supernova: gravity (11th doctor)

Trial (pt 3)

agent-rivera.tumblr.com

I forgot what it was like to be fully functional upon landing. I didn't realize how much of a toll traveling had on me until I compared it to the fact that as soon as we got to this universe, we started power-walking ahead.

"What's the plan?" Dylan asked.

"My home portal?" I suggested.

"No, the cameras have already seen her. We need something better than that-- or you'll be to blame and you can never come back if you don't want to die." Zodiac pointed out.

Really, dying was a nice way of putting it. I'd likely end up in an advanced prison, like Meredith.

"So what are we gonna do?" River asked. Finally, some fear was settling in for her.

Zodiac was silent for a moment too long. It was obvious he didn't know. "Just keep moving."

"There you are!" A voice nearly screeched.

"Oh no," I breathed. Dylan stepped back closer to me as the annoyingly familiar voice approached.

"The stupid new Jakathan tech glitched again, unless you all actually disappeared from surveillance." Marla came to stand before us, arms crossed. "At least you apparently found her. That's her, right?"

Everyone froze a moment too long, and another door opened-- people now beginning to casually enter the hallway. Dylan stammered for a second-- but I knew there was nothing else to do.

"Yes." I swallowed, trying to ignore how sharply River looked to me. "It is. And I'm doing preparations."

"Really, you're doing preparations?" Marla asked, not convinced.

"Yes. That's what I just said." I confirmed, despite the fact that the decision I just made was barely settling in for me. I knew it wouldn't be easy.

Marla didn't sense any of my discomfort, or she didn't care. "You shouldn't be allowed to do them. You shouldn't even be here. Bold of you to come back on the first day when you've messed up so badly, over and over."

"That's enough, Marla." Zodiac snapped. "Unless you'd rather do the preparations?"

People rarely wanted to do this part. It meant you had to be in a room with the subject alone to record their final words, and then once they were done, you had to be the one to press the buttons that began their "treatment"-- or as some people like me, Zodiac, Dylan and evidently Marla saw it-- torture.

Marla was hurt about Meredith being in prison, and it being my fault. I wanted to be as genuine as I could in a fake body, and I didn't want to lie to myself anymore.

Maybe there was nothing I could have done and I would always have ended up in another universe, and back here with the Doctor, but in the end it was still me who did it. Meredith was still in jail, and Marla was still alone.

But despite her rudeness in light of how lonely I made her, she wasn't heartless, and wasn't willing to actually hurt anyone.

So I guess I had a solution. It wasn't the best one-- but if what River showed me before was right, it was better than the alternative, and it involved me having to be the one to deal the blow.

888

"She's ready." Dylan interrupted my lab work from behind me.

I had twenty minutes since the time I last saw everyone, when the recording and the treatment all started. I came back to my lab myself to get what I needed. I had never felt more alone in my life, and I was about to make it so much worse.