Chapter Text
“I was so close too,” Mya sighed as she stood in the center of the room.
“How are you here?” the Doctor asked, anger in her tone. She stepped in front of her companion, one arm stuck out to her side.
Yaz stumbled backwards into the wall and slid down, her eyes wide, hands going to the side of her head as she shook her head side to side. Her heart was racing as she tried to breathe, it came out in short pants, as her hands balled into fists.
“N-No.... No, no, no... Wake up... W-Wake up,” she muttered to herself as she hit her head with her fists.
“Yaz,” the Doctor called out gently as she quickly knelt in front of her. She held onto her arms, holding them away from her head so she wouldn’t harm herself. “Yaz, thi- Ah!”
Mya grabbed the Doctor by the hair and dragged her backwards. Flailing, trying to get free, the Doctor grabbed onto Mya’s wrist, trying to pry her hand off her. Mya merely flung her backwards to the floor, making the Doctor hit the wall nearest a window.
“If any of you move or even think about getting security,” she gave a pointed look to Hyacinth, who started to head towards the button on the wall. “I’ll blow this whole building up. Camera isn’t the only thing I installed.”
Yaz stilled, her eyes wide, as she realized the camera she was shown before had the same appearance as the ones Mya would show her in the rooms. How could she forget that?
Hyacinth pauses, glaring at Mya. “You’re lying-”
“No, she's not. Those are Tyer Explosives, they can detonate at a single thought. They're also invisible,” Lilah explained, clenching her jaw. “She’s used them before.”
“It’s a shame your mum was in the office that day,” Mya smirked, turning towards her.
“Shut up.”
“Manners Lilah,” she tutted. “I see your absence has affected your-”
She rolled her eyes. “I swear if you say-”
“Obedience,” she smirked. “What did Yasmin say to you for you to turn against me?”
Lilah chuckled. “Really? You think one human made me change my mind?”
“You tell me, this new friend of yours clearly gave you your attitude back.”
“Leave her out of this,” she growled.
“How much do you know,” Mya turned to the dog like humanoid. “Robyn was it?”
“Know of what?” she asked, clearly confused by this ordeal.
“What she did to Yasmin.”
“Shut up.”
“You’re outnumbered Mya, you should just go,” the Doctor warned.
“Outnumbered?” Mya laughed. “I can’t be threatened Doctor.”
“It wasn’t a threat-”
“I can control everyone here, even you, so don’t you dare say that I’m outnumbered, and I should go,” Mya growled. “Besides, it’s not like they can attack me. Especially your pet human.”
“She’s not-”
Yaz, Robyn, Lilah, and Hyacinth all start screaming, hands clutched at their heads. Pain is radiating throughout their skulls as they struggle to stand. Except the Doctor, who stands there, twitching, arms and legs tense, but other than a slightly pained expression, she looked fine. She merely stared at Mya, as if daring her to do something.
“Interesting, it doesn’t affect you as much.”
“Yeah,” she smirked. “I have a knack for fending off psychic attacks.”
“Yasmin doesn’t.”
They all stopped. Robyn and Hyacinth hunched over, almost kneeling on the floor, Lilah was already standing up from the assault, still somewhat used to it after all this time, whereas Yaz was struggling to breathe as she shakily lifted herself up off the floor into a seated position.
Once Lilah caught her breath, she started to laugh.
“What’s so funny dear?” Mya asked as she turned to her, glaring.
“You are pathetic you know that?” she rasped out as she stood up. “You rely on power. You couldn’t even drug a human – a human that you just assumed was close enough with the Doctor to take. You didn’t even know they travelled together. You just ordered me to drug Yaz-”
“Which you did willingly-”
“Willingly?” She laughed and walked over to her. “You really think being threatened any time I breathed is willing? I knew you’d threaten to be in another room as soon as I tried to say no. You rely too much on your little gadgets of torture that you only got from your family; you didn’t even come up with them yourself! I mean, how pathetic is that? You couldn’t even drag Yaz from room to room by yourself, you wanted me to do it. The only time you were left alone with her is when you knew you had control.”
“You should watch yourself Lilah,” Mya grabbed her arm tightly and pulled her up so she was balancing on her tip toes. “You don’t want to die, do you?”
“Fuck you, you bitch- Ah!”
Lilah twitched and screamed, her whole body tense and moving as if she was being electrocuted. Robyn immediately stood up, and went to run over to them, but Mya held her spare hand up.
“Don’t you dare.”
Robyn gulped and stood still. Everyone else stared wide eyed at Lilah screaming and writhing in agony. It only lasted a minute or two, but