The Spires of Jacarthia (Chapter 7)

Chapter 7 (Regrets, I've Had a Few)

Now…




The Doctor, Richard and Holly were sat on a park bench watching the geese swim in the pond across the pathway. Children were playing nearby and the TARDIS was parked under a large, willow tree.

“Life goes on, I suppose,” said the Doctor.

“I’m sorry,” said Holly, putting her hand on his.

“It was a long time ago now. Several lifetimes ago, actually. I never get over these things, but I learn to live with them.”

“It must have been difficult to lose Caleb as well after all that,” said Holly.

The Doctor didn’t respond.

“So Stakran changed his name to Stark and came here? To Earth?” asked Richard.

The Doctor nodded. “Dropped his precious councillors off throughout the galaxy and then settled here and formed UNIT: X.”

“But his team…I mean, Faith and her lot…”

“Humans,” said the Doctor with a smile. “Good old Humans.” He stretched out his legs in front of him. “After I regenerated I had a private burial for Louisa and Atom and then went on my way.”

“On your own?” asked Richard.

“On my own. Until I met a young Irish girl and life just had to move on again. She needed help. I helped her.”

“But I don’t quite get what the Master is doing,” said Holly. “I mean, all the people in Jacarthia are dead, aren’t they?”

“Well, I had heard a few outsiders had moved in, but I haven’t been back to Gallifrey since then so I don’t know.”

“He’s taunting you, isn’t he?” asked Richard. “I mean I don’t know this bloke, but it sounds to me like he’s using a tragedy you were involved in to his advantage.”

“As always,” said the Doctor. “He’s establishing himself. He’s taken Lilly and…well, goodness knows.”

“You know we have to go back there,” said Holly.

The Doctor blew the air out of his cheeks and closed his eyes. “I know.”

“Should we though? I mean he was pretty determined to get Lilly even if it meant risking killing her in the TARDIS.”

“We can’t just leave her!” said Holly, turning to look at Richard, mystified.

“I’m not saying we should leave her, but should we really just walk in there and take her? Shouldn’t we have a plan.”

“I have no plan,” said the Doctor, folding his arms and looking glum. “All we can do is walk in there and - at least try - to take her.” The Doctor turned to Richard and then to Holly. “You can both stay here if you want. It’s likely going to be very dangerous.”

“No,” said Holly. “There’s no chance you’re going in there without me.”

“She means a lot to you, I know that,” said the Doctor, smiling and gently rubbing her hand.

Richard got up off the bench. “I’m off.”

“I understand, Mr Hicks,” said the Doctor, nodding at him.

“I mean get your skates on,” said Richard, striding off towards the TARDIS. “I’m coming with you.”

The Doctor smiled as he and Holly got up off the bench. The Doctor shook Richard’s hands. “Thank you. Thank you both. I’m lucky to have such good friends.”

“Let’s just hope she hasn’t had her mind poisoned by him already,” said Holly, worriedly.

As they headed towards the TARDIS the Doctor’s memories flashed back to Louisa and Atom. Was this all about to happen again?




She was standing in the great hall of the castle when she heard the footsteps from behind her. It made her hearts leap. She wasn’t sure if she was ready for this. No, of course she was ready for this. She’d had such a long time to prepare for it. Since that day she had found out her daughter was still alive - that she hadn’t died just after she had been born.

The Master - Koschei - had used it to force her to do his bidding, but now…now he seemed different. He seemed to be bringing Illithia to her because he wanted her to be here. Because he wanted them to be together.

To be together as a family.

That actually frightened her.

The footsteps became louder. There were two distinct types. A clumping, heavy-booted and rhythmic walking and a lighter, almost unwilling set.

Her footsteps.

She dared to turn and face her.

Light was streaming through the high-arched window casting an orange glow across the glass communications console that was long dormant. She looked on as the tall, thin figure of her former lover walked into the hall, his black suit looking pristine. He almost looked handsome. He wasn’t the same man she had briefly fallen in love with all of those years ago, but she knew he was in there somewhere. Not the Master. Not the cruel, murderous Time Lord he had become.

Koschei.

But it wasn’t Koschei she was interested in.

“Celestia,” he said, bowing his head slightly. He extended an arm towards the entrance archway. “Allow me to introduce to you your daughter, Illithia.”

With gentle footsteps a small, blonde-haired girl stepped from around the side of the archway, her hands clasped nervously in front of her. She wore some strangely designed blue top and a red and black skirt. Her dark eyes scanned the room with curiosity before they fall on hers.

Celestia gasped, her hands cupping over her mouth. She could feels the tears in her eyes but held them back. For now.

The girl - Illithia - didn’t react. Not really. She walked forward a little, the Master standing just behind her.

He cleared his throat. “Illithia, this is your mother, Celestia.”

“Hello,” managed Celestia.

The girl managed a weak, but nervous smile. “Hello,” she managed.

Celestia could feel her hearts beating faster and faster. “I…I’ve waited a long time for this.”

Illithia smiled again and looked away. She turned back to the Master who nodded for her to continue. “I’m sorry, Celestia, but my name isn’t Illithia. It’s Lilly.”

“Your Earthen name,” said the Master quickly.

“It’s my name,” said Lilly a little more forcefully. “It’s the name you forced me to take.”

