Note: This was a bear of a chapter to write...but I love it. Ah, Rassilon, or rather 'Ah...Timothy Dalton...dreamy'. Giggle. Sorry. Anyway, in case you're wondering how I could possibly wrap up everything that's going on in five to six more chapters the answer is: I'm not. That's right...trilogy time.
In the meantime enjoy this chapter that I stayed up till 1 am to bring to you!
PS- never fear this is not the last chapter!
Chapter Thirty-three
"Back so soon, Doctor?"
The Valeyard stared at the insect like Kraid with an uncomfortable tension spread across his shoulders. He didn't like the way Kraid's multi-faceted eyes gazed at him blankly. Unaware that anything was wrong Kraid flicked his wings and waited for a response. The Valeyard forced a friendly smile.
"Yes." He answered simply.
"Is that the Crown of Rassilon?" Kraid asked as he pointed an impossibly thin finger at the copper ring clutched in the Valeyard's hand.
"Yes." The Valeyard answered again.
"That should make your entry into the Matrix much smoother this time."
"Right." The Valeyard shifted his weight uncomfortably. "I'm not actually here for the Matrix."
"Oh? What do you need, Doctor?"
"I need the piece of the Heart of the TARDIS that I left here."
"Ah, that is a tricky request. We did as you asked with it."
"Remind me again what that was."
Kraid seemed to be startled by the Valeyard's request for information. Or at least the Valeyard assumed he was startled, it was hard to tell with the creature's alien features. Kraid flicked his wings again, but this time with a more nervous beat to them. The alien leader's lidless bulging eyes continued to regard the Valeyard in what was becoming a long silence.
"I've been through a lot recently, Kraid." The Valeyard said in an injured tone. "I'm not a young man anymore and my memory is suffering from it."
"I understand, Doctor, I am not as youthful as I appear either." Kraid gave the Valeyard an awkward bow. "We placed sliver of the Heart of the TARDIS deep in the Matrix systems connected to a maze of circuits that would allow the Matrix the ability to move the Heart at will."
"So only the Matrix knows where it is now." The Valeyard sighed.
"Exactly. You asked us to do that as part of the security measures. Only a Time Lord would have enough control over the Matrix to force it into giving up the Heart."
"I guess I need to take a trip then. I brought the Crown just in case, but..."
"I can understand your hesitation, Doctor." Kraid said when the Valeyard didn't finish. "Your last trip did seem to strain you a great deal, but with the Crown of Rassilon you should be much safer in dealing with the Matrix's power."
"Right."
The Valeyard was much more concerned about the idea that there was a trap set up by the Doctor waiting for him than with any dangers the normal Matrix would hold. He was completly confident in his ability to control the Matrix once inside. Reminding himself that he needed the piece of the Heart of the TARDIS if wanted to complete the Timonic Fusion Device and save River the Valeyard drew his shoulders back and told Kraid to take him down to the main interface chamber.
"I will be right here if you need me, Doctor." Kraid announced.
"Thank you."
Unlike when the Doctor had torn apart the wiring to gain direct access to the Matrix the Valeyard was able to sit in the lounge like chair that dominated the centre of the room. He took a deep breath and after steadying his suddenly shaky nerves he placed the crown on his head. Closing his eyes the Valeyard stiffened as the Matrix seized him.
Landing hard on his hands and knees on a glittering rainbow of a diamond hard surface the Valeyard gasped. Even with the power of the Crown there were suddenly millions of voices all talking at once in his mind. Clamping his hands down over his ears the Valeyard weld his eyes shut as the voices turned to a splitting pain.
"Shut up!" The Valeyard cried.
Much to his surprise the voices instantly fell silent. Opening his eyes the Valeyard looked around at the plain white room that he suddenly found himself in. Getting to his feet he was startled when he turned around and found Romana standing before him. Wearing a flowing multi layered white gown Romana held herself with all the grace of a true Time Lady. The Valeyard smiled to see the familiar face, but Romana remained cold.
"Roma..."
"Who are you?" Romana's construct demanded. "You are not the Doctor. What are you doing here?"
"I am the Valeyard, I need the Heart of the..."
"No, you can not be the Valeyard. The Valeyard is a..."
"I'll handle this, Romana." A dangerous voice cut in.
The Valeyard turned and an icy jab of fear stabbed through him as he faced the imposing figure of Rassilon. Unlike Romana's mute and demur clothing Rassilon was dressing in the blood red and gold robes of a Gallifreyan Lord at war. The Valeyard looked over his shoulder and noticed that Romana was already gone, having been forced away by the more powerful Time Lord. The Valeyard swallowed his panic and reminded himself that this was not Rassilon, but rather a replica of his personality and knowledge. Realizing that the idea of Rassilon's construct was just as threatening as the man himself the Valeyard tried to use his control over the Matrix to send him away. Rassilon stood stubbornly in place and glared at the Valeyard.
"Doctor..."
"I am no longer the Doctor," the Valeyard said firmly "I am the Valeyard now."
