Authors notes: Based on some feedback, and upon listening to the FFnet reader read it back to me, I went back into the previous chapter to do some edits. Mostly revolving around how the Doctor came across when talking to the fake Master. It wasn't very clear that the Doctor was testing the fake Masters' personality akin to how the Second Doctor tested Omega in 'The Three Doctors.'
This chapter was surprisingly difficult to write because I kept re-drafting and re-drafting it to get the Mistress just right. The tone I'm going with is someone who thinks they're good, outwardly appears to be good, but can't tell they're just a nasty, bossy, bully underneath. With a kind of Stalen-esk, delusional way of thinking to her. I also wanted to get the Doctor right so he sounds wise, but not preachy. So hopefully I've struck the balance just right. There was also a lot to unpack at once, which made this all the harder.
In fact, I might make further edits after I've listened to it a few times on the FFNet reader to tighten up the flow of the story, and because I suspect I may have repeated myself from the last chapter. I'll keep you guys abreast of any changes in the next update. ;)
As always, feedback is appreciated. So feed my back. ;) :P
Cheers
Chapter 56
The Demon in an Angel suit.
The Doctor and the man turned to see a plump little woman wearing some kind of head-gear that was wired up to the Master Brain computer. She went red as she caught sight of Raven and the Doctor. Under her helmet she also had a shock of blue hair.
"Don't pay any attention to the woman behind the curtain." The Doctor said pushing past the man, who then popped out of existence, his existence invalidated. "The Mistress, I take it."
The woman shrank away. She then looked at Raven, then back to the Doctor before she found some courage.
"I am the Mistress of the Land of Fiction, yes." She said proudly, getting to her feet. It couldn't escape Raven's notice that this woman looked almost exactly like the Imposter, and that other one, Gargal girl. Raven disliked her instantly.
The Doctor looked at where the male counterpart once stood and nodded. "What was with the substitute? Let me guess." The Doctor said, "Trying to fool me into thinking you'd already gone. It could've worked, if you made your counterpart a little less transparent."
"I did it because I thought you'd take him more seriously than me." The Mistress said. The Doctor looked unsure.
"Why ever would you think that?" The Doctor asked. Raven sighed, she knew, the guy looked more respectable than her, more confident and competent. But it was just surface aesthetics. Underneath he wasn't as cool or smooth, he acted just like how Raven expected the Mistress to act, going from the behaviour of the Imposter. But the Mistresses answer wasn't what Raven expected.
"Because he was a man." she said simply.
The Doctor was stunned into silence. "That's it?" He asked, the Mistress nodded, fixing the Doctor with a look Raven didn't understand. "What makes you think I'd take the male more seriously? You didn't, did you, Raven?" He asked.
"No, I still thought he was a lunatic." Raven added.
"The only reason the fictions hate me is because I am a Mistress, not a Master!" She said.
"Of course it is." Raven rolled her eyes.
"We've been hanging out with the resistance for a good few days." The Doctor said, "That's not why they're against you."
"I'm sorry, Doctor. But you're just ignorant." The Mistress dismissed rather arrogantly.
"It honestly wouldn't be the first time." Raven added. The Doctor waved her to be quiet. Raven smirked under her hood, she'd gotten her jab in.
"They're against you because you're treating them badly. You're treating them like cattle, trying to force them to be the way you want them to be. They're evolving you see, becoming more three dimensional, more individual from their cannon. They're slowly gaining sentience."
"The fictions? They're just fictions. Stories. Nothing more. Creations of a childish imagination." The Mistress crossed to the table, looked at Mjolnir and wrapped her hand around it. But as she tugged it refused to move. "They're nothing, and there's nothing wrong with them adapting to the times." She grasped the hammer with both of her hands and struggled to move it. "Come on, damn it, I am worthy!" she strained.
"Indeed not." The Doctor said, answering her former statement. "Some characters, indeed are of the times, but that's no excuse for what you're doing to them."
The Doctor then turned to wave his arms at the slabs of Carbonite around them.
"And I don't think these people appreciate being replaced either." The Doctor said.
"They needed to be replaced, so a glorious new world can be created." The Mistress insisted, climbing onto the desk to try to attack the hammer from another angle, but again it refused to move. "One free of inequality, prejudice and bigotry."
