The Doctor

Black Widow part 2

The Doctor stared at the woman, his mouth left agape in shock. He walked in a circle around her, sizing her up. He moved to stand in front of her and placed his hands on her shoulders. Slowly, he brought his hands to her temples and rested his forehead against hers.

"I can't believe it," he whispered. "If I didn't see it just now I wouldn't believe you if you had said it. When did all of that happen?"

The Black Widow smiled, as if knowing that that would be The Doctor's reaction. It was one of those smiles that said 'I told you so' or 'I was right. It was that look that made your stomach drop when you saw it cross a friend's face. What made matters worse was that this look didn't harm her attributes one bit. The look actually made her look even more appealing.

"About fifty years ago," she whispered. She waved her hand and before us appeared a hologram. In the hologram was what I could only assume was a room in this castle that we seemed to be in. "Gerono fell ill. He was not doing well." We watched as the scene fell onto a man in a bed in the center of the room. He was hooked up to machines. There were many people in the room. You could tell that this man was dying. "Every Mage in the city tried to help him with different spells and potions. But finally, his heart gave out and my love was gone."

We watched as the hologram changed and showed a widow at a funeral, standing over the casket just before it is meant to be lowered. Her entire being showed that she was a woman who was on the edge of the bridge, waiting for that gust of wind that would blow her over the side. It changed once more to the way the world seemed to collapse around her. Everything about her city was beginning to fail. They were having troubles with crime. The economy was crumbling. They were talking about asking her to step down or overthrowing her if she didn't. She was about to lose the last thing that was keeping her going.

"As I watched my people try to come into the castle for some sort of intervention, if you will, I realized that things needed to change. I no longer had the only thing that mattered to me. I was not letting them get this last piece of life that was keeping me from falling under," she said. I turned my attention away from the hologram and looked at her. "That night, I adopted a new persona. The woman that they knew before was burried with my husband. The widow before them was the woman that they needed to work for. I became the Black Widow."

The Doctor stared at her and nodded his head. It looked like he was going to say something but then he would turn around and pace away from us. He would turn and walk over to us and looked as if he was going to say something before quickly shaking his head, all while muttering under his breath, and walking away from us. I remember him doing this on the Space station before we had originally run off and into hiding. This was when he was working something out in his head. Either he was going to try to find a way to get the old woman that he knows back into this empty shell of a humanoid or he was devising a plan to completely take her out of power to let the people that she ruled over free.

"Doctor, this is not something that you can change," she said softly. "Maggie Marjello died with her husband those few years ago. The pain is still so fresh in my heart. You, Companion, you are a human correct?"

I instantly straightened as her attention turned to me. I felt as if I was on the spot even though it was a simple question that she was issuing.

"Y-yes ma'am," I stuttered. What was wrong with me? On the space station I have as much authority over my workers as she does hers. The only difference is that we are really only higher officers, with very militaristic levels of classification. We are not a dictatorship.

"I wish that I could be one," she said, her eyes locking with mine. It almost felt as if my blood turned to ice for one moment. It was the most painful feeling I have ever encountered. What made it worse that it was instantaneous. As soon as her eyes touched mine I could feel the pain. She released her gaze and my blood went back to it's normal temperature. The intensity of the warmth almost knocked me down.