"Really?" Rassilon replied without much interest. "You are the ultimate regeneration of the Doctor? You expect me to believe that's you?"
"I am everything he is not." The Valeyard replied as he gained some confidence.
"You don't look like the Valeyard."
"I chose this form."
"Why would anyone *choose* to look as you do?" Rassilon sneered.
"I have no trouble with the ladies if that's what you mean." The Valeyard smirked.
"It is not." Rassilon narrowed his eyes. "A Time Lord should have a more dignified look, but that's neither here nor there seeing as you are most certainly *not* a Time Lord."
"Wha..."
The Valeyard was suddenly cut off as Rassilon made a slight gesture that forced the Valeyard to knees with the push of an unseen hand. Before he could even try to get up the Valeyard found his hands pinned behind his back by invisible bounds. Pulling at his wrists the Valeyard fought to get to his feet, but he was held firmly in place kneeling on the floor. Bile jumped to the back of his throat as his fear of being restrained threatened to take over his senses. Rassilon's construct stepped up and grabbed a handful of the Valeyard's hair to yank his head back.
"What are you?" Rassilon demanded.
"Wha...what?"
"How did you get in here? The Matrix is only for Time Lords."
"I...I'm a Ti...Time Lord..." The Valeyard stuttered.
"No, no you are close, but you are something else, something corrupted. What has the Doctor been up to now? Why is he sending a puppet to do his work?"
"I am not the Doctor's puppet!" The Valeyard snarled as anger broke through his fear. "I am a Time Lord and I am every bit as powerful as the Doctor!"
"If that were true you could stop me, you could control the Matrix, but you are helpless here." Rassilon pointed out calmly as he released his grip on the Valeyard's hair. "I can settle this easily enough. Whoever you are you are wearing the Crown and that doesn't just let you into the Matrix, but it allows the Matrix into you. Let's take a look at those memories of yours, shall we?"
"No!" The Valeyard cried in panic. "Let me go! I reject this!"
""I reject this'...right there, that's a statement that if said by a proper Time Lord while in the Matrix would fix any fault or injury that had occurred. You're just saying it out of rote memory, there is no power behind your words."
"Please!"
"Now there is a more powerful word." Rassilon nodded. "It's never worked on me though."
The Valeyard fought bitterly with the psychic chains that kept him on his knees. He tried to reason that if could just calm down he would have a better chance at controlling the Matrix that held him. However with his paralyzing phobia of being bound crushing down on his hearts he could barely gasp for breath. He was easy prey for Rassilon as he stepped up and pressed his fingertips against his temple. The Valeyard jerked violently as the Matrix poured into his head through the constructed personality of Rassilon.
"Hmmm...what's this?" Rassilon muttered as tore into the Valeyard's mind. "Is this your past or the Doctor's? The Doctor is certainly in here. Let's have a closer look..."
The Valeyard's world spun sickeningly for a moment and when it stabilized he found himself once again pinned to the awkward upright table in the Minyan lab. Looking up at Jackel's savage device the Valeyard instantly began gagging violently as his throat closed in on him from the rush of fear and adrenaline. Back in the nightmare of his agonizing birth he trembled hard enough to mimic the look of a full scale seizure. With no steel lanced through his chest this time he was able to draw a deep breath and wail in terror. Rassilon ignored his captive's incessant screaming as he looked around the reconstructed memory.
"Minyans...well I suppose they were bound to come back and bite some unlucky Time Lord in the ass." Rassilon chuckled. "I have to admit that I take a certain satisfaction that it was the Doctor they caught up to. Still doesn't explain where you come into the picture...or does it?"
Unable to concentrate on anything other than the looming threat of continuing the tortures of the past the Valeyard's screaming degraded into a bitter weeping. Rassilon watched the Valeyard with a disinterested look in his dark ancient eyes. The Valeyard's eyes rolled back to white momentarily as his mind fell deeper into the memory. He struggled like a fish on a line before being reduced to screaming once more. After one last desperate bid for freedom the Valeyard's fell silent and his entire body suddenly went slack, staring sightless at the floor tears continued to stream silently down his face.
"Interesting, the Minyans actually broke the Doctor, truly broke him."
Rassilon reached out and touched the Valeyard's cheek with an almost affectionate brush. Still staring sightlessly at nothing the Valeyard convulsed slightly at the contact. Completely lost in the recreation of the past blood dripped from his parted lips as his torn open mind convinced him that he was once again impaled and frozen in a never ending death. Watching carefully Rassilon nodded in understanding.
"So that's what you are," Rassilon said with a hint of pity in his deep voice "a ghost, a shadow, just a vessel for bad dreams so the guilty can sleep."
The Valeyard momentarily seemed to come back to life as he furrowed his brow at Rassilon's words. With blood and tears streaking his face he looked up at Rassilon with forlorn red-rimmed eyes. Rassilon grabbed a hold of the silk shirt from Dakari that the Valeyard still wore and violently tore it open. Terrified of catching sight of his own chest the Valeyard weld his eyes shut as he shivered. Rassilon traced the spiral scars splashed across the Valeyard's chest causing them to glow gold once more. Unable to speak the Valeyard simply moaned against the pain that the glowing marks burned into him.
