Authors notes: I'm annoyed with myself, as I've written myself into a corner with Hedgy. He's a character who keeps demanding attention and the spotlight, and I think it's now just dragging the story down. So in this chapter I'm going to put a stop to that.

Chapter 87

Scared of the Light?!

"Azarath, Metrion, Zynthos." Young Raven muttered to herself while in the peaceful, and tranquil gardens of Azarath. Or it would be peaceful, if someone wasn't here bothering her. Some monk somewhere was shining a light at her eyes. Raven's eyes were closed but it was so bright she could detect it through her eyelids.

Don't react, it's what they want. She told herself. Don't be their 'bad guy.'

The light kept coming and Raven scrunched up her eyes tighter. You could hardly tell she'd done this under her dark hood. But eagle eyed observers would see the movements of Raven's exposed lower jaw indicating her eyes had done this. Something her tormentors probably noticed, and delighted in.

Raven had tried to compensate this by casting a spell on her hood and cloak, so when a shadow was cast inside her cloak then all light vanished. This made her look more intimidating, and did nothing to dispel the accusation that she was some evil creature, but it helped make those bright lights more bearable. Unfortunately, the monks just redoubled their efforts and made the lights brighter and brighter to compensate.

The monks who were doing this was Andra and her two cronies. Ever since Raven went nuts back when they'd convinced Gallrick she was a witch and they'd consequently assaulted her they had been the for front of the, 'get Raven mad, then run away claiming the monster was coming,' craze sweeping the temple.

Now the light was sweeping across her closed eyes. Raven redoubled her efforts to ignore it and keep herself in check. Azar would not like it if she lost her temper.

"Azarath, Metrion, Zynthos. Azarath, Metrion, Zynthos. Azarath, Metrion, Zynthos." She strained to say, her teeth grounding a little. Despite her closed eyes she could still feel that light burning through her eye lids and into the back of her head. If she opened her eyes she was convinced she'd go blind. If that happened would anyone have any sympathy? Probably not. Everyone would probably assume she'd deserved it.

She could go back to her quarters and meditate there. But why should she? She had the right to use the tranquillity gardens just as much as everyone else. Especially in the dead of night when no one was around. Or supposed to be.

"What's the matter, 'Raving'?" They whispered the mocking name into her ear. "Afraid of the light?" That phrase always followed this treatment. Raven's fingers clenched as she struggled to maintain her centre. The light passed over her eyes again, and again it stabbed into her brain. Raven could pull her hood down further, but she felt even that small movement would affirm that they had some power over her, and she would not give them that satisfaction. Plus, if she shielded herself from one form of torment they'd just look for some other tender spot to poke at her. That's how they'd settled on shining a light in her eyes. All she had to do was bare this out and they wouldn't look for a more tender spot to poke at.

"I think she's scared of the light." They whispered loud enough for her to hear.

"Yeah, monsters are scared of the light."

"The light is good, the light is cleansing, and that's what it's doing to little Raving." Andra whispered, again, loud enough for Raven to hear. "Only, the light would cleanse so much there would be nothing left of creepy, little Raving."

The light came again. "What's wrong, Raving? Afraid of the light?"

Afraid of the light? No, the light didn't scare her. It was just frickin' irritating to no end. There were things these guys could teach to tropical skin diseases.

If it wasn't for her fear of Azar's disapproval then she would see if they were afraid of the dark.

Ace had been taken next. Whatever the Daleks were doing with each of them Raven wasn't sure. Hedgy said they had just talked and in the process apparently brainwashed Hedgy. He now sat being mercifully quiet, but he kept fidgeting. He clearly didn't like the silence nor the stillness. Raven couldn't understand how someone could be so restless. She had never felt more relaxed than when she'd found her centre and meditated.

"I can't stand this." Hedgy said, running a hand through his hair, breaking the peace. "I need my Comm-U." By that he meant his comms unit.

"Relax." Raven said calmly with her eyes closed in meditation, though her eyebrows were knitted in annoyance. "Nothing can be done now."

"This is a violation of my human rights!" Somehow Raven didn't think the Daleks really cared.