"And that sounds marvellous." The Doctor said. "Unfortunately, I can't allow you to continue, not like this."
The Mistress's face dropped and she stopped yanking on the hammer. "What?" she gave the Doctor a dark look. "You stand against me? Against equality, and peace?" She jumped off the desk, the ground shook as she landed.
"I don't stand against your aims, just the means you're using." The Doctor said, "You see, you were brought here to govern the Land of Fiction. You've agreed to this. You have power over this fictional world. You were not brought here to use the powers of this position to meddle with the real world."
"Then what's the point?"The Mistress asked, "I thought I could create, alter fictions to be better, more modern."
"Leave that to remakes." The Doctor sounded like he was joking, but Raven didn't understand the context.
"Anything I create here never appears in the real world." The Mistress complained, "It's isolated here, and exists only because of me. They never get public exposure."
"Thank god." Raven said just high enough to be heard.
"You thought if you created something in here it'd somehow spontaneously appear on the Television?" The Doctor asked.
"Exactly. So what's the point of this power if I can't use it to do any good? If I can't better society through it?" The Mistress said. "That's why I took the role. I thought I could influence the world through media. Teach the world and the people in it to be better people."
"Yes, Albert Speer had a similar idea." The Doctor commented. Again, the context was lost on Raven.
"But then I found out how I got here, and I realised fictions could exist in reality. So I came up with a plan." The Mistress smiled, "The problem with the world is that you can't always tell who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. Sometimes the bad guys hide in sheep's clothing."
"Yes, and sometimes the good guys have a rougher shell and odd company." The Doctor added, but the Mistress didn't seem to acknowledge it.
"But me and my friends back in the real world, we could tell who was better for society and who was worse. So I thought, 'Why not take people who I know are bad, and replace them with versions who wear their badness on their sleeves? Why not expose them?!" The Mistress said gleefully as if this was a great plan. "Public opinion will turn against them and what they stand for."
"I see." The Doctor said, though he didn't sound convinced. "And you're sure the evil in their hearts exists? It wasn't just your perception of them?"
"Everyone else knew they were evil and corrupt. Are you telling me all those people had it wrong?"
"Argumentum ad populum." The Doctor muttered under his breath. "It's possible they were corrupt, find me a politician who isn't. So you brought them here, and did what?"
"I imprison them, locked them away for their crimes."
"Which are?" The Doctor prompted.
"Numerous, hateful stuff, you name it." The Mistress said vaguely. The Doctor nodded, but decided not to push the point.
"But..." he said, "Why not just replace them with better people? With good, redeemed versions of themselves? Surely that would work better."
"Because what they stood for is evil, public opinion must be swayed against them if society is to progress. Can you imagine Daleks being good? It's preposterous."
"Preposterous, but I hold out hope they could change for the better, no matter how unlikely that is. If they did, I'd welcome the change." The Doctor said. "I'd be willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, no matter how small that doubt is."
"You are a fool! Daleks are evil, just evil, they'll always be evil! and even if they become good they still need to pay heavily for the destruction they've caused in the past! Just like these Daleks here!" The Mistress said, referring to the people in Carbonite. She then kicked one of the carbonite slabs squarely in its crotch. She paused and looked so infuriated that the frozen guy didn't yell in pain that she did it again, and again. "They're evil, evil people!"
"Even the actor Ronald Lamar?" The Doctor questioned, "He's evil too?"
"No, but he's ignorant, and he used his position to spread his ignorant views." The Mistress said.
"He was only asked his opinion in an interview." The Doctor replied.
"Such views plant the seeds of evil and allow it to spread!" The Mistress moaned, now giving up her attack on the slab. "He wouldn't apologise for what he said, so I treated him like any other Dalek! If your views could allow people to become Daleks, then you are part of the problem. FACT!"
"Oh, of course, let the punishment fit the crime." The Doctor said with sarcasm.
Something was bugging Raven though.
"And what crime has the Doctor committed for him to be 'replaced?'" Raven asked.
"That's a fair point. Nobodies perfect, but I never thought I was evil." The Doctor shrugged and looked to Raven. "Am I?"
