Companion of Death - A Doctor Who Fanfiction (Thasmin)

Chapter 4: The Hybrid

Okay, no interlude this time because this chapter is a direct continuation of the previous one. Sort of how the show sometimes has a story over two episodes. I think it's safe to say that Echo is a bit of a dark character. I mean, we've seen that before. She killed the Master. Now she's angry and desperate. But she's still vulnerable underneath.

I slung my bow across my body while Ashildr and I ran back to the Doctor's TARDIS, intent on bringing the fight to her. We needed revenge; she had to pay for what she did to us. The fact that she did not remember was not a defense, it was another reason for our anger. The guilt of what she did to us consumed her so much that she could not bare to remember it. She didn't have the decency to remember it.

I threw open the TARDIS doors without knocking and we drew our guns. The Doctor stepped forward, her hands in the air. She surrendered. Ashildr and I shared a look. Surrender was not good enough.

I cocked my gun, pointing it at Yaz and then Missy. "Both of you stay out of this," I ordered, my voice cold enough to freeze the equator. "This is between us and the Doctor."

They retreated to a corner of the control room, angry but powerless. Yaz was crushing on the Doctor and Missy was her closest friend, but I was armed and would not hesitate to shoot. If I had to, I would shoot even Missy – feelings be damned.

"Doctor," Ashildr repeated mockingly. "The word for healer and wise man throughout the universe. We get that word from you, you know. But you have been anything but a healer and wise man. You experimented on your own children, and you created the Hybrid. Now it is clear to me. I am the Hybrid. And you made me. You put that Mire chip in my head. How apt. All your fears about being the Hybrid, you created it instead."

"You're the Hybrid," the Doctor said tonelessly. She seemed in shock at the revelation. "Time Lord and Mire."

We were not Time Lord. We were something more than that. But we refrained from correcting the Doctor. We could not reveal our true nature. It would be dangerous for anybody to know.

"She finally gets it!" Ashildr mocked. "Come on, Echo, let's go. The Doctor can ponder that while we make her seriously regret her actions."

Though I did not know what my sister was thinking, I understood that she had planned for this day in advance and knew what she wanted to do. She had the time for it, after all. An hour ago, I had still been human, and she had known the whole story. So I holstered my gun and followed her out of the TARDIS.

"Wait," a Scottish-accented voice called. I turned around to face Missy. "Just be careful, okay?"

I turned away from her and went after Ashildr to her TARDIS. Her hazel eyes were hard, and I suspected that my own were no softer. The warning had been issued; now this was war.

"Set course to Gallifrey," Ashildr requested. "We're going home."

I set the controls, instinctively knowing how they worked. There was no whooshing sound when we landed – the Doctor left the brakes on, which was damaging in the long run. It explained her tendency to get the timing slightly off, or the place a bit wrong. The poor TARDIS was injured from lack of care and maintenance.

I stepped out of the TARDIS, taking in the gorgeous orange planet and the man-made glass dome. The two were at complete odds with each other – the planet was all natural, save for a massive sphere that looked like it contained a whole city.

"That's the Capitol," Ashildr told me. "Home to the great and the good of Gallifrey. I thought you might want to see it before it is no longer."

"I'm having this really childish impulse to blow it up," I said, grinning at the thought.