Chapter Text
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It was a strange experience having no corporal form. Honestly after a trip through the Eye of Harmony and an extended stay in the Time Lord Matrix, not to mention her own version The Nethersphere The Mistress really should have been used to it. Yet how could any physical being ever get used to that sensation of ripping and stretching? Her little changeling couldn't and Missy could only watch, part of her even a little sad, as its representation turned to dust and scattered, the universe pulling it down to base particles and then nothing...nothing except the echoing sound of crying...
Well it was better than the drums but even so Missy found the sound unnerving, like she should understand what it signified and yet the answer was somehow just out of her reach. Sound shouldn't exist in a vacuum but then again neither should she and yet here she was floating listlessly among the stars like yet another forgotten relic.
She could just let go and let herself dissipate as well...
Well if she was any being other than The Mistress she would have but Missy had "died" one too many times and she was just a little too stubborn. Besides there were other ties keeping her tethered...
Even now she could feel them, the one back to whatever remained of her corporal form was the strongest, a pleasing coil of purple that at least reassured The Mistress there was something to return to. Neatly coiled around it was another fainter link, much fainter than the others but Missy could still distinguish it against the nothingness that surrounded her, a warm chocolate brown. Osgood it had to be, it was the same colour as her eyes and they had been telepathically linked on several occasions now but Missy was surprised to already see a bond forming.
Perhaps that had been why she had been unable to kill the lecturing little pest, she was subconsciously already aware of the bond and therefore was avoiding the psychic headache that would inevitably ensue if she murdered the girl?
Other fainter ties vanished off into different directions, one probably even led to Galifrey if Missy could be bothered to search and find the residual link to the Time Lord collective consciousness. There was only one other that stood out almost as bright as her own link, it blazed a familar blue against the star lit back drop and Missy knew without even running her consciousness along it just where that link would take her. A certain Tardis and a certain Time Lord.
Part of her ached to follow the latent telepathic bond to her best enemy. The Doctor despite being a relatively poor telepath himself had managed to forge a very strong bond with his Tardis, or to be more precise his Tardis had forged a strong connection with him compensating for The Doctor's natural handicap. Their many telepathic connections over their lifetimes had left a widely carved path for her to follow; far easier for her than him but then she always was the stronger one. The Mistress had used that bond to her advantage once before when she had combined her telepathic power and The Doctor's bond to call the Tardis to them when The Doctor had blown up Rassilon's base and doomed them both to death.
Come to think of it that ungrateful lump of a Time Lord had never actually thanked her for that...
So why not pop in? Just for a quick visit whilst she still had the chance and the power to do so...
Missy was certain The Doctor was already trying to find where she and Osgood had vanished too. It surely wouldn't hurt to drop in and check on his progress and if he had been slacking off find a new way to properly motivate him she thought with sadistic glee as she grasped the connection and felt the sudden surprise of the Doctor's Tardis. That surprise quickly turned to a warning, something that to Missy's mind sounded akin to a cat hissing and puffing up its fur to make itself look bigger.
Oh hush I'm just saying hello jealous thing Missy sent in reply, unable to resist an opportunity to mock the Tardis that had been allowed to develop a more inflated sense of their own importance than any Tardis should do.
There was a reason Tardis's of a certain age were retired after all. Age and excessive exposure to time energy led to the development of stubborness and a self-determination that the Time Lords of old had seen sense to realise was problematic for something that was supposed to be a tool. Well Time Lords other than The Doctor, but then he had always been a bit peculiar; he actually preferred to hang around with lessor beings that argued back. So was it any wonder that he would chose and nurture the very independence of mind that saner Time Lords avoided?
The answering hiss from the Tardis actually made Missy chuckle in something almost akin to fondness for the old museum piece. Well at least she had a sense of humour even if her possessiveness of The Doctor was something that irked The Mistress greatly. After all Theta was hers and it was bad enough having to enforce that fact with all the stupid apes he picked up without having to reinforce that message with some uppity collection of broken gears and springs.
Ignoring the Tardis's protests Missy piggybacked on her connection with her Pilot, sighing in pleasure as the warmth of another's thoughts flow into her own mind. The Doctor's mind was refreshingly familiar and uncomplicated for a Time Lord and Missy found it easy to use his ever present connection with the Tardis to bypass the pathetic excuse he had for shields. For a good few moment she simply luxuriated in the pattern of his thoughts amused herself by snooping through them.
He was asleep, not that he seemed to realise it, he must have drifted off in his library his body getting some much needed rest whilst his mind continued on working through everything he had on his mind.
Missy watched as a hidden observer as The Doctor recalled with some discomfort the uncomfortably emotional moment the resurrected version of Danny Pink went down on one knee after his girlfriend...no fiancée had woken up alive and well after The Doctor had disabled the dream crab.
She giggled to herself as he began to mentally rant about having to attend yet another companion's wedding...She almost sympathised as his thoughts coloured with worry, he really didn't have the best track record with weddings, something really did seem to always happen and it was normally his fault. The man was a magnet for trouble.