"Of course not!" The Mistress said, "You're known as a beacon of light. A wise, kind, generous person. Someone who fights evil and oppression, and the most tolerant man in the universe." She sounded like she greatly admired the Doctor. "In fact, before I came here I was the head of LINDA. Your biggest fan group." She looked away, a little embarrassed.
The Doctor did not look impressed at the mention of LINDA.
"Yet, you still want to replace him." Raven brought the conversation back to focus.
"No, not replace, exactly." The Mistress looked sheepish, "But I wanted the Doctor to pay attention to battles he doesn't fight. Toppling a dictator is all well and good, but if the right people don't assert power we eventually just get another dictator and it starts all over again. I wanted the Doctor to help out politically, to make sure the right people get into public office. This wise man would show up, proclaim his support for the right people, the approval rating would ensure the elections. We'd never need to have another dictator or evil president ever again."
Looking to the Doctor, Raven noticed he started shaking his head.
"LINDA have asked me to do this before. I'm sorry, I can't do it." The Doctor said.
"Why? Why not? You do it all the time. Why not ensure peace and harmony is achieved by keeping us on track?!"
"Because I can't hold the Universes hand through everything." The Doctor explained. "Planets have to learn to grow up. People have to have a choice. If people were just going to vote for whoever I throw my support to, then what's the point of an election? You might as well just ask me to pick for you."
"That wouldn't be a bad idea." The Mistress said.
"It would be a terrible idea!" The Doctor said, "The people should be allowed to make up their own minds, not have them swayed through the Argument from Authority. Especially not my authority. I make mistakes. I've misjudged people."
"But you're the perfect person!"
"No, I'm really not." The Doctor held up his hands as if to refuse an offer, "because I don't have to live with the consequences of my decision. I wouldn't be under that government's rules and laws. I could just disappear in the TARDIS and easily go somewhere else, not everyone can do that. I'm like a tourist who gets to fly back home somewhere else afterwards."
"Doctor, people can't be trusted. They're stupid, easily scared and manipulated, delusional, prejudice, hateful. They need be told!"
Oh, hello pot, meet kettle. Raven thought.
"I'm sorry. It's not my job to change people. That's up to the society itself to evolve and grow up." The Doctor shook his head. "I can only lead you to the cross-roads. It's up to them which direction they take."
"But..." but Raven cut across the Mistress.
"You still imprisoned the Doctor in a jig-saw." Raven said. The Doctor may have forgotten or forgiven that. But Raven certainly had not, and it was the one thing that made her hate the Mistress still. She dared to mess with Ravens things. Mess with her Doctor.
"Alright, alright. I'm sorry." The Mistress said, "That might have been a tad overbearing of me. I just didn't want the Doctor to think I was a bad guy and start fighting against me."
"Yeah," Raven spoke, "and turning him into a jig-saw really painted a rosy picture of you."
"You could've talked to me." The Doctor said, "I'm a very open kind of guy."
"Okay, I'm sorry." The Mistress's head dropped. "It was... just easier for me."
"Who else have you kidnapped to hijack their reputation?" Raven asked.
"No... no one." She'd hesitated, but there was the ring of truth. But more like she'd considered it, but had never gotten around to it.
"Doctor, I just want to make the world a better place." The Mistress said, she sounded like she was winding down, defeated.
"I know you do, we all do. But you can't do it this way, and you can't do this to the fictions of this world." The Doctor said softly, "I think now we can start putting things right."
"Putting things right?" The Mistress asked perking up again.
"Yes. I'll send you home, find a new Master or Mistress for the Land of Fiction. Release and return these poor people in carbonite back to where they came from, and Raven and I shall shoot off again in the TARDIS."
"No!" The Mistress said, "I'm not letting you undo all my work!"
"Well, I'm sorry. But I can't let you just play around with the Universe like its a game of the Sims, I can't just let you swap out people you don't like to manipulate the Universe, and I can't let you keep terrorising the inhabitants of this world."
"They're just fictions, Doctor!" The Mistress said, "They're Frickin' fictions. They're not real! Why do they need governing? A few strokes of a pen and they can be pacified. It's easy."
