

It took far longer to convince Donna to go with her than she liked. She had to explain the whole concept of Cybermen and then she had to explain what she thought had happened. By the time she got them all to leave the house, the Cybermen in the streets were screaming and holding their heads. She could feel the emotions coursing through them, as they wailed in pain and horror at what they'd become.

"Oi! What's happening?" Donna shouted and Susan looked around at them, pity in her hearts.

"They've been given back their emotions, their memories, they remember being human," she told them and tears were running down her face.

"That's awful!" Mr. Mott was looking at them, concern written on his face. "Those poor people!"

"They're blowing up!" Donna screamed and Susan grabbed them and pulled them back towards the house.

Something was niggling in the back of her mind and she frowned, looking around the street.

"What is it, Susan?" Mr. Mott asked her.

"I don't know, I feel weird, like I'm forgetting something important," she answered, trying to figure out what the sensation in her head was.

Red light lit the sky in the distance and she heard the sound of a distant explosion.

"If this were my universe," she muttered. "That would be a sure sign that Grandfather was about someplace." She smiled thinking about it and then her eyes widened. "Grandfather!"

"What?" Donna called.

But Susan was off and running, her boots pounding on the London streets.

She was very close to him, when suddenly the connection ended and she was standing in the middle of the street, with a terrible emptiness in her head. The complete absence of another Time Lord's consciousness was a wrenching blow that drove her to her knees.

She was alone, completely and utterly. She was the only one of her kind in the entire universe. It was shattering. She knelt on the ground, weeping and banging her fists on the pavement. Even knowing that others might be out there somewhere, not being able to feel them in her mind was pushing her over into madness. It was so empty in her mind.

"Susan!" Mr. Mott was running up to her and he knelt beside her and pulled her into his arms. "What happened? Are you alright?"

She turned and burrowed into the old man's arms, sobbing, feeling the gentle concern he radiated and absorbing it into herself, relaxing and forcing her mind to calm.

"I thought I saw my grandfather go by, but it was just my imagination," she lied. "I miss him so much!"

"That's all right, Susie girl, you can be my grandchild if you want to," Mr. Mott assured her and she laughed softly.

"Oh," she sighed. "I'd like that." After all, just because she was four hundred years older than he was, didn't make his offer any less wonderful.

2008 MTL

The Master was standing too near to him, which was usually not a problem for Jack, but the perfect black suit and well-trimmed dark hair didn't hide how his eyes were filled with madness. Lucy, arms wrapped around herself, was standing behind him looking fragile and terrified.

"Talk to me Jack, surely he told you things," the Master was whispering. "The Doctor trusted you. He must have mentioned something, anything."

"I don't know anything," Jack repeated.

"He must have told you about his people, about his family, where did he hide them?" the Master persisted and Jack looked at him with a feeling of pity in his heart. For all that he was a homicidal maniac; he was also one of the last survivors of his race, left alone by their destruction. Jack remembered how the Doctor used to be, how grim and lost he'd been. He'd been prone to staring off into space, angry and forbidding, brooding over the past. How much more must the Master, who wasn't playing with a full deck to begin with, be suffering and dying inside. Professor Yana, the gentle, kind scientist, willing to die for the sake of the human race was there, somewhere behind the mad dark eyes. Jack could feel it sometimes and it broke his heart.

"He told me he was the last, which was obviously not true," Jack stared at the Master pointedly and the madman laughed, bitter and angry. He looked up at Jack and there was utter despair in his gaze.

"Harry, please," Lucy tugged on the Master's arm and he spun to glare at her, as though he'd forgotten that she was there.

"Everything I went through and I'm left with nothing," he whispered, staring at Lucy, but not seeing her at all. "She's still beyond my reach." He reached out and touched her face with fingers gone tender and loving, but Jack could tell that he was reaching for something that only existed in his own mind.

"Harry?" she whimpered and he dropped his hand as though it had been burned, looking at Lucy with a terrible sadness. He shrugged off her arm, as though she was little more than an annoyance, and turned back to Jack.

"He's always got the luck, the Doctor has, he must have found a way to save her, tell me!" he begged and Jack looked at him with confusion in his eyes.

"Saved who?" he asked and the Master frowned.

"His family, he'd never have left them to die. He must have saved them," the Master insisted and Jack looked at him with eyes that had seen far too much.

"I don't know who the Doctor was before the Time War, but the man I know, yeah, he'd have left them to die. If it was the difference between the universe being saved or lost, he wouldn't hesitate, he'd do it. He'd kill them all." Jack's voice was harsh with memory. He'd been sacrificed, half of Earth was destroyed, all to end the Dalek's threat.

"No, not her, he wouldn't have killed her, he loved her more than any of the rest of them." The Master stared into his eyes for long moments, waiting for some sign that Jack couldn't give him and then, when he didn't find it, he lashed out. His strength was that of a Time Lord, a strength fueled by his fury and madness, and Jack's head rocked back from the impact, pain exploding in his skull, and light flashing behind his eyes. He waited for the next blow, but the Master was already storming away, not even looking back at his wife and his prisoner as they stared after him.

"Lucy?" Jack looked at the woman who had stood by the Master for all this time and she looked up at him, blue eyes confused and sad. "Who is he looking for?"

"I don't know," she whispered, shaking her head. "Sometimes," she hesitated as though afraid to speak. "Sometimes, when he's sleeping, he says her name." She looked around, as though to be certain they were alone. "Susan," she hissed from behind her hand, as though the name itself was forbidden. Suddenly frightened by her temerity, Lucy darted from the room, leaving Jack baffled behind her.

Susan? That hardly sounded like the name of a Time Lord, but of course, what did he know? The only two he'd ever met were called the Doctor and the Master, not exactly helpful.