"Lucius, stop it!"
Bill, who had been closer to the quarreling leaders, stepped between them to prevent further confusion.
"Are you their champion now?" The young girl looked surprised.
"There is no time for fighting!"
"We never wanted to fight." The girl's sword trembled with anger at Bill's peacemaking attempt. "We lived in peace, and then you came and laid waste to everything and everyone we loved." She stared down both people opposite her. "All you understand is war."
"No, he understands." Bill's body turned to the roman leader. "Don't you? Now he's wondering why."
"You speak Latin?" Lucius' question got met with further distrust.
"I don't."
"Neither do I. Not a word. And I don't speak whatever they speak either" The Bristol native assured them, walking among soldiers and Scottish before nodding at a silent alien. "It's him. It's you, isn't it?"
"Yes, it's me." He acquiesced.
"Something to do with the Tardis. A telepathic field, wasn't it, O?" She reveled in how her best friends beamed in spite of their predicament, pride showing in every bit of their body. "So now that we all understand each other, how do we all sound?"
This girl is going to take over the world someday. Ophelia wondered just how much they'd all changed in a short period of time, because a year was nothing when one could end up living forever.
"You sound like children." Lucius got a You sound like children too from his rival.
"You all do." The Doctor chimed in from his spot on the back, more than happy to watch his companion flourish in this impromptu leadership position while the other girl simply leaned against him, taking advantage of his body heat definitely not because she had missed him terribly.
"Is this what happens when you understand what everyone in the universe is saying?" Bill ignored every stare in favor of looking at him. "Everybody just sounds like children?"
"There are exceptions." His eyes accidentally met Nardole's, who mumbled out thank you very much over a mouthful of popcorn. "Not you. Okay, kids, pay attention. She slaughtered your legion. You slaughtered everything that she loves. Now, you all have a choice." He commanded attention from everyone, taking a few steps around much to Lia's displeasure. "You can carry on slaughtering each other till no one is left standing, or you grow the hell up!" Both leaders were astonished at the yell. "Because there's a new war now. I think these creatures are light-eating locusts, looking for rents and cracks between worlds to let themselves into dimensions of light."
Once they break through, they eat. They will eat the sun, and then they will eat the stars. And they will keep eating until there are no stars left. So, whose side are you on now? Because as far as I can see, there's only one side left. Ophelia's, and every other person's, eyes followed him with admiration. It couldn't be easy to always solve other people's problems, get attached to them but not be able to guarantee their safety. Yet, he soldiered on day after day. Given how many times her own life had been on the line, leave would be the wisest thing to do. Get dropped of in some planet to live out peacefully, become a minor deity or legend in enough years because that's what happened to immortals (which she'd be taking enough care to not suffer any major wounds).
"If it helps, I do have a plan." Then he smiled and where else could she go?
When they gathered to hear his plan, unlit torches in their hands, her body occupied it's usual place to his right.
"It feeds on light but it homes in on sound." The Doctor told them in a whisper.
"So what's going to happen?" Bill asked while lighting her torch.
"It's simple. Bit of noise, lure the beast here, drive it back through the gate." He passed flame to Ophelia then walked forward.
"But how do we keep it there?" She pressed, steps following his. "I mean, you said all those things are going to come through, right?"
"They can only come through one at a time, that's why guarding the gate worked." Their trio stopped a little ways from everyone else. "One Pict in there, fighting it off for a few minutes, that adds up to sixty or seventy years out here."
"And then the next one goes in." Lia fixed him with a skeptical look. "But what are we going to do this time? Or are these people going to line up, sacrificing themselves until the end of the world?"
"I've got a better idea this time." His head turning away from them made their stomach drop.
"Which is the part you never tell us." Bill's exasperation got little more than a vacant look.
"Don't I?"
"No." They chorused.
"I probably just get interrupted. "
As if on cue, the musicians started playing their song.
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For either minutes or hours, it was really hard to tell of times passage in this environment with little illumination, they waited inside until Nardole ran in to make the beast's arrival known.
"Get ready!" The Doctor ordered. Every person steeled themselves for combat, Lucius getting a weapon that looked like an old fashioned 'tv aerial' weapon from Ban.
"Channel the light!" The six people who had quartzite prisms held up them up to focus the light rays from the torches onto the beast, stopping it dead and annoying it greatly.
"Keep it here!" His voice strained, lending strength to those locked in combat. "We've got to hold it here till sunrise." Picts poked it with their 'tv aerials' while Bill held her own prism with determination. "Keep it there! Keep it there!"