"No… more… politics!" Raven said firmly. She'd had enough of politics and it seemed no matter where she went on this adventure there was someone talking or pushing politics. It was driving her around the twist.

"Politics?!" Hedgy exclaimed. "No, this isn't about politics, it's about morals!"

"Everyone thinks that." Raven said dryly.

"But it's true. I have morals and that horrid woman doesn't!" She was sure a lot of bad guys from history thought what they did was moral and good and any who were against them were in some way the bad guys. From her perspective, Hedgy just wanted to use 'morals' and 'politics' as an excuse to be horrid to people. Raven knew this, but couldn't be bothered to say it to him. She doubted he'd listen. Raven wasn't a debater like Ace was. As far as Raven had seen the guy had proven himself to be totally convinced of his own infallibility, and that the moment he's questioned he acts all superior.

"No… more… talk… about… morals… either!" Raven said more firmly.

"You're not interested in helping people? In making the world a better place? Fighting evil, oppression and bigotry?" Hedgy asked in a kind of, 'if you are not with me, you are my enemy,' kind of tone.

Raven's eyes opened slowly to address him. She stared at him for a good long moment.

"I can guarantee, I have done more fighting oppressors in a year than you will ever managed to do in the rest of your life." With the message sent, Raven closed her eyes again. It took a couple of minutes for Hedgy to come back with a response. Though the brief silence was bliss.

"Bullshit. You're only saying that to hide your own bigotry and hatred!" He said as if it was fact.

"Oh yes, I am the most evil girl in the world." She said dryly.

"I knew it. You're just a hater!" Hedgy's knuckles clenched missing the sarcasm, "I don't like haters. Do you have any idea what it's like to be hated by humans for no reason other than what you are or where you come from?"

"I do, actually, yes."

"Impossible." Hedgy exclaimed, "Humans don't understand hate. Humans are too advantaged!" Raven's eyes opened and she fixed Hedgy with a cold stare. What he really meant was that he didn't understand hate himself. The problem was, he didn't just recognise it as a failure of his own personal experiences, he was projecting that ignorance onto his whole species, and that included Raven herself. It was all a massive argument from personal incredulity.

She 'didn't understand hate'? She 'didn't understand what it would be like to be hated for no reason'? Indeed!

"Witch, witch, witch!" Went the countless whispering voices. Demon, demon, evil. Chanted the girls. Creepy! Have a cry! The anger was mounting. "You know nothing about my life." She hissed levelly.

"You're a frickin' human! I don't need to understand your life. Humans don't understand hate, we can't, and neither do you!" She wanted Hedgy to shut up so much right now.

"You have no idea what I've been through." She said, there was a low growl of a warning in her voice. Raven didn't know why this was bothering her so much. Usually, she didn't care about gaining sympathy from others, though it would just be nice to have. Something about him just echoed her tormentors from long ago.

"What, are you looking for? Stop trying to make this about you!" Hedgy snapped, "You're advantaged, you're selfish, and you're nasty, you're oblivious to the suffering of others…" Keep it up, arsehole! Raven was trying desperately to hold everything back, to act like a dam holding back the flood. She was doing well controlling herself, until Hedgy said one thing. "and you're a horrible species-ist, loser, scumbag who is scared of the bright light of truth!"

What's the matter monster? Scared of the light?

"Scared of the light?" Raven muttered to herself.

The stabbing pain of the bright light in the back of her head.

Scared of the light?

The eye stalks on the wall that were watching them suddenly went bang as the bulbs blasted themselves to bits. A dark aura formed around the small girl, her face slowly morphing into a mask of utter rage as one thing rolled around in her head.

"Yeah, you heard me, you're scared of the light… of truth!" Hedgy gloated. Again the stabbing pain, the frustration!

No one would ever know. At least, no one she cared about.

SCARED OF THE LIGHT? The dam was crumbling.

"Scared of the light?!" She muttered. The dam was breaking.

"SCARED OF THE FRICKIN' LIGHT?!" she shouted. And the dam burst.

Raven snarled like an enraged beast and despite her numb body she had launched herself at Hedgy and forced him onto his back. Raven had her knees on his shoulders and she was pressing her thumbs quite firmly into his eye sockets. Hedgy squirmed and screamed.