Celestia looked flustered. “You have to believe me, Illi….Lilly…that I didn’t know what he had done. I didn’t know you were even alive.”

“I don’t blame you,” said Lilly, stepping a little more towards her estranged mother. “I only blame him. But this isn’t me. This isn’t my life.”

“Your life is with the Doctor, I know that,” said Celestia, choking back her emotions. “And I would never stop you from living that life.”

“With the Doctor you have experienced pain. Things you should never have had to go through,” said the Master.

“That was because of the life you forced me to lead,” said Lily, the bitterness in her voice.

“I sent the Doctor to come and find you,” said Celestia. “He was the best person to keep you safe from him.”

“But none of that matters now,” said the Master, stepping between Celestia and Lilly. “We can be together at last.”

“No,” said Lilly. “That’s not the path I’m taking.” She shook her head. “Only I can choose that.”

“Of course,” said Celestia. “Neither of us have been a part of your life for such a long time.”

“At all,” said Lilly, sharply. “At. All.”

“But all that pain is over now,” said the Master.

“Koschei, let her make her own mind up,” said Celestia.

“What do you want?” asked Lilly.

“Me?” Celestia looked away, laughing at the absurdity of it all. “My life is over. It was over the day my husband and son disappeared into that lost dimension.”

Lilly looked uncomfortable. The mention of Caleb was a factor she hadn’t touched upon yet.

“Your husband was returned to you,” said the Master.

“And then you took Reikon away and my son was forced to flee with the Doctor,” snapped Celestia. “As I said, my life ended the day they disappeared.”

“But now we can forge a new life. A better life,” said the Master, hope in his eyes.

“Why?!” asked Lilly, shaking her head and laughing at him. “I don’t know you. I don’t know either of you. Why should I want to be here? Why should you both want to be together?”

“I don’t want to be with him,” said Celestia, looking down her nose at him as if he were a piece of Skarosian dirt on her heel. “He is a murderer.”

“The old me,” said the Master. “That me is gone. He died when he regenerated into what I am now.” The Master crossed to Lilly and placed his hands on her shoulders, looking down at her with hope in his eyes. “Each incarnation of a Time Lord is different. The ones before me were misguided. Evil even. I am not. I am different.”

“But the core remains,” said Celestia from behind him. “It’s like a cancer. You can cut away the tissue, but the tumour remains as bad and as malignant as ever. If you cut away your cancer then nothing remains of you.”

The Master looked pained, but refused to look away from his daughter. He wouldn’t be swayed.

A smirk played on Lilly’s face. Not because of the memory she was having, but the only way she could see herself escaping the Master’s weird family planning.

“Celestia,” said Lilly. “Your son was Caleb, yeah?”

“That’s correct,” she said. “I trust you’ve met him. He’s a wonderful boy.”

“He was,” said Lilly. She swallowed hard. “Until I killed him.”

“I beg your pardon?” said Celestia, her eyes wide.

The Master stared straight ahead at her. He looked like he was almost willing her to stop.

She pushed past him and walked up to her mother, the smirk still on her face. “I killed him. I attacked him. Stabbed him through both of his hearts. I let his blood soak through his ever so white shirt until it was a lovely, pink colour, and then I just got up and left. And do you know what the Doctor did? Nothing. He did absolutely nothing. He thought he could help me. Fix me. But he couldn’t. And why couldn’t he? Because he,” she pointed to the Master, “made me this way. I am from him. I am evil. That is why we will never be a family. Because I am a murderer!”




“Gloomy,” said Richard, poking his head outside of the TARDIS.

“How’d we get in here undetected?” asked Holly, pushing her way past Richard and into the dimly-lit, cobwebbed covered dungeon.

“Jacarthia hasn’t been guarded since it fell,” said the Doctor, locking up the TARDIS and glancing around the small corridor. There were iron doors at regular intervals either side, but no sign of life from any of them.

“I thought your Time Lords were civilised,” said Holly, peering into a darkened. “There are manacles and chains in here.”

“This castle dates back to the Old Times. From before I was even born. You have castles with dungeons on Earth, don’t you? But your species don’t use them for that reason anymore.”

“I guess so,” said Holly.

“We’re right underneath the white palace where Stark used to live.” He glanced up at the ceiling. “And judging by the time tracers in the TARDIS it’s where the Masters TARDIS is too.”

“I thought you said your people didn’t use these cells anymore,” said Richard, standing beside a cell to the right.

“They don’t,” said the Doctor.

“Then why is there someone chained up in this one?”

“What?” said the Doctor, rushing over to the cell door and peering inside.

What looked like a man was stood up, his arms raised above him, hanging from chains. He wore a grey shirt and dark trousers and had a bag over his head.

“Hello?” said the Doctor.

The man’s head moved a little.

“He’s alive,” said Holly.

The Doctor whipped out his sonic screwdriver, aimed it at the lock - there was a clunk - and he opened the cell door. He grabbed the bag and pulled it off the mans head. Underneath was a thin-looking, bald-headed man with nearly a fully grown beard, black with soot, his face bruised with a cut down one side.

“Oh my,” said the Doctor.

“Do you know him?” asked Richard.

“It’s my brother. It’s Reikon!”

To be continued...