Post by Fitz Kreiner on Dec 21, 2009 22:16:37 GMT
15
The Unforgiven II.
The Unforgiven II.
It was like a Solonian arctic wind whistling through his ears and blackness darker than the darkest depths of space. His scream, which had echoed in his ears, had faded to the screaming and whistling. The blackness enveloped him from all sides, the image of the Cyber leader stood before him stayed with him into the blackness.
“Who are you?”
The electronic voice was in his head, each syllable causing a wave of pain across his brain.
“I’m the Doctor, that’s all you need to know,” he replied firmly, his voice seemingly lost to the winds.
“You know our ways. How?”
“I’ve met you before.”
“How?”
“I told you, I met you before.”
The winds seemed to get louder and a blinding pain drove him to his knees, burning the image of the Cyber leader into his retina as he closed his eyes.
“Doctor,”
The silky smooth voice came from the depths of his mind. He could feel the figure stood before him. Forcing his eyes open he looked up, a man was stood before him wearing a black suit and high collared white shirt. He had neatly styled silver hair and arched eyebrows, his eyes seemed to be smugly smiling, despite the scowl on his lips.
“Vaughn?” he asked unbelieving.
It took several seconds for the name to come to him. He’d not thought about him for centuries; the man who had assisted them in their attempt to invade the Earth in the late sixties. Or was it the seventies?
“You lead me to my death, Doctor,” the apparition of Vaughn continued. “Destroyed my dreams.”
“You sold out your own race, Vaughn, sold them out to the Cybermen,” he said softly, looking up. “I tried, but you signed your own death warrant the instant you entered into that agreement. They would never have honoured it.”
“I could have lived,” Vaughn said, staring accusingly at him. “I could have escaped them, survived if not for you.”
“They would have hunted you down,” he protested. “You died redeeming yourself, you helped stop them, helped humanity, helped save an entire world.”
“You destroyed my world,” the apparition screamed, its words echoing around the void.
He gasped as another jolt of pain shot through him, his hearts skipping a beat as he was thrown back, a blinding flash of light causing him to screw up his eyes. Opening them again, he saw that the vision of Tobias Vaughn had disappeared; the Cyber leader was stood over him again instead.
“You were there,” it said. “You engineered our defeat.”
“It was a pleasure,” he gasped.
“What are you doin’ here old timer?”
This new voice was different; harder with an American accent. Blinking, he saw that the Cyber leader had disappeared and had been replaced by a middle aged man wearing an American army uniform. He was standing sternly over him, eyes blazing, clutching a pistol in one hand.
“You,” he said, pointing an accusing finger down in his direction. “You’re the enemy. You, you killed my son and killed me.”
“General? General Cutler? Your son survived,” he protested. “You wouldn’t listen to me. If you had, you would have seen for yourself.”
“You, you sided with them,” Cutler spat the last word. “You, and that boy with you, you turned my team against me.”
“You’re mistaken, General,” he began.
“You, killed my boy, my son,” the apparition of Cutler said, staring accusingly down at him. “You, you killed him, you killed him.”
“He survived,” he said, exasperated. “His capsule was the other side of the planet when Mondas was destroyed. He survived. It was your actions that turned your team against you. I tried to help, if only you’d listened to me.”
“You, you, you,” Cutlers voice faded away, echoing, as his image faded.
“You were present at the destruction of our first planet,” the Cyber leaders’ image stepped through the now wispy form that had been Cutler. “You have been present through key times in our history.”
“I’ve stopped you when you threaten the Earth,” he gasped, the pain seemingly draining his energy. “And this time will be no different. Everything has a place in the universe, and mine is right here, stopping you.”
“But at what cost, Doctor?”
The voice came from all around. A voice he remembered and a voice that made his blood run cold. His hearts started to race at the sound. He couldn’t pin point the source of the voice, his head turning to find it.
“Leaving your friends to die?”
“I never left anyone to die who I couldn’t help,” he called out in defence.
Turning round he could see the apparition forming behind him, its hands held out pleading towards him. The image forming was of a young boy, a dark mop of hair on his head, yellow and beige clothes. His out held hands were black and scorched.
