My Mad Doctor

Chapter 23

A/N Hell of a plot twist, coming right up. I just wanted to say thank you to all my readers, silent or not. I appreciate each and every one of you. Reading your comments, seeing your votes: it makes all of this worth it. So, I know I'm rambling, but I just wanted you guys to know how grateful I am for your support. :) 

“Jaqui, please don’t do this, I know you’re better than this. I know you care about Violet, at least a little. Please, take me to her. Not out there. If we go out there they’ll kill me, then they’ll kill you all.” I begged the man to understand, nearly falling to my knees in an effort to make him believe. Maybe there was some good in him still. Maybe there was something worth saving in these people.

“I can’t.” He whispered, his voice shaking. So, he was vulnerable, but still scared. I could work with vulnerable, but not scared. Scared meant he’d be easy for the emperor to control.

He grabbed my arm and disappeared, taking me with him. When he reappeared, I was kneeling in front of the cyber men ship on the edge of the cliff. I didn’t want to look down. If I did, I’d see her: broken and twisted on the ground like a rag doll. I couldn’t see that. Not now.

So, I faced the ship with my head held as high as I could manage with the weight of her death dragging me down. The voice projected out from the inside of the ship, making it impossible to guess how many cyber men were in the ship.

“Yes, yes, I’m The Doctor. Kill me if you’d like, but first tell me what you wanted with the girl.” I spoke in a deadly calm voice, my jaw clenched with suppressed anger. If I saw one more bloody cyber man in my lifetime, it would be too much. I hated them with everything inside of me. Everything.

“She is to be our commander. The last commander demanded that she lead after his demise. She is the only one who can lead us.” I stood up from my position in the ground, a cold glare in my eyes.

“I think you should take me to see this commander of yours. I’d like to have a chat with him.” I knew it was mad, but I was desperate to know why they had wanted Violet. She was an innocent girl. She didn’t deserve any of this.

The ship landed again, slowly. I walked towards it confidently, not stopping, even as they lowered the door and let me in. There were two of them waiting for me when I entered the ship, and they led me to the main section of the ship. This was incredibly close to the layout of the ship that had landed in Rio, but there were some differences. The number of conscious cyber men, for example, was much larger.

In the centre of the room was a great silver throne. On it sat the oldest cyber man I’d ever seen. It was hunched over, it’s metal skin covered in rust. Even when I walked right in front of the throne, it didn’t move.

I cleared my throat impatiently, facing the old creature. It sat dormant, almost as if it was an empty shell. I was about to do something when it lifted its head slowly.

“Doctor…” It said slowly, the voice as rusty as its suit. “Where… Violet?” My eyes widened. It knew her name. Every other cyber man I’d encountered never said her name. They simply called her the girl with The Doctor, or the chosen one. The way it said her name was almost… personal. How could it be, though?

“How do you now her name? Why are you so desperate to make her life a living hell?” I shouted at it, but it didn’t seem to react at all. In fact, it didn’t respond. I was becoming more and more impatient, though.

“Answer me!” I screamed, spit flying from my mouth. It lifted its head completely, then. My blood chilled as its hollowed out eye sockets met my gaze. I swore, in that moment, it was looking at me. Not through me. Not as if I was just a figure to destroy. It looked at me as if I was a person, a person who needed to help it.

“Where… Violet?” It said weakly.

I closed my eyes, trying to block out the pain and confusion and anger that were battling in my tired heart.

“She’s dead.” I stated sadly, a small tear sliding down my face.

“She jumped off the cliff so she couldn’t be used by you. I never got to say goodbye.” I whispered the last part, unable to say it too loudly, because if I did it would seem true. It was easier to lie to myself and pretend that she was alive, waiting for me back at the TARDIS with that endearing smile on her face. She’d take my hand and make some sarcastic remark about my timing and then we’d be off, flying through the stars together.

Yes, that was easier to believe than the possibility that she could be a corpse on the ground, all the life drained from her beautiful body.        

“Neither did I.”

Its words stopped me cold. I scrunched my eyebrows together in confusion before it came to me.

Finally, I understood why all of this had happened. It all made sense. Everything. Violet, the prophecy, and the cyber men’s persistence to make her the commander: everything was clear in my mind at his words.

I knew why this commander wanted Violet so badly. It wanted to talk to her, to get a proper goodbye. It wanted to see her to finish the business I tore her away from so many years ago, for him anyways. He wanted her because he understood how brave and true she was and knew that only she could lead them. He’s seen it with his own eyes. Somehow he was able to hold on to these memories of her through all these years and still feel emptions, despite the hard, silver shell he was trapped in.

]Those words I saw recently flashed in my mind and the final piece of the puzzle clicked in my mind.

Missing in action.

The body was never found because they took it. They needed a commander, someone who knew how to lead. Who better than him? They snatched him from the battlefield after we left him and took his brain. The cyber man was no ordinary cyber man.

He was General Sexton.