Deadlock

Chapter 11

Chapter Text

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She shouldn't have gone prying. Yet curiosity had always been Osgood's worst weakness and it had been so boring just floating here inside her own head whilst Missy used her body like a marionette. She had never seen inside her own mind before, it was like being trapped on a rollercoaster with no off switch or worse like being one of those little metal balls inside a pinball machine, once she had started moving there was no stopping and she had bounced from memory to memory.

One moment she was a small child playing with a toy that Stacie had left on the floor before her sister returned to snatch it back from her, pushing Osgood down on the floor and knocking her glasses askew. Then she was at university taking a sip of strong alcohol as she wound up the courage to shrug off of the dress she had borrowed from one of her dorm mates and join the boy from her chemistry class under the sheets. It was disconcerting in the extreme and Osgood couldn't help but feel dizzy and unsettled.

She just wanted it to stop...she wanted her body back...her mind back to herself...

By contrast Missy's presence in her mind was like streaks of lightening across a dark landscape. The timelady's presence burning bright and Osgood hadn't been able to resist the urge to reach out and touch.

Just a child's curiosity, like being mesmerised by the way a flame danced, the pretty lights and wondering what it felt like to touch...

It was like being sucked into a tornado and Osgood thought her mind might split from the sudden influx of thoughts and feelings not her own. She caught a glimpse of waves of red grass blowing in the wind, of a handsome young face laughing as he joined another young man in a wild dance between silvery trees their bodies coming together and blurring. She saw wonders that were beyond her imaginings and horrors that made her own fears seem childish by comparison.

For one brief moment she was everywhere and everything, she understood it all and it felt incredible...Like she was Go...

With a mental scream of outrage and fury echoing in her brain Osgood was brutally ejected and flung onto the cold steel balcony platform. The force of the impact knocked the air and her delusions out of her and Osgood cried out in pain; from the shock, from the loss of all that wonder and the knowledge that as long as she lived she would never experience something like that again.

Yet if that wasn't bad enough, looking up into the cold unhinged face of The Master unleashed that alone would have caused her to scream...if she had been able to...

The vice like grip of Missy's hands about her throat as she straddled her victim pinning Osgood to the floor left no such option. There was no spark of recognition in those blue eyes just fury and bloodlust. The Master had lost even a semblance of control.

Reaching up Osgood didn't waste her effort in trying to pry those talons from around her throat, the stronger than human grip and higher bone density of the timelords would make them a match for most humans even those considerably taller or heavier. Osgood had no such advantages and even the basic self-defence training all UNIT operatives had to undertake as part of their mandatory annual review couldn't help her once confronted with an opponent like The Master.

Instead she brushed her fingers across the timelady's temple pushing out the last thought she might ever think...

I'm sorry...I didn't mean to...

There just wasn't the words. Osgood had never been good with words always stumbling over the right thing to say, so instead she pushed her feelings, her hopes, her dreams everything and anything that was her. It was probably futile, just the lingering desperation of an oxygen deprived mind...only...only she didn't need to breath.

The realisation was slow in coming but when it arrived it fired neurons in Osgood's brain.

They were in a data cloud; all these surroundings were just the electrical impulses of her stored memory engrams trying to interpret the digital world around her. Yet there was no oxygen here, no real need to breath, only the lingering attachment to the action that she remembered from being alive.

She wasn't going to die; at least not from strangulation...she probably wouldn't have even died from falling either. None of this was real...

Staring up calmly into Missy's eyes Osgood noticed the moment the timelady seemed to come back to herself, it wasn't a dramatic shift, yet there was a discernible change; one moment she wasn't there and then she just was. The bruising grip on her neck was released ever so slightly and Osgood could only watch as Missy tilted her head and studied her closely, piercing blue eyes studying every little molecule as if an experiment she was conducting had suddenly turned up erroneous results.

"Well isn't that interesting." Missy commented only Osgood doubted it had been for her benefit as the timelady continued to twist her head and examine Osgood from every available angle.

"You really are surprising for an ape." Missy added pushing herself up until only her presence straddling Osgood's stomach was restraining the younger woman.

Reaching up Osgood couldn't resist the reflex to rub her sore throat. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to...well pry...I just got a little lost..."

Scowling Missy leaned back down and for a moment Osgood was terrified what the timelady might do now since her original plan to murder her again had failed.

"Bad dog!" Missy hissed lifting one carefully manicured nail and flicking it hard against the tip of Osgood's nose.

Wincing Osgood covered her nose with her hand and nodded, taking in a deep breath she didn't really need when Missy finally stood up and regally brushed down her skirts, sauntering inside the building as if nothing had happened.

"Heel Skip."

It wasn't a request and Osgood didn't even consider being difficult even if Missy's choice of command struck something hard and stubborn inside of her. Now wasn't the time to jeopardise things not when they were so close.

Following Missy inside Osgood could only marvel at what clearly had to be the central processing unit of the Nethersphere, the walls were covered in screens, some displayed data readouts, others showed images of earth...there was even and Osgood blinked one screen that seemed to be live streaming from UNIT headquarters. No wonder The Master had been expecting them if she had been able to listen in on their every move.

Missy however was not interested in any of those her attention was focused on one console that looked like it didn't belong alongside all of the sleek earth looking tech, it was clunky almost organic looking, clearly alien in origin. There was a large circle set down in the middle and the dish seemed to be reflective as if filled with water.

"What is that?" Osgood couldn't help but ask, her surprised when Missy even bothered to reply considering she was clearly in the dog house.

"The way out pet. Now shush I am trying to concentrate you don't want to return to a matter based form and be one tenth your usual size do you?"

Scowling Osgood could only cross her arms and wait her eyes scanning the room and then it occurred to her, a slow building realisation that something about this felt off somehow... something was missing... "Missy where are the others?"

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