The Forgotten

Chapter 12

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It had taken her far longer than she would have liked but Osgood had found them, hanging back out of sight she waited until the armed guards trapped on her side of the airlock deserted. Not that she could blame them for doing so, loyalty to a lord like Strax only went so far and certainly not to the extent of risking your life for him.

Creeping forward Osgood kept low so as to not attract attention, making it over to the door controls which were locked beyond her ability to unpick. Instead she had settle for watching the drama unfold through the small window in the blast door. She could see the back of Missy and two infants, and if she strained she could make out the edge of The Doctor's coat but they weren't alone unfortunately, there were two armed guards with their blasters out trained on The Doctor.

The atmosphere was clearly tense as the two soldiers whose expression she could see easily looked a hairs trigger away from firing and Osgood could only hope The Doctor had one of his brilliant speeches up his sleeve.

Then suddenly Lord Strax was moving and Osgood could only stifle her protest as he knocked into Missy, knocking her to the ground and snatched one of the children from her arms and for a moment Osgood got a good look at the child's face, something which ended any lingering doubts she might have over the child's parentage.  Then she watched horrified as Strax actually held a blaster to the infants head

Well that sealed his fate, even if The Doctor somehow managed to talk him out of pulling the trigger Osgood knew Strax was a dead man walking. Missy was going to kill him and for once Osgood didn't even flinch from the thought.

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Checkmate...

Stalemate...

Deadlock...

The Doctor glared down at Lord Strax his eyes unfathomably dark and foreboding under his furrowed eyebrows. "Give me the child."

"Open the doors." Strax countered smugly. "Come now Doctor that is hardly unreasonable, I'll even promise not to have my men shoot you...Of course I have no intention of letting you on board my ship so the chances are high that you'll die anyway but I do believe in giving a fighting chance."

"You would really risk your lives for the sake of profit?" The Doctor countered. "We have less than a few minutes before it will be too late for even your ship to escape the black holes gravity well, take my offer and leave."

"No Doctor there is no risk when you know someone is bluffing, you are a terrible liar. You are not a man who can stomach having the blood of innocent children his hands so yes I am sure you will release us." Strax sneered, his fingers tightening on the gun. "However if you require a demonstration of my resolve please just say so, as I already said I have a spare."

"You know nothing about me Strax, there was a time when these hands were stained with the blood of an entire planets children." The Doctor growled warningly as the station around them gave a worrying shudder.

Glancing over Strax's shoulder The Doctor's gaze locked momentarily with Missy's and he shrunk back under the weight of the loathing he saw in it...and for a moment another image of her almost overlaid the first...a blood splattered Mistress staring at him in disbelief and horror as he aimed his sonic at some control board and triggered an explosion that sent the world around them into chaos.

No...He couldn't have...For a moment there was only the rush of fire and blood and disbelief in The Doctor's mind. The visceral taste of Missy's lips and blood on his tongue. A view screen filled with a familiar orange planet and a choice....a terrible choice...Oh god he hadn't...

Staggering under the force of the returning memory The Doctor barely had time to react when Missy suddenly snapped.

"Not my daughter you bastard!" She screamed as she leapt up from the floor stiletto in hand that she had pulled from somewhere, jamming it hard into the shoulder that was holding the blaster causing Strax scream out and his grasp on it to falter.

Taking up the slack The Doctor leant forward and snatched their little girl from Strax's other arm before sonicing the door that led back into the station. The stunned guards took one look between their boss and potential freedom and quickly decided to abandon him like their predecessors had done.

Pushing past them Osgood rushed in and quickly picked up the other child that Missy had left on the relative safety of the floor cradling the crying little boy against her unable to do anything more than watch as Missy let loose a wave of violence on the screaming Strax.

"No one...ever...touching...them..." She punctuated each word with a blow from her little knife, relishing the little gargling noises Strax was making.

So much more pleasant than the usual heavy breathing she had been forced to endure, just the memory of this creatures hands on her skin made her feel sick but that was nothing to the feeling of pure fury at the thought of him touching her children.

Yet the pirate king refused to go down without a fight, scrabbling for his dropped blaster with his other hand he turned back to his onetime lover.

"You bitch." He hissed trying to lift it up to get a shot off but an unhinged Missy was on him before he could pull the trigger, the force of her attack knocking them both to the floor.

For what felt like forever they rolled and fought over the blaster. Osgood scrabbled for her own blaster yet there was never a clear enough shot and she was uncertain of her own aim. What was the point in firing if she only hurt Missy.

"No!" The Doctor's protest cut her off reaching out he snatched the blaster from out of Osgood's hand and threw it away in disgust.

"Doctor we have too he...." Osgood began only for the sound of a blaster discharging at close quarters to cut her off.

For a moment the silence was deafening, only the slow groaning of the protesting station could be heard as it began to buckle under the increasing pressure outside. Neither Missy nor Strax were moving and Osgood felt like she was about to vomit up her insides.

"Missy?" Osgood whimpered edging forward, surprised when The Doctor literally thrust the other child onto her and for a moment Osgood was grateful for the distraction, she had barely held one child before and never two.

His hands shaking The Doctor reached down and roughly dragged Strax off of Missy. It didn't take a doctor to see the huge gaping wound in the pirate king was fatal yet it was the burnt and bleeding wound in Missy's own side that really had him concerned.

