Perpetual

Chapter 13

"They wanted us here."

Theo's words rang in Tessa's head as another Dread Doctor appeared at the top of the stairs.

"Liam, try to get that thing out of Mason's neck," Scott said urgently.

The third Doctor appeared, his cane clicking on the ground as he walked towards them.

"Theo..." the Doctor hissed out. "Theo Raeken."

Theo kept his arm out in front of Tessa as the doctor drew closer. "He's coming with us," Theo said.

"Failure...Theo Raeken..." The Doctor repeated as it came closer, its gaze shifting to Tessa. "Theresa O'Connell."

She started at the sound of her full name. No one ever called her that.

Theo's hand gripped her arm as they waited for the Doctor's next words.

"Failure."

Tessa tried to steady her breathing as it drew closer, the word triggering memories that she was trying to forget. Memories of dying, of choking on mercury until she couldn't hold on any longer.

"No," Theo snapped. "She's not."

Scott glanced at the boy curiously.

"Not complete failures," the Surgeon said, facing them, "We learned from both of you."

"Theo," Scott whispered, "he's trying to get to you."

"This is what they want, don't give it to them," Scott said. "We can't beat them."

"The mark of a true failure," the Surgeon's voice rumbled. "Repeating the same mistake again and again."

Theo turned back to look at Scott. "We're taking Mason," he said.

Tessa turned to look back at Mason and Liam and when she turned back, Theo's face had transformed into his werewolf form.

"Then I'm taking what's mine," he growled, roaring.

The Doctors didn't move.

"Let him go," Theo growled.

"You have the entitlement and narcissism typical of your generation," the Doctor said. "In that, you are a profound success."

Mason screamed and they turned. Liam had tried to pull the tube out of his neck again, with no success.

"Scott, I can't get it out," Liam panicked. "I don't know what to do."

Scott ran over to them while Theo and Tessa faced the Dread Doctors.

"But your failure taught us one thing," he continued. "The banality of evil. That you were and would always be an ordinary evil."

Tessa narrowed her eyes at the Doctor. Theo was many things but despite all that he had done, she still didn't believe he was evil. He wasn't irredeemable, he still had a chance to prove himself and she hoped that he would take it.

"You think I'm ordinary?" Theo growled.

Tessa rolled her eyes. Maybe she should take that back.

"We believed that to resurrect the perfect killer we had to start with the perfect evil. From you, we learned true evil only comes by corrupting something truly good. The only way that you could be redeemed was to have something worth fighting for so we made sure you had nothing. But we failed."

"What does that mean?" Theo asked angrily.

The Doctor chuckled darkly, the deep sound resonating off his metal helmet.

The doctor's fingers crackled with electricity as he pointed past Theo towards Tessa. Theo glanced at her frantically, stepping in front of her.

"What're you doing? I'm the one you want dead, not her."

The Doctor chuckled again, the sound sending shivers down Tessa's spine. "Failure."

Another Dread Doctor appeared behind her and Tessa felt her body go numb as electricity ran through her.

She collapsed to the ground. Theo screamed in anger, throwing himself at the Doctor in front of him.

Theo pinned him against the wall.

The Doctor spun him around, holding him against the wall. "There's only one way to break true evil."

Theo roared, anger building up inside him.

Tessa hadn't moved and Theo didn't have a chance to listen for her heartbeat to make sure she was alive but it didn't look like she was breathing.

The Doctor let out a robotic laugh.

Growling in frustration, Theo kicked off the wall, finally managing to get a few good hits on the Dread Doctor. He stumbled back and Theo glanced over at the others.

Liam and Scott were crouched down across the room, Tessa was still lying motionless on the floor and Mason...

Mason was standing up. His eyes glowing electric blue as a black cloud swirled around his feet. The Dread Doctors all turned to look.

"Transformation."