As tension began to overwhelm them, Lucius and Ophelia (who'd commandeered a sword) slashed at the tentacles, not letting anyone fall victim to poisoning. Even though not one person had slept that night, some still recovering from injuries, their efforts continued valiantly. One way or another this beast was going down today.
"Turn it, the sun is rising!" Standing by the entrance, he focused their biggest mirror onto its head. "Back! Back to the void!"
With a combination of bent light rays, slashing swords and poking weapons, they pushed the monster back where it belonged: on the void beyond that wall. It walked into the swirling blue vortex, letting them breath properly again.
"It'll only stay open as long as the sunlight's on it." The Doctor stood where it had been, people dividing in two lines with Ophelia on the other end. "Give me your weapon."
"What are you doing?" She gripped both sword and prism wand tighter, having gotten the latter from Bill.
"This is the clever bit." He tried to give both girls reassurance but it was in vain.
"Well, tell me." While Bill walked forward in outrage, her best friend followed more timidly. It felt like that beast had leaped forward with its full weight on her chest instead of vanishing, each breath harder as understanding dawned. Of course that idiot would do this.
"The gate has to be guarded. There's no other way. The trouble is, human life spans, they're tiny. They're hilarious. You get used up too quickly. So what's the answer? Go on, figure it out." His hearts didn't have space for anger at having to fight forever, instead cold determinations washed over him. "The answer's me. I go on for ages. I don't even really die, I regenerate. I can hold that gate till the sun goes out."
"You can't do this." Lia's voice broke and it nearly made him give up.
"Course I can." His eyebrows raised as if saying don't challenge me. "I'm going to."
"Then I'm going with you."
It was Bill's turn to gasp, she would not loose two of the most important people to her in one day.
"Just because that's who I am, doesn't mean that you have to be it as well." The Doctor moved away to where both his girls stood to speak to them. Even if almost twenty people watched, it felt like there were only three. "I've been standing by the gates of your world, keeping you all safe, since you crawled out of the slime. I'm not stopping now."
It didn't go over their heads how it sounded similar to what the monks had said but Ophelia was too busy almost crying to comment on that. Her mind overlapped two memories and for a second Avery stood there asking to be left behind as blood spread on his white shirt.
"Doctor, please..." She tried to reach for his left arm but he made a shushing motion with it.
"Listen." Mustering every last bit of strength, his hands held her arms. "The Tardis will take you home. Return journeys are easy."
"Listen to me..." Bill tried to talk him out of it to no use.
"Leave the instruments on the current setting and hit them with a spanner." He then turned around to face Kar, the Pict leader. "The weapon. Now."
"No."
"Give it to me. Come on. You'll be safe." Her refusal was annoying. "Tomorrow you'll be farming. You can name a cow after me."
"What about the other gates that you have to guard? What about the Vault?" Bill's anger began to seep into the girl beside her.
"The Vault will never exist if I let those things come through."
"Well, then someone else better stop them." Ophelia yelled out much to his surprise. You're not leaving me.
"Nobody else can."
"I can." Kar declared, putting an end to their almost argument.
"What are you saying?" Had every woman in this room decided to challenge him?
"Time to grow up, Doctor. Time to fight my fight."
"I'm sorry, no." His words turned her from the blue vortex, Lucius stepping in front of him. "No one else can do this, not like I can."
"We can." Lucius looked at the young girl with fire. "I'm ready. I'll guard the gate with you. I'll fight by your side."
"Awesome. Brilliant." The Doctor made no difference for two stubborn humans. "You'll be a hero for two seconds, then the whole solar system will be devoured."
"Stop him." Kar's words had several spears pointed at his throat. "This is my destiny, my fight."
"Out of my way. Now!" Ophelia held his right forearm and her hand wasn't shaken off, which was a kind of good sign.
"We'll take it in turns." Lucius' eyes never left the blue expanse of nothingness while talking to Kar.
"Two of you can't hold the gate."
"Two of them? I'm counting more than two."Thracius stepped forward to where they stood, every other roman following. "The Legion of the Ninth stands ready to serve."
"Oh, stop being brave." The Doctor looked close to tears while still pushing against those holding him in place. "I can't bear brave people."
As a young Pict man walked to his leader to say goodbye, he continued to yell out, hoping to change their minds. Ophelia figured that there was such a deeply ingrained sense of duty in him, it'd never let him accept not being the savior in a situation. Just when she was going to physically try to stop him, a stocky Pict clouted the Doctor over the head and he fell, Bill picked up his lens/mirror while she stepped back in shock.