"You don't know what I've been through!" She snarled in a voice that didn't sound human. Her blood red eyes were hot with fury.

"Get off me! Get off me you crazy bitch!" Hedgy spat.

"Shut up! Shut up! You irritating piece of shit!" Raven spat back, she removed her thumbs from his eyes and gripped firmly to the side of his head, digging her nails into his scalp. "Why do you have to torment people? Why do you have to wind them up? Why can't you do something useful, instead of complaining about insignificant crap and act like fighting it will end all suffering?" Her sharp, pointy teeth gnashed together in a crazed frenzy. "Everyone is a frickin' bad guy to you. Everyone is your enemy, and if you don't have an enemy you frickin' invent one and you fight them, and try to turn everyone against them by lying about them. Nobody buys it! What's wrong? Didn't mommy give you enough pats on the head as a kid? Or didn't she give you enough spankings?" She drove her fist into his face. He pathetically waved his arms, he didn't know how to fight her off. "Did mommy not protect you from the big, bad, cold, uncaring world you now find yourself in? Is this all to compensate because you failed to impress your alcoholic father?!"

"How... how do you know about..." Raven smacked him across the face as she became more and more hysterical. She laughed like a child torturing a tiny animal.

"Come on!" She snarled, totally lost in her own fury. "You said you wanted to end prejudice and evil, you've proclaimed me your 'bad guy' now, so have at me. I am the Evil Daughter of Trigon, the destroyer, I am the personification of darkness and evil. Come on! Hit me! Fight me! Free the Aliens from my tyranny." She mocked.

Raven growled like an angry animal. Hedgy was terrified of the display in front of him. The show of dark power from one so little and young. She began pounding her fists into his stupid head, one after the other. But it did nothing to alleviate the sheer anger she was feeling. She wanted to hurt him and satisfy her need for retribution against her past tormentors. But Hedgy refused to fight back. The reason why was obvious to Raven. He'd never really fight back unless he had the backing of his social media following. But she didn't really exist on paper in this century, so the threat of the social media mob meant nothing to Raven.

"You don't know what hate feels like? Do you want to know what hate truly feels like? You feel you're too 'advantaged' to understand?!" She clamped her fingers around his temples and dug them in more firmly than they needed to be. Her now long tongue licked her sharp teeth. "I'll show you what it's like to be hated!"

Raven knew what it was like to be hated alright, to be tormented for what you are, to be judged because of her heritage and what she was. To be hated for everything she did, and tormented for no better reason than she was weak. Because they felt she didn't belong among them.

All this she poured into Hedgy's brain. She enjoyed the sight of his tears. All of this was in Raven's head and she carried it around in her quiet mind, never expressing herself. But Hedgy did express Raven's misery, through a painful scream that was music to Raven's ears.

She cackled evilly. This was much more satisfying than punching him in the face.

Raven didn't know how long she'd been at this, but it was over far too quickly for her liking as Ace had come back into the cell and had forcibly removed Raven from this irritating man.

"Oi, what the heck are you doing to him?!"

Raven spun around and bared her teeth at Ace. "You want some too?" Raven held her long fingers like talons ready to grab at her head.

A sharp pain went through Raven's face, forcing her head to jerk to one side as Ace had just sharply slapped her across the face. The impact snapped Raven back to sanity, her dark aura had gone and her eyes were back to normal.

"What the hell was going on?" Ace shouted at her. Raven slowly turned her head back to Ace. A red, raw hand print clear on her grey face.

"He was asking for it." Raven said levelly, her expression back to looking bored. Which became a look of surprise when her legs gave out and she collapsed to the floor. With the surge of adrenaline gone it was as if her body had suddenly remembered the tingly pain and had decided to not support Raven's weight anymore.

"THE SMALL ONE IS TO COME WITH ME!" Said the Dalek that had brought Ace back.

Raven gave the giant pepper pot a scathing look. Who was this over grown traffic bollard calling small?

"She can barely walk!" Ace argued.

"HELP HER!"

Ace knelt down and helped Raven up and onto a waiting trolly to take her to wherever the Dalek was going to take her.

Hedgy was utterly enraged by something and leapt for Raven as she laid down on the metal table.

