AU!Series 9: What We Deserve
Warnings: dark themes, violence, torture, m/f, f/f & m/f/f relationships, explicit scenes.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. If I did…damn you, Moffat!
Summary: Wherein Missy and Clara clash over chess. (And the author attempts Whovian techno babble).
Clara watched with a certain amount of disguised amusement, at her two reluctant travelling companions as they worked. Seated on the upper gantry steps, she kept out of the way of the frenetic movements of the two Time Lords, dancing around one another in harmony even as they bickered.
"I told you to connect the dimensional extrapolator to the spatial inverter, not the co-ordinate calculation matrix! Honestly, no wonder you never get anywhere you want to go," Missy sighed dramatically, snatching the sonic screwdriver from the Doctor's hand. He snatched it right back again with a glare.
"We manage just fine, thank you very much!" he growled, pointing the sonic at something on the console which fizzed and sparked when he fiddled with it. "And I thought you were in charge of not firing us into a black hole! Not meddling with my Tardis console!"
"Your Tardis console wouldn't need meddling with if you'd just upgraded to a Type 60 when you had the chance," Missy sniped back, rolling her eyes as a particularly vicious cloud of sparks suddenly rained down around her. "Oh you're obsolete and you know it, you old heap of junk! And if you burn my hair, I'll rip out your dematerialisation circuit and leave you floating next to a supernova!"
Clara couldn't quite hold back a giggle at that one. It seemed she wasn't the only one the Tardis took exception to. To be fair, Missy had apparently once stolen her and butchered her innards to become something called a Paradox Machine. She had some cause for dislike, at least.
"Hey! Stop insulting her and she might not rain down sparks on your precious hair every few minutes," the Doctor replied snidely, receiving a sharp slap on the arm from his fellow Time Lord.
"I wouldn't need to insult her if you actually knew what you were doing!" she retorted with a teasing grin, twirling away from the Doctor with a flourish. Clara's eyes met hers, and as always, she refused to look away.
For the past week, they'd all cohabited in a kind of wary, uneasy truce. The Doctor spent their time working and sniping at one another, while Clara watched them both. Missy liked blaring random choices of music from the console every minute of the day, and the Doctor just sighed and looked pained. The chalkboards had increased from three to ten; all filled to the edges with mathematical equations that Clara suspected even Danny wouldn't have had a clue about.
The thought of him sent a pang through her, as it always did, but she was slowly starting to heal. At least the mere mention of him didn't send her crying to her room now. No, the crying stage of her grief was over.
After the Doctor had explained his odd history with Missy, Clara felt like she could understand a little bit more. What prompted him to protect her, how she'd turned out the way she did…not that it justified her crimes. But Clara could understand, just a little. It made living with her easier, anyway.
Since the two Gallifreyans needed barely any sleep, Clara rarely saw them outside of the console room. They barely seemed to stop, intent on their work. Clara would have almost felt like a spare part, useless and unwanted, if it weren't for the memory of the hug the Doctor had given her and the heavy weight of Missy's device in her pocket. And the lingering gaze of Missy whenever the Doctor wasn't looking.
The blaring opening chords of 'Supermassive Black Hole' by Muse tore Clara from her ruminations, looking up to see the Doctor slap Missy's hand away from the console, and see her slap his hand right back.
"When you two have quite finished acting like an old married couple," she quipped, prompting the two to stare at her. The Doctor gaped like a fish out of water, while Missy smirked after a sideways glance at the Doctor.
"Yes, Miss Oswald," she replied in a girlish, singsong voice. "Come now, Doctor. We must do what teacher says."
"You always were teacher's pet," the Doctor scoffed, as he turned away. Missy laughed.
"Only because I was better at pretending than you," she retorted easily, moving away from him with a conspiratorial smile in Clara's direction. "Well, what did he expect when he kept raving about perceiving the meaning of life in a daisy? Honestly, no wonder you failed first time round."
Despite herself, Clara laughed. The Doctor rolled his eyes. "When you've quite finished ganging up on me," he growled, eying them both warily. Even the Tardis had hummed in amusement at Missy's story. Traitor. "I'm going to the storeroom."
"Going to sulk is more like it," Clara muttered, rolling her eyes. Even older and more serious than his previous incarnations, he was still such a child at times. He disappeared with a loaded glance at Clara, his brows furrowed with worry. She knew he was worried for her, especially with the disintegrator in her pocket, but it warmed her to know he still trusted her enough to leave her alone with the woman she'd been willing to kill only ten days ago.
A peaceful silence fell, as Missy went back to scribbling more equations on the chalkboards, and Clara watched, falling into a kind of daze. "Tell me, Clara," Missy began, breaking the almost peaceful silence. "Do you play chess?"
Clara gaped at her, as she stopped writing, tapping the chalk against her chin thoughtfully. She'd not glanced in her direction once in that entire sentence. "W-what?" she stammered.
"Do you play chess? I always find that distractions can work wonders when one's mind is refusing to co-operate," Missy continued, finally looking in her direction.
"Why not ask the Doctor? He'd probably be better matched to you than I am," Clara replied, after a moment, scrambling for her wits.
