Companion of Death - A Doctor Who Fanfiction (Thasmin)

Chapter 10: The Raging Inferno

Pun in the title coz that's practically ace culture. And because puns are all-round genius. Unless it's actually a double entendre... which is also genius, but not ace culture. I can't always tell what's what.

Missy grabbed my hand when we reached the entrance to the complex. Looking down at our joined hands, I smiled, but I had to let go. I would need both my hands. Missy understood that.

I wrapped my left hand around the tattoo on my wrist, focusing on creating a ball of fire in my hand. It ignited, and I used it to break the locks on the gate. I did the same to the main door of the compound. We were in.

I cast my mind back to my long-ago childhood that I spent running around this building, marveling at the many things there were to see. Recalling the layout of the complex perfectly, I walked with confidence down the hallways until I came to the room where the rulers sat when they were in session. Voices behind the imposing double doors indicated that they were in session currently.

I pushed the doors open and everybody looked up to glare at the intruder. Their anger turned to confusion when they saw it was me, and their confusion turned to fear when they saw the ball of fire flickering in my palm.

"That's right," I said, smirking at them. I reached my other hand behind me for Missy to take. She slipped her hand into mine. "You made me. Now you will fear me."

"I demand that you stop this right now!" the secretary shouted.

"I think not," Missy stated, her voice cold enough to freeze the flames in my hand. "I think this has just barely started."

"Who are you?" one of the ministers demanded.

"I am your conscience," Missy replied instantly in tones that inspired dread in all who heard her. "You have survived this revolution with your lives and the barest bit of authority intact. I will make you remember what you had to do to bring this about."

(AN: Conscience. The irony. She's the Master.)

"Silence her!" the chairman ordered.

I raised the fireball to my face and blew. One flame darted out and flew across the room, striking him in the chest. He fell backward, dead.

"You will listen," I commanded, my voice cold, "or you will be killed as your chairman was. That is the only warning you will receive."

"You took a child and experimented on her," Missy said bluntly. "You stole her childhood and made her a weapon. And such a cruel weapon it was. One that took over her body, pushing her conscience to the side and making her watch what was happening around her. I saw the destruction out there, on the battlefields. Once the Inferno was finished, there was barely any indication that there had once been people there! When you realized what sort of weapon you had created, you cast out the child and her sister instead of facing up to your actions. You did nothing to try reverse the process. You knew that the Inferno was coming back anyway, even with your realm closed off. It would make its way back and force its way in, because you created it to protect you in the event of war. Sending the child out into another world did nothing but make her feel rejected. And you killed her parents! Why? For the simple reason that they knew about the Project and weren't important enough to live."

"Now look at your homeworld," I instructed. "It is completely scorched. The Inferno did that. So many thousands of our kind, all dead today because you were scared of war! War is a natural thing that occurs everywhere! Civil, international, worldwide, intergalactic. It's normal. But you dusty old senators were too damn scared of a revolution that this realm seriously needs, so you created a weapon to quash the rebellion before it got out of hand; thus proving to all the citizens of the homeworld just how damn much we need that revolution. Well, guess what? You succeeded this time. The rebels are all dead. But so are many others. There are so few of our kind left, and I am disappointed that the majority of the survivors are you. Of course, that can change..."