"No... No...No...."Bundling off his jacket The Doctor pressed it against her wound, relieved beyond reckoning when Missy's eyes flickered open, even if there blue depths looked confused and clouded with pain.

"Doctor?"

"It's not that bad you'll be fine." The Doctor reassured her, forcing a half smile.

"You always were a terrible liar Thete and you've never got any better." Missy sassed him, wincing as The Doctor took her hand and pressed it against her wound. "Just telling the truth dear no need to be so rough."

"You need to keep on the pressure." The Doctor chastised her, refusing to accept or admit to himself and certainly not to her just how bad it was looking.

He couldn't he wouldn't lose her now, not when they were so close to winning. How in the name of Gallifrey could he face every day with their children knowing what he did, knowing what he chose, knowing just how many of their siblings he had murdered. No he needed Missy, he couldn't do this on his own...call him a coward he didn't care but he couldn't accept a universe that didn't include The Mistress in it.

"It won't do any bloody good silly boy, one of us isn't an idiot remember?" Missy countered wishing there was time enough to say everything that suddenly seemed so important. "Doctor I'm sorry I...."

Avoiding her gaze Doctor choked back tears. "Stop that there is no need. We'll get you to a doctor," he paused not needing to see her gaze to know she was rolling her eyes, even human Missy was still The Mistress in so many ways, "A proper doctor one who can fix this I promise."

"No time love, you need to leave, this place is going to blow up any minute now I know I set the charges." Missy sighed at his stubbornness, it hurt knowing that even now he couldn't seem to bear to look at her.

Reaching up she touched his face gently forcing The Doctor to meet her gaze. "Go. Take the children and go with my blessing."

"Fine." Doctor grunted yet there was no resignation in his face only stubborn determination as he picked her up, "We have to get back to the Tardis." He added mainly for Osgood's benefit although the UNIT scientist wondered if he wasn't also daring Missy to disagree with him.

Yet it was probably a testament to how badly injured Missy was that she didn't protest when he picked her up. Just whimpered and curled into his chest and The Doctor and Osgood began to race through the station's corridors.

The ground underneath the feet began to warp, metal struts began to buckle and crack and more than once they were forced to stop and find another way as the path in front of them suddenly became unpassable.

At some point Missy passed out in The Doctor's arms but the Doctor didn't dare stop. Missy's warning about the final explosive charge still dominated his thoughts and The Doctor could still feel her single heart beating and that had to be enough to reassure him.

They had just made it to the corridor in which the storage unit where the Tardis was hiding when something  somewhere exploded.

"Doctor!" Osgood screamed in panic as rushing down the corridor towards them was a wall of fire.

"RUN!" The Doctor commanded jumping over buckled metal and literally throwing himself and Missy through the open door before reaching and back and with barely a milliseconds grace dragging Osgood and the children through after him. Falling into The Tardis open doors and landing heavily on the floor The Doctor was unable to do anything as the wall of fire twisted and followed them.

The sudden slam of the Tardis's doors saved them all, and a more than slightly winded and singed Doctor stared up into the angelic face of Kate Lethbridge Stewart.

"Cutting it a bit fine Doctor!" Kate barked and the Time Lord staggered to his feet, making it to the central console and slamming down the dematerialisation lever.
Safe...the soft crooning reassurance of his Tardis was both for him and the terrified infants still clutched in Osgood's inexperienced grasp yet the Time Lord thanked whoever was looking after them that the scientist had chosen to ignore his advice and go looking for Missy herself. If it hadn't been for her then The Doctor would have been forced to choose between Missy or the children, even he couldn't have carried all three to safety.

Not that they were out of the woods by any means.

Sinking to his knees Missy's blood staining his shirt. The Doctor pressed his fingers to Missy's pulse point. Still there but thread and weak already Missy skin felt cooler to the touch, normal for a time lord but dangerous for a human. Much like this wound in her side, a Time Lord could control the bleeding, could stimulate repairs, enough to allow them to get proper medical attention.

"Where is it?" The Doctor muttered to himself, hands running over Missy's jumpsuit, checking the pockets even going so far as to tug off her boots...she had hidden a knife in there...but it wasn't there.

"No it has to be here." The Doctor insisted refusing to accept the alternative that it had been left behind on the station that was just destroyed. That Missy was doomed to spend the rest of her limited life as a human...

"Doctor please she needs medical attention." Osgood insisted passing the children into the far more experienced hands of her boss and moving to kneel beside the barely breathing body of her friend.

Cursing the lack of time The Doctor knew that there was only one thing left he could do. Shaking his hand until a golden glow appeared he pressed it against Missy's wound which to the general amazement of Kate and Osgood, who had never actually seen regeneration energy before; it seemed to close up her wound before their eyes.

"Doctor is she?" Osgood began tentatively her brown eyes welling with tears as Missy took one breath and then another deeper still. Her chiselled cheeks no longer had that waxy texture and her lips were slowly returning to their natural rosy hue.

"She'll live." The Doctor pronounced but there was little joy in his voice as he brushed the hair back from Missy's face his fingers lingering on her temples but there was only the dull muffle of static that all human brains produced.

Everything that had been Time Lord about her was gone, lost, and in a way it was just as if he had still lost, as if she had still died.

"Live as a human." The Doctor spat bitterly which for a Time Lord was like handing down a diagnosis for a terminal illness.

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