"STAY!" The Dalek barked, and Hedgy obeyed, stepping back like a frightened child. When Raven was on the table the Dalek ushered the older woman back into the cell and closed the door.

Raven was then pushed on the trolly to wherever the Dalek wanted to take her.

"Where are we going?" She asked.

"YOU ARE WELL ENOUGH FOR INTERROGATION. YOU WILL ANSWER QUESTIONS TRUTHFULLY, OR WE WILL INFLICT PAIN!"

Pain? Raven was in total pain. She was laying on her back in a slanted device. Her hands pressed against two glowing globes which were apparently connected to her brain and were digging through her mind for answers. Raven wanted to use her powers, but the pain was so intense that it made focus and concentration impossible. It seemed the one emotion that her powers couldn't channel through was pain.

"YOU WILL ANSWER MY QUESTIONS!" Shouted the blue Dalek who Raven guessed was some kind of science officer. "WHY HAVE YOU COME TO THE BATTLE PLATFORM?"

Raven opened her mouth wide with the pain. "I don't know what you're talking about." She said through gritted teeth.

"DETECTOR INDICATED TRUTHFUL RESPONSE." Said a bronze Dalek.

"WHO SENT YOU TO THIS PLANET?" The blue Dalek asked.

"Nobody." Raven hissed again.

"INSUFFICIENT DATA!" The blue one screeched, "EXPLAIN!"

"I came here by mistake. I was on my way to the frost fair!"

"DETECTOR INDICATED TRUTHFUL RESPONSE." Said a bronze Dalek again. Raven had to remove her hand from the globe. There was a brief alleviation of the pain before the blue Dalek barked at her.

"DO NOT REMOVE YOUR HAND FROM THE DETECTOR!" Raven put her hands back and the pain was back. "HOW DID YOU SURVIVE OUR WEAPONS?"

"I have no idea!" Again the bronze Dalek indicated that Raven was speaking the truth.

"NOT AN ACCCEPTABLE ANSWER!" The blue one barked.

"Well, I'm sorry." Raven bit.

"DALEKS DO NOT ACCEPT APOLOGES!"

"Somehow, that doesn't surprise me."

"YOU ARE A TIME TRAVELLER." Blue asked.

"Yes."

"WHERE IS YOUR MODE OF TRANSPORT?" Raven obviously did not want to tell them that, nor that it was the TARDIS. What would these Daleks do if they found out the Doctor was here?

"Off world. AGGHH!" Raven screamed as pain went through her brain.

"DETECTOR INDICATES FALSE RESPONSE." The bronze Dalek said. The pain would not subside.

"TELL THE TRUTH AND THE PAIN WILL STOP!"

"It's on the surface!" Raven cried, this was like the worst migraine in history. The pain reduced back down and vanished because mysteriously the lie detector had just gone bang. Raven felt too sore to even try using her powers to attack them, all she could do was hiss at them. She felt so powerless right now, she desperately wanted to have some power over them, to make them scared. "When my father comes for me, you'll all be in big trouble."

"YOUR RELATIONS IS OF NO CONCERN TO US!" The bronze Dalek said. That was true, they'd probably never heard of Trigon. But it wasn't a blood relation Raven was talking about. Ignoring her rational mind that was telling her otherwise she told them.

"You should be. He's the Doctor."

That got the Daleks attention. Their eye stalks turned to take her in. They were looking at her warily, like she was an animal they were considering putting down and could do so very easily.

"YOU ARE NOT A TIME LORD!" The blue Dalek said, "YOU CANNOT BE HIS RELATION." Without their detector they couldn't tell if she was lying. Technically, she was.

"He's here, and he'll come for me." Raven warned.

Raven was kind of hoping they'd be a little more scared. The Doctor was supposed to be their mortal enemy. But they seemed to regard him more as an irritation than a real threat. "IT MATTERS NOT. THE DOCTOR SHALL BE EXTERMINATED WHEN WE TAKE THE BATTLE PLATFORM OUT OF ITS CURRENT ORBIT."

"Battle platform?" Raven's eyes narrowed.

