Deadlock

Chapter 18

Chapter Text

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Only Rassilon's gauntlet wasn't pointed at The Doctor, his gaze was though, locked on The Doctor's drinking in his expression of horror as he rubbed two fingers together causing them to spark and spit before bringing them up in a mockery of a caress. Metal fingers ghosting over chiselled cheekbones as flesh and bone tightened savagely in the knot of her hair, yanking her head back roughly.

"Why you are almost pretty now my dear...We really must change that."

"Let her go!" It was meant to be commanding, The Doctor whose words had once caused armies to shiver and shake in fear, yet it came out of his throat more as a plea.

"No." Rassilon's reply was softly spoken yet there was no hiding his contempt for them both. "Why should I? I'm winning."

"Because there is no need for any of this." The Doctor insisted taking a hesitant step forward. "We don't need to be enemies, not this time. We all want the same thing to save Gallifrey and working together we can achieve anything..."

"Oh Doctor how very naïve you still are." Rassilon sneered. "The Daleks are worthy enemies, you two are irritants, mere pebbles in my shoes and I am finally going to deal with you and as for Gallifrey..." He added lip curling in disgust.

"What about Gallifrey?" The Doctor questioned nervously.

Now smiling broadly Rassilon nodded his head towards the display. "Why don't you take a look Doctor?"

Stumbling over to the control console The Doctor ran his sonic over the display and the viewscreen sprung to life. Yet this time there was no Osgood instead the display was filled with the glow of an orange planet.

For a moment The Doctor could only stare up in wonder, his two hearts swelling in joy. Gallifrey...Rassilon had found it.

"You found it." He whispered reverently his hands ghosting over the image. "Where did you find it? Have you found a way to bring it back?"

Barking out a laugh Rassilon could only shake his head. "Oh no Doctor I never lost it, I've always known where it was. After all I was the one who piloted my tardis out of the pocket dimension."

"But I don't..." The Doctor frowned in confusion running bruised and bloody hands through his stained hair. "Why did you leave?"

"Why should I stay where I was clearly no longer wanted or respected?" Rassilon demanded pompously his eyes flashing dangerously as they alighted on the red planet, and if The Doctor had thought Rassilon's gaze was venomous before now it dripped with bitter insanity.

"After all I only created them, built our society with my genius and hard work and how am I repaid? My own generals colluding behind my back and if my own people no longer respect me, no longer trust me to win this war..."

"The war is over!" The Doctor insisted. "We ended it when we saved Gallifrey."

"Oh yes you and your twelve other annoying incarnations." Rassilon sneered. "The Doctor once the butcher of Gallifrey now it's Hero."

"Is that why we're here? Because you're jealous?" The Doctor demanded incredulously. "Because it wasn't you? You the man who wanted to destroy the whole of time itself just so he could win the war."

"Is this moral judgement from the coward who once burnt Gallifrey and every man woman and child on its surface?"

"I did what I had to. The war would have destroyed the whole universe."

"Universes die and are reborn that is the nature of things." Rassilon pontificated as if instructing a particularly slow student.

"Yet you denied our people their opportunity to move beyond those petty bounds and now they will never get that opportunity...they no longer deserve it. A billion years of timelord civilisation deserves a more fitting end than to be forgotten in some pathetic pocket dimension, and a more fitting champion than a failed timelord who chooses another species over his own people, that or there needs to be a new class of timelords." Rassilon added darkly.