"This is a crime unlike any other, to burden an innocent with cast off memories to free yourself from them." The Rassilon smiled brightly despite his somber words. "I have long waited to drag the Doctor back to Gallifrey and have him stripped of everything before being put to the slow death he so deeply deserves."
Consumed by his thoughts of victory over the Doctor Rassilon didn't even notice that he was just as guilt of tormenting the Valeyard as he continue to let him spiral into debilitating panic. Tugging at his pinned wrists the Valeyard started weakly dry heaving as his fear twisted his already knotted stomach. The blood that had marred his lip turned now to a pink foam as his abdomen jerked spasmodically. Another smile spread across Rassilon's face as he studied the effect of just being back in the setting of the memory was having on its victim.
"He will not escape these charges, not this time." Rassilon crowed in triumph. "This is what drew you to the Matrix. That is why you call yourself 'The Valeyard', as champion of justice you came here seeking it for yourself, and you will have it! I will have the Doctor on his hands and knees before the High Council begging for mercy that he will not receive."
Uninterested in justice or even vengeance at the moment the Valeyard closed his eyes and whimpered. His thoughts were stumbling over one another as he tried to separate the past from the present without much success. He arched back as a vivid memory of intense pain lashed through his body. Having been unable to scream during his first time on the table from the Blades he stayed silent this time as well, although he wasn't sure why.
"Where is the Council? How has this even been allowed to happen?" Rassilon's construct demanded. "What about the Time War? Is it over? It must be if the Doctor had the time to have a run in with the Minyans."
With the Matrix having been placed in the Doctor's mind before the end of the Great Time War Rassilon's copy was working off outdated knowledge. Rassilon turned a fiery intense gaze on the Valeyard as he realized that the answers were with him. Licking his lips like a wolf looking at weakened prey Rassilon reached out to touch the Valeyard's temple once more.
"Show me," Rassilon breathed in anticipation "show me my victory at the end of the War."
"N...n...no!" The Valeyard cried as he suddenly found his voice. "Stop! Pl...please! Not the War! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I did what I had to!"
"Hush child, that's just the Doctor's cowardice talking."
"Forgive me." The Valeyard whispered as tears ran down his face once more. "You gave me no choice..."
Rassilon furrowed his dark brow and hesitated for a moment. The Valeyard stared into his eyes, silently begging him not to pry the truth from him. With an angry snarl Rassilon dug his fingers savagely into the Valeyard's temple. An explosion of chaotic memories starting with his incarceration in Alkinar, and quickly passing through the real reason for him wanting to be there to steal the Great Key that lead to the Doctor's possession of the De-mat Gun and eventually to the explosion of the Moment that ended all of Gallifrey and all of her children with the exception of the Doctor himself.
Having witnessed his defeat and the destruction of the entire Time Lord empire that he had proudly created and ruled over Rassilon's construct momentarily lost control of the Matrix himself. Free from the memory of the Minyan ship the Valeyard dropped to his hands and knees on the red marble floor of Rassilon's main chamber back on Gallifrey. Disoriented the Valeyard only got as far as his knees and then simply stared up at Rassilon.
Pacing in front of his large ornate wooden desk with all the rage of a caged tiger Rassilon screamed and swept the objects off his desk with a powerful hand. Having absorbed all of the memories that theValeyard had to offer he clenched his hands into fists as he saw that the Doctor had not defied him once but twice when he also kept Gallifrey from rising again with the Master's help. He poured over every detail of the Doctor's life since the destruction of his world and with every passing second his fury grew.
"This...this *treason* will not go unpunished!" Rassilon roared. "I shall stand as Judge and Jury, and you, you my beautiful Valeyard..."
The exhausted Valeyard couldn't even think of trying to scramble out of the way as Rassilon bared down on him. Rassilon dropped to his knees in front of him and dug his hands into the front of the Valeyard's chest. The Valeyard threw his head back and screamed as Rassilon sunk his hands right through him and latched down on his hearts.
"...you shall be the Executioner."
The Valeyard arched back as his chest began to glow a bright gold as Rassilon squeezed his hearts till he feared that they would burst. When Rassilon released him he slumped forward for a moment before he brought his bowed head up. Through a tangle of brown hair the Valeyard glared at Rassilon spitefully. Sweat glistened and rolled off his skin in a glittery shimmer, gold dripped from his lips and streaked his face as it ran down like tears from his glowing eyes. The Valeyard blinked and the gold sheen vanished from his eyes, leaving just a slightly unfocused stare.
"You will burn the Doctor's entire Universe." Rassilon ordered in a dark growl.
"Y...yes, Lord Rassilon." The Valeyard replied hollowly.
"You will make sure that long before you are through with him that the Doctor will wish he completed his genocide of the Time Lords by turning the gun on himself while he still had the chance!"
"Yes, My Lord."
"Start with the Earth, and end with this 'River Song'. I want him to murder her with his bare hands just to end the agony she suffers at yours."
"...as you wish."