“You could have helped me, Doctor,” the boy said. “Or were Nyssa and Tegan too important to you again?”
“Adric, I tried,” he protested, reaching an arm up. The apparition stepped back. “The Cybermen damaged the console. I couldn’t go back, I tried, I really did.”
“You could have,” Adric cried.
“I can’t break the laws of time, Adric,” he said softly. “I can’t go back into established events.”
“You didn’t have to change things,” Adric pleaded. “The freighter could still have impacted; I didn’t have to be on it. Why didn’t you save me?”
“I tried, Adric,” he repeated. “The console was badly damaged and the freighters time warp was highly unstable. It would have been like trying to thread a needle at twice the speed of light.”
“You could have worked it out,” Adric retorted. “I had faith in you. I trusted you with my life and look where it got me!”
“I told you,” he said.
“You lied,” Adric cut in. “If you really tried, you’d have got me to go back to the TARDIS with you, Tegan and the Cyber leader. If it had been Tegan or Nyssa, you would have.”
“That’s not fair, Adric,” he replied, feeling the jibe as though it were a knife between his ribs.
“It’s true though, isn’t it?” Adric continued. “If it had been one of the girls, you’d have not left them.”
“I tried to get the Cyber leader to bring you with us,” he replied. “You were there, remember. After they damaged the console, I tried as hard as I could to get back to the freighter, but it was too late. I’m sorry, Adric. I’m so sorry. I did all I could.”
“You did nothing,” Adric shouted. “You never wanted me; you just left me to die. You left me to die on that freighter as if you’d picked up a gun and shot me. You killed me.”
As if to demonstrate his point, the apparition of Adric exploded soundlessly into dust, which rapidly disintegrated into golden particles, fading into the darkness, his last words echoing round the black void.
“There’s no use trying to appeal to him,” a new voice said, coming from behind him. “He wouldn’t listen. You were quite right; he’d happily leave you to your fate.”
He turned round to see this new apparition, wondering who it would be this time. The figure was in mid- cyber conversion, gaunt and pale with dark shadows under his grey eyes.
“Lytton?” he gasped.
“You didn’t want to listen to me,” Lytton said, pointing accusingly at the Doctor. “You just assumed the worst and left me to this.”
“I came for you, Lytton,” he said, pulling himself to his feet. He was going to stare this apparition down. “I came back and you told me to kill you. I tried to help you.”
“If it wasn’t for you, I would never have been in this situation, Doctor,” Lytton retorted.
“You found the Cybermen yourself, you can’t blame me for this,” he shouted back at the ghostly figure.
“It was your involvement with the Daleks that stranded me on Earth,” Lytton replied. “If you hadn’t interfered, then I would have been able to stay in my own time.”
“You worked for the Daleks, do you really think they would let you go?”
“I could have done it,” Lytton replied. “I escaped them on Earth; I could have managed it if you hadn’t been there. It was you, both times, who caused this. Face it, Doctor, you kill those you try to help, you can’t help it. You’re just as bad as the rest of them.”
“No,” he cried, reaching out to the apparition as it faded. “No, I tried to help you, I tried to help them all.”
“You feel guilt over their deaths,” the Cyber leader appeared behind him causing him to spin round, his coat tails flailing. “Emotion is a weakness. It has given us control over you.”
“You’ll never have control over emotions,” he said defiantly.
“We have control over the crew of the base,” the image of the Cyber leader was now surrounding him. “We pushed their emotions and gained control. Emotion is a weakness; it has given us control over you.”
“What?” he asked, turning full circle and seeing the same Cyberman surrounding him.
“You belong to us,” the Cyber leader said. “You will be like us.”
As one, all the images of the Cyber leader reached up to its chest unit and pressed a button on the side panel.
“I will never be like you,” the Doctor said, instants before an intense pain, sharper than a Terileptil’s hunting knife, and light brighter than the star of Sliridian flooded through his eyes making him scream again. The pain faded away to peace and everything seemed to be fine; the pain was gone, and so was his resolve.