"You're wrong, Doctor." Bill's strong voice made his eyes widen. "It's their destiny, not yours."
"Sorry." Nardole came to stand in front of the duo, given Lia had knelt to help the time lord stand up. "You're going nowhere."
How lucky was Kar to have Lucius by her side for eternity? As they stepped into the swirling blue vortex, followed by every soldier in the ninth, she felt ashamed to have abandoned Avery all that time ago. She'd tried so hard to lead a life worthy of his sacrifice, perhaps it's been such pain that broke the conditioning of those repetitions, and every adventure so far had been amazing but it felt like all she did was get hurt or say some well worded answers. And then she ended up unconscious for two entire days. She had to be better. But not right now.
In this moment, her heart barely recovered from the mere thought of living without the Doctor. It should not have hurt so much but it did and it scared her. Because he'd leave one day and then what would that feel like? Avery used to say that getting hurt meant you had loved. Would he proud of her for running away from this feeling again? Because as the last Romans stepped forward, that was exactly what Ophelia Watson did.
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"The greeks, those guys knew how to party." Missy took a sip of tea while smiling mischievously. "Oh, the nights I spent there... The stories I could tell you about some parties."
"I'm sure you could, Em." The adiutrix simply smiled, more at being back home than due to present company.
"Went to this very interesting senate hearing once but I think that was in Rome." Her bright blue eyes got unfocused, lost in ancient memories. "And I might've been a man back then."
"Did you kill Caesar?" Thankfully no tea was spat out.
"It was more of a team effort really." The time lady quickly went back to what they'd been talking about. "Anyways the Greeks had all these fancy words for love because they understood how..."
Nardole stopped dead on his tracks as he took in the scene of a merry tea party, pastries courtesy of the TARDIS. Two chairs had been arranged on the gallery so all three newcomers saw them there.
"How did you get out of the Vault?" He then looked at the girl. "You! Sir, what do we do? How could this happen?"
"It's all right, Nardole." The Doctor waves his worries away. "She's been doing some work for me." His companion got up to hand him a small sandwich and some water. "And Ophelia is kind of the supervisor."
"Sorry. I'm sorry." Missy tone was anything but sincere. "I assumed they knew. Should I have stayed below decks?"
"No, it's fine." He simply shook his head before taking a drink.
She's supposed to be in the Vault! Nardole's indignation rivaled Bill's surprise, both somewhat directed at the young woman silently studying some buttons. Thankfully no one had questioned her swift exit.
"How were the engines?" The ship's pilot enquired.
"Better than you deserve." Missy walked down from the gallery to join them. "You are naughty. Do you ever do basic maintenance?"
"No, but I've got a plan for that."
"What?"
Oh, this would be good.
"You."
"Seriously?" Bill questioned him in disbelief. "What, she's doing chores for you now?" Her eyes turned to the girl trying to step behind the time lord. "And I am definitely talking to you later, don't try to hide."
"Sir, I must to protest in the strongest, most upset terms possible." The cyborg got up in his face. "Don't make me go squeaky voiced!"
"Do relax, you two." Missy's flair for the dramatic showed as her body draped over another set of stairs. "I'm bio-locked out of the controls. I can't even get through those doors. I'm as much a prisoner here as I am in the Vault."
"No, you most certainly are not." Nardole looked ready to bite a head off.
"Guys, seriously." Bill took a few steps to face the unusually quiet duo. "Why did you let her out?"
"Are you not forgetting how you got home from Mars?" Ophelia stared hard at her friend, as if inciting challenge.
"What, so now you trust her?" She turned to him, not feeling like starting an argument.
"No, so now he's getting TARDIS maintenance for free." The time lady sassed while standing up. "Let's not get carried away."
"So what have you been up to? Did you watch us?" The Doctor asked because surely she and his companion hadn't discussed that.
"Some of it." She said. "A little bit."
"What did you think?" His prompting got an outcry of Oh, is she reviewing us now?
"All those little people, trapped in a hill, fighting forever." She messed a little with the screen. "Is that really up to your bleeding heart standards?"
"Well, they're not trapped and they're more than just fighting. And there's music. Always music."
"Well, team, who's going to help me hide his gee-tar?"
Something began to crack inside the time lady, Ophelia was sure of it.
"See, that's what I'm trying to teach you, Missy. You understand the universe, you see it and you grasp it, but you've never learned to hear the music."
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I!!!AM!!!NOT!!!READY!!!FOR THE NEXT CHAPTERS