Yet she couldn't understand his preoccupation with what he was supposed to get as a wedding present, still it seemed to be bothering him and after a quick review of the last few weddings he had attended Missy was beginning to see why. At least here she might be of some use and it was about time she announced her presence. As much fun as it was spying on Thete it wasn't why she was using up this opportunity and it really was more fun showing off when she had an audience
"I would say offer to take them on a honeymoon trip but that didn't work out so well the last time better to just get them a vase...or maybe a bit of glass from Hanon Four?" Missy suggested, laughing out loud as the mental representation of The Doctor was so startled he almost jumped out of his wing backed chair, yet it seemed when his limbs didn't obey him he began to panic and Missy felt a tiny bit guilty. Perhaps she should have knocked first?
"You're dreaming love." She added in a genuine effort to put him at ease.
The Dream Crabs...
"No proper dreaming...asleep in the library dreaming...probably snoring your head off knowing you Thete." Missy replied with a fond note of teasing in her mind voice that she just couldn't hide.
Then how? This wasn't possible The Doctor was certain of it. The Mistress was a powerful telepath but even she couldn't manage this sort of prolonged telepathic contact.
"Thank you for the compliment." Missy teased as The Doctor still unused to the intimacy of a telepathic communication still continued to broadcast his every thought. So it was with some measure of disappointment Missy watched as he tried to bring such stray thoughts under control, yet he was out of practice and so occasionally a stray thought slipped through but at least she was assured he now believed it was her, either that or he was finally going round the loop.
"No madder than normal honey...but if truth be told I got a bit of an impromptu boost and I thought I would use it to say hello and check up on you. So I just followed my link to your Tardis and used her to relay the signal a bit to bypass your shields."
I am not a child Mistress I do not need you to ...what do you mean do you have a link with my Tardis? The Doctor's irritation was obvious as was his growing annoyance when that irritation caused her to laugh.
"Not got around that little bit of voodoo you did on yourself? Honestly Thete you would think a Doctor would know better, after all no surgeon should operate on himself." Missy retorted smugly. Yet it really was a double edged sword whilst The Doctor's self-applied memory suppression worked he didn't recall the terrible memories that had driven him to lose himself and turn to violence but he also didn't remember that she had been the one to rescue him and then rescue them when he had caused the whole world to turn to ash.
Missy was so preoccupied with hiding her own mixed feelings about this that she didn't even notice the attack, it was like being flipped unexpectedly and the sudden rush of Thete actually sent her spinning and her mind automatically grabbed for the safest anchor point.
It felt like they hit the ground with a thump knocking the air out of her, quite a feat for someone who had only minutes before been encased in mud and to whose apparently lifeless body a similarly coated scantily clad Osgood had been applying mouth to mouth to. The look on Osgood's face as the lifeless corpse suddenly opened its eyes was almost worth the discomforting experience of having The Doctor in her head. Yet she couldn't stomach the sense of smug satisfaction that quickly turned outright nosiness as he used her eyes to look around the mud covered room.
Missy's only satisfaction was the clearly incorrect conclusions The Doctor jumped to before she roughly ejected from her mind and pushed them both back into his dreamscape.
"That was rude!"
"That was bloody cheating and you know it Doctor."
Like you are one to talk. The Doctor retorted smugly. I see Osgood is still alive then. Funny it is almost as though you are getting soft in your old age Mistress, taking on a human companion after all these years.
"If you are going to be insulting then I am leaving." Missy huffed Osgood was a sore point right now and not one she wanted The Doctor poking
No!
The reply was instantaneous and Missy caught a whiff of embarrassment before The Doctor which he squashed it down, but despite his attempt at subterfuge Missy couldn't help but preen in delight at his true feelings.
"So you do love me after all." She cooed in delight mentally poking a squirming Doctor who quickly bit back a cutting retort yet it was too late to be convincing.
There are no words for what I feel for you.
"L.O.V.E" Missy gloated revelling in the illicit knowledge even as The Doctor continued in his futile protests.
Spelling it out doesn't make it any more true Mistress.
Dancing around in glee Missy noticed when the library dreamscape started to fade and their connection began to crackle as her power faded and the pull towards her own body combined with the exhaustion such a communication was having on her poor Doctor.
"Doctor...DOCTOR!" Missy yelled jarring The Doctor into concentrating for a few moments more.
What? I'm tired let me sleep, I haven't been sleeping well.
Smiling indulgently at the sulky almost childlike tone his mind voice had adopted Missy couldn't help but put two and two together, wondering if this time she had the answer to the mysterious repetitive crying she kept picking up. "Neither have I love...I thought it was you...I thought I heard you crying."
No...not me...
Relieved that it wasn't him at least Missy raked her mental fingers across his psyche, she even kept her nails from scratching which for her was as close to a loving gesture as she could manage and she felt The Doctor's answering smile. "Sleep love I'll see you soon." She added before withdrawing back to herself.
Forcing mud clumped eyelashes back open Missy blinked open tired eyes unable to hide the fond smile that actually appeared fleetingly upon her lips as Osgood's dark eyes actually lit up with some human emotion, perhaps it was relief, perhaps it was gas? These humans were such primitive creatures and yet there was one thing about this particular human that perplexed The Mistress and she somehow found the strength to ask.
"Why aren't you dead?"
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