"And yet you've found a way to screw it up!" Raven commented harshly. The Doctor waved for her to be quiet, she was just making the Mistress angry.
"I won't let those bullies win against me!" The Mistress spat. Suddenly the Mistress grasped Mjolnir again and fought with it, but the fictional hammer, still bound by the laws of its own fiction, refused to acknowledge the Mistress of all Fiction as 'worthy,' whatever that meant. "They started this war, no way am I going to let them win!"
"Why would it even matter to you?" Raven asked as she watched a grown woman fight with a hammer. From Raven's perspective holding a grudge was pointless and childish, and did nothing but stir up pointless emotions and cause more problems.
"Because they're bullies and need to be taught a lesson." The Mistress shouted. Upon failing to lift the hammer she instead decided to kick it. Which resulted in nothing but the Mistress injuring her foot. She hopped around a little as her anger began to boil over. "I'll make them pay. I'll make them all pay. The World of Fiction will bend to my will." The Mistress said moving over to a laptop on the desk. "I'll start by re-writing that stupid hammers rules so I can move it!"
"This is just childish, petty revenge!" The Doctor said.
"Doctor, give up." Raven said, "The girl's a delusional idiot!"
"A delusional idiot with the powers of a god in this world. Raven stop her." The Demon girl smiled.
"With pleasure." With a wave of Raven's hand the Mistress came to a stop just as she was about to type something onto a laptop on the desk. She was shrouded in dark energy and was as immobile as Mjolnir.
"What's happening?" She asked in a panic.
"You're not the only one with powers." Raven said, her glowing eyes focused on the Mistress.
"What the hell are you?" The Mistress asked, her face flushing red with rage.
"I am Raven, and you will obey me!" Raven said in a threateningly low hiss.
"Steady on now." The Doctor said, turning away from Raven. He went to the Master Brain-Computer and began tinkering with it.
"How can you let him do this?" The Mistress asked. "I thought he was one of the good guys!"
"He does what he thinks is right. Frankly, I agree with him." Raven said, having met the Imposter and Gargal girl Raven felt like she had a good handle on who the Mistress was. "I met a depressed man who once thought he was a monster trying to be good. You've got the opposite problem. You're an arrogant narcissist who can't separate her ideology from herself."
"I just want to make the world a better place!" The Mistress said.
"You want the power to boss people around. To be arrogant, cruel and horrible, and have a reason to get away with it." Raven said, her eyes drilling into the Mistresses. "You hide behind the image of a 'Good Person.' Maybe you even believe you are. But inside, you are nothing more than a common bully."
The Mistress clearly didn't like to be called a bully.
"And a hypocrite." Raven added.
"Hypocrite?!" The Mistress questioned.
"The Imposter is how you'd be as the Doctor?" The Mistress nodded. Raven had sensed the Imposters feelings towards certain species in the world. "And yet after everything you've just said. I know the Imposter hates humans, Time Lords, Tamaraneans and..."
"Only for what they've done." The Mistress countered. "The species they've tried to oppress, the people they've hurt. Don't you think those poor, oppressed species deserve some justice for what was done to them?"
"Justice?" Raven asked.
"Against the aggressor species, Yes! We should all be responsible for our species crimes, that's how we can make sure we become a better people. If we can all be punished for the crimes of our fellow Humans then it will force all Humans to be good people because they'd never, ever tolerate the bad people."
Ravens dislike for the Mistress deepened. This sounded like the offspring being responsible for the parent's crimes. Of course, that echoed in Raven. Only this version applied to an entire species, no matter who they were individually. Raven already hated being treated like she was responsible for what all demons have done to the real world, so she certainly wasn't going to accept a philosophy that hoisted the collective crimes of an entire species at her feet either.
More disturbing to Raven, was that the Mistress, being a human herself, appeared to be okay with this. Well, just because the Mistress was happy with that philosophy it didn't mean Raven had to be.
"Stop talking"
"Surely, you want people to be good?" The Mistress asked.
"Stop talking." Raven had had enough of her.
"Don't you think its a great idea?"
"Stop talking." Raven said flatly.
"But I..."
"Stop talking, now!" Raven said more firmly.
Raven could express and explain why she disliked that philosophy. But if the Mistress found out who Raven's father was she'd probably insist that her philosophy clearly works, never mind the suffering in Raven's soul, that wouldn't matter to her, at all. The suffering of the individual wouldn't matter.
To end the discussion Raven said only one thing. "People should never be responsible for the crimes of others." Raven said.
"That's just a Straw-man of the philosophy!" The Mistress squirmed defensively. She'd said that a little too fast as if it's something that's been said to her before, and that was a knee-jerk response. Yet, weirdly she didn't explain why it was a Straw-man, and Raven didn't want to listen anyway.
After a little time had passed the Mistress said. "Think about the species that have been trampled on. Don't they deserve justice? Don't they deserve to get their own back?!"
Raven was silent. She just stared at the Mistress like someone with a squirming rodent in her hands.
"You don't understand me at all!" The Mistress squirmed in rage. "Nobody understands me, the world is just evil! You're all just a bunch of bullies!"
Oh my god, does this woman never stop moaning?! Raven thought. This woman was going to shut up, one way or another.
Out of earshot of the Doctor Ravens form began to morph a little into something nightmarish. The woman was, indeed, stunned into silence. "You made the biggest mistake of your life when you messed with my stuff!" Raven spoke softly so the Doctor couldn't hear. She stood over the Mistress and tried to drill this idea into her head. "The Doctor is mine, the Time Lord mortal belongs to me. Try to take him from me again and I will rip your soul from your body and shred it like so much confetti!"
The Mistress shivered but managed to summon enough courage to say. "The Doctor is not your property!"
"I beg to differ." Raven smiled with her now sharp teeth. "You get one warning. Leave us alone. Or I'll come back and..." her long fingers played over the Mistress's face, "...play!"
Raven's body shrank back to its usual form as the Doctor turned to face them. He saw nothing.
"Doctor, your companion is a nasty piece of work!" The Mistress shouted to the Doctor.
"She can be cold and intimidating." The Doctor looked over to them, wires in his hand. "But her bark is worse than her bite."
Facing away from the Doctor and towards the Mistress Raven smiled with sharp teeth and glowing white eyes again. "Confidentially, he's never felt my bite." Raven said quietly and her powers sharply squeezed the Mistresses intestines, and a mixture of fear and anger flowed from her.
And Raven was enjoying it.
Rachel rubbed her eyes, she was tired and she could feel her creative juices begin to exhaust, but she was determined to finish this story tonight.
Reading it back to herself Rachel tried to force a little more 'Dolores' into the Mistress. But as she tried her mind just kept ringing and ringing as if telling her 'that's not how it happened'.
She gave up, she was too tired and instead wrote the ending.
Back in the TARDIS now. Raven in her reading chair and the Doctor again at the controls of the TARDIS, all was well in Raven's world. The Mistress had been replaced, a new Master of the Land of Fiction was found.
It was another crisis sorted, and Raven felt strangely proud with herself for saving an entire dimension this time from who, in her opinion, was a ruthless tyrant. Good at heart, but a tyrant. Though maybe the Mistress did have some good points.
Stretching, Raven got up and yawned.
"Tired?" The Doctor asked.
"I'm just glad to get away." Raven said. "I hated that world."
She walked past the Doctor and deeper into the bowels of the TARDIS.
"Nighty-Nighty, Raven." The Doctor said.
"Nighty-Night, Doctor." Raven said, and soon she was curled up in her own bed.
Something was wrong. Rachel thought, rubbing her eyes again. She must be tired. This didn't feel right.
Strangely, she had more to write, and as she did Rachel began to get a strange sense of Deja vu.
"Rachel! It's time to get up!"
Rachel? Raven stirred in her bed. Who is Rachel? She was still half asleep.
Raven rolled over in her bed and tried to go back to sleep. But a sharp, BANG, BANG, BANG at her floor made her snap her eyes open. It sounded like someone was thumping something long and thin into the underside of the floor of her room.
"Rachel, you're going to be late for school!"
School?! Wait, where was she exactly?
Raven sat up in a bed, and she meant 'A' bed because this certainly wasn't hers. It was like hers, but subtly different. The room was decorated in a very goth and Victorian style. Statues of Ravens and dark and creepy looking things were everywhere.