"THIS IS NOT A PLANET. IT HAS NOT BEEN FOR MANY CENTURIES. IT IS OUR SHIP, THIS IS OUR BATTLE PLATFORM." The blue Dalek screeched. "NO GALLIFREYAN TIME CAPSULE CAN ESCAPE THE ION DRIVE AT THE CORE OF THE BATTLE PLATFORM. WHEN WE MOVE OUR SHIP BACK OUT INTO DEEP SPACE ALL LIFE ON THE SURFACE SHALL BE EXTERMINATED. ALONG WITH THE DOCTOR."

"THE DESTROYER OF SKARO SHALL, AT LAST, BE EXTERMINATED!" The Daleks then began chanting.

"EXTERMINATE!"

"EXTERMINATE!"

"EXTERMINATE!"

In an attempt to remove some of their thunder Raven just pretended to yawn.

"WHAT ARE WE TO DO WITH THE DOCTORS COMPANION?" The bronze Dalek asked.

"WE STILL DO NOT UNDERSTAND HOW SHE SURVIVED THE BLAST OF OUR WEAPONS." The blue one screamed. "PREP HER." The blue Dalek rolled away.

"Prep?" Raven was suddenly forced onto her back as the platform she was on swung back. Metal bands came out of the flat surface to hold her down and when the blue Dalek returned he had changed his usual appendages. It now sported a pair of long poles, from which sprouted an arrangement of sharp, circular blades that looked like they were very efficient at slicing through flesh. The blades began to whir with a creepy, cold, high pitched noise.

"IF YOU CANNOT TELL US THE MYSTERY OF YOUR BODY, THEN WE SHALL DISCOVER IT THROUGH YOUR VIVISECTION!" The sharp blades and spinning saws came closer and closer to her torso. She could feel the cold air stirred up by those small, sharp spinning blades.

The Dalek was doing it so slowly, almost as if it wanted to prolong the agony of the demon girl. Perhaps that was the point. If it was anyone else she'd consider it a mere idle threat, but when it came to these creatures she doubted it was. They were seriously going to slice her up! And while she was still alive and awake!

Raven tried to focus and cast a spell, any spell. But the sight of the spinning blades just struck fear into her heart.

She cried out loud. "Azarath, Metrion, Zynthos!"

To Be Continued...

Authors notes: I can't remember if it was properly explained why Raven flipped out when Dr. Light asked if she was afraid of the light, but I guessed it might be down to some deep set trauma she'd experienced in her younger years, and in her teenage years in the show her unexpressed frustration finally found a way out.

The Battle Platform is essentially what the Daleks originally intended to do to the Earth when they invaded in 2164. Remove the core of the planet and replace it with an engine so they could fly it around.

The Daleks aren't so much scared of the Doctor here, because this is before the Time War. They know to be wary of the Doctor, maybe on some level they do fear him. But it's nowhere near the fear he'd strike into their hearts as the later War Doctor would.

Raven's view of politics is rather simplistic because she is essentially an isolationist teenager. All her life people have used any kind of stick to beat her down with from religious, to the moral, to the political. She doesn't want to deal with or get involved in any kind of heated argument, which is what politics can come to. At this stage in her life she really just wants to be left alone in peace. In a way, she represents a member of the political demographic who just wants to be left alone and not have to deal with any of the political infighting. Deep down, she does want people to just get on with each other. But she looks at people like Hedgy as people who are deliberately stirring the pot because he's trying to get something out of it.

Essentially, all three characters represent three different levels of political engagement. Hedgy is over enthusiastic to the point of irritation and arrogance, who thinks that any who doesn't think or act like him is just adding to the problem. Ace is laid back but engaged enough to accept that not everyone who doesn't think like her is necessarily evil, and it doesn't matter if you're active or not, holding the moral view point or being open to it is enough for her, and Raven is the one who just wants to be left out of it all because she doesn't want to deal with unpleasantness. But she's also the kind of person Hedgy thinks is adding to the problems he's fighting precisely because she's being silent.

What Raven did to Hedgy. Forcing her own misery into his head, is a seed of an idea I might explore later on, if I get that far. Stay tuned. ;)

Anyway, we can leave all this deep stuff behind for now. Time for some action.