"Oh, Mr. Cross Pants isn't all he's cracked up to be," the Time Lady giggled, before giving Clara a conspiratorial look. "But don't tell him I said that. Poor dear gets ever so upset if his ego's insulted."
"And you don't?" Clara retorted without thinking. Missy eyed her with an appreciative grin now, all her attention on the human.
"Touché," she murmured. "So you can play."
"I didn't say I could pl-?" Clara protested.
"You implied the Doctor would be a better match for me than yourself, which further implies a grasp of the game. Yes?" she interrupted her with a raised hand, manicured red nails glinting in the soft lighting of the console room. Clara mentally cursed herself for not being quicker, but short of retreating, an option she refused to contemplate, she couldn't see a way out.
Seemingly satisfied with Clara's silence for an answer, Missy stepped away from the chalkboards and towards a small table. She swiped it clear of equipment, seemingly uncaring about the detritus now littering the floor, and to Clara's shock, reached into her coat pockets and retrieved a small travelling chess set.
"Gallifreyan tailoring. Bigger on the inside," Missy explained at Clara's look, with a gleeful smile. She gestured her towards the table as she set out the pieces. "Now which side do you prefer? Oh wait, silly me. It'll be white for you," she tittered mockingly, and Clara bristled but refused to react.
"Drop the act," was all she said, coldly. "It doesn't fool me, this snide little girl act."
"Who said I was acting, dear?" Missy replied with a chuckle. "White moves first, remember?"
Clara bent over the board, trying to formulate a strategy in her head. She'd played chess at school, but hadn't carried it on past secondary school. She'd be lucky if she remembered all the rules. After a moment, she picked a pawn at random and moved it forward.
"Careful," Missy admonished. "Chess is a game of strategy, my dear."
"And what if my strategy is to be as random as possible? Then you'd never be able to predict which move I'll make next," Clara replied challengingly. Missy leant on the console, crossing her arms as she stared down at the board, thoughtfully chewing her bottom lip. It made the red of her lipstick even brighter as it swelled, and Clara found herself oddly fascinated by it.
"True," the Time Lady sighed. "But there's a strategy behind even the most seemingly random moves. Much like life, innit?"
The sudden switch to an East End London accent reminded Clara of what the Doctor had told her before, about Missy being responsible for bringing them together and keeping them together. Just as Missy moved her first pawn, Clara spoke.
"I know. The Doctor told me you were responsible for our meeting," she said softly, as Missy sighed. "What I want to know is why."
"Do you know when the first time I saw you was?" was the Time Lady's reply. "On Gallifrey. During the fall of Arcadia."
Clara shut her eyes involuntarily at that, remembering the carnage, the sound of Daleks screeching their hateful catchphrase to the skies, the screams of children, the smell of blood.
"I knew, after Gallifrey was saved and sent into a pocket universe, I knew. There was only person in all of Time and Space capable of changing his mind, bending his vaunted will. His companion," she continued explaining, much to Clara's surprise. "When I was sent back, I ensured the two of you met. The control freak and the man who should never be controlled. A perfect match."
Clara bristled at that, as she moved her knight, taking black pawn. "That's rich coming from you. You've been trying to control him for years," she scoffed. Missy smiled, a sly grin that made Clara shudder.
"And so often, I have failed. But you, my dearest Clara, you…" she sighed, trailing off theatrically. Clara rolled her eyes, missing the fact that she'd just taken three of Clara's pawns in one move. "You are truly remarkable. Until now. Even you went too far."
"What are you talking about?" Clara asked, focussing on the board. Thinking hard, she quickly moved, taking out Missy's knight.
"Ooh, well done," Missy clapped, before she grew thoughtful. "You asked him to do the one thing even he couldn't do. You tried to manipulate him into killing me. Guilt tripping him. Almost worked too."
"No, I didn't…" Clara gasped, outraged. Missy just shook her head sadly.
"I told you, Clara. You have no idea of the potential you possess. No idea of the lengths you will go to for the ones you love. Betraying one love for the sake of another, now that…is truly diabolical," Missy continued, ignoring Clara's anger. "And now he's guilt-tripping you in turn. Giving back my device, telling you he trusts you, all to ensure you don't even think about killing me again. He's a past master at manipulation, darling."
"I know what you're doing," Clara remarked, after she'd got a hold of her temper again. Missy glanced up at her questioningly. "You're trying to break us apart. You can't stand it that he chose me and humanity over you and your twisted little scheme. So you're trying to poison us instead."
"Oh my dear," the Time Lady sighed. "I may be bananas but I'm still far too intelligent to attempt that. If your betrayal didn't destroy you, then nothing I can do will work. No, I merely want you to understand the man you have wrapped around your little finger. You're so blind to it, it's almost hilarious. Your constant struggle for dominance is rather amusing. It can be quite fun too. I would know, we've been playing for millennia, long before you were born. You have no idea of the ride you're in store for."
"You're insane," Clara pronounced firmly, as she moved her queen into play. Missy just smiled.
"Then that makes us all three of a kind," she replied softly, making Clara stare at her piercingly. "Doesn't it?"
To be continued...