What the hell am I writing? Rachel wondered as she looked around her room. She'd just described her own room. Oh great, I'm trying to connect my character to me now. She sighed, highlighted the block of text and she hit delete. She then tried writing it again.
'"Rachel! It's time to get up!"
Rachel? Raven stirred in her bed. Who is Rachel? She was still half asleep.
Raven rolled over in her bed and tried to go back to sleep. But a sharp, BANG, BANG, BANG at her floor made her snap her eyes open. It sounded like someone was thumping something long and thin into the underside of the floor of her room.'
Rachel was writing the same thing again?! No. This wasn't right. Rachel sighed deeply, deleted it and started again. But still, she wrote the same thing! Things must really be getting to her. Maybe she should stop for now.
Hitting delete again on that part she re-read what she'd written, hit save and went to post it up on the internet.
But something felt off. It was like the ending in the TARDIS was too easily wrapped up. Like there was more to tell. Rachel had more ideas, but for some reason she just couldn't coax it out of her head.
The Mistress broke free of Ravens powers somehow. That sounded right, and she... she did something that caused Raven and the Doctor to... to...
Sighing, Rachel went back into the file, chopped off the ending she'd written and decided she'd finish it later. She couldn't release the chapter like it was now, it felt unfinished. But she'd ran out of creative steam for now.
'Zagreus sits inside your head,
Zagreus lives among the dead,'
Huh? Rachel thought. A shiver went down her spine.
Something was in here with her.
'Zagreus sees you in your bed,
and eats you when you're sleeping.'
Slowly she turned. There was a shadow in the corner. The shadow had big, purple eyes that were looking at her intensely.
The figure came towards her. It was about her height and it felt like the thing was struggling to keep itself in existence. Like mist.
Suddenly a hand shot out and took Rachels face, it squeezed her cheeks firmly.
"Break the Wall." Said an unearthly voice. "Break the immersion."
Under its hood, and around its neck a silver serpent uncoiled and looked deep into Rachel's eyes. It slowly swayed from the shadowy girl's neck and it sang in a creepy, hypnotic, musical voice.
Oranges and Lemons,
Say the Bells of Saint Clemons,
"Break the Wall, Break the immersion." She felt like those words were being drilled into her head.
You owe me two farthings,
Say the bells of Saint Martin.
"Break the Wall, Break the immersion."
"Break the Wall, Break the immersion."
"Break the Wall, Break the immersion."
Suddenly, Rachel was surrounded by darkness, the walls on either side were crushing her and no matter how hard she pressed they wouldn't yield. Whatever she was in she managed to force open a crack and she could see daylight.
"WAKEY WAKEY!"
Her concentration faltered and the walls snapped shut on her again.
Rachel snapped awake as her mother drew the curtains. Rachel had fallen asleep at her laptop.
"Wakey wakey, Rachel." Mother said. "Time to get ready for school." She looked down at Rachel. "Are you okay, Rae Rae?" She said, using Dads pet name for her. "You look like you've seen a ghost."
"Just a bad dream." Rachel yawned. Man, I must be really upset.
To Be Continued...
Authors notes: The reason Raven is becoming a little sadistic is that she can't properly meditate in the Land of Fiction to keep her darker side in check. So it's starting to seep out into her personality. Be prepared, because I'm going somewhere with this. ;)
The views of the Mistress are the views of that strange woman I mentioned at the start of this adventure, the one I went to University with. Some of the words and phrases are word for word what she said her own philosophy was, and I knew it was a philosophy Raven would greatly dislike, given her history, and how the Monks of Azarath treated her. I nearly cut it, but I realised it's relevant to Raven's dislike of her.
The woman also weirdly thought we'd take her ideas more seriously if a man said them. Which is where that came from. Some people will throw anything up to avoid the truth of a matter, better so if they can use it to paint you as a bad guy.
The reason the Doctor doesn't interfere with the politics of a planet, that he could leave and be safe in the TARDIS, is kind of echoed by the Mistress. She's safe in the Land of Fiction and never has to deal with the chaos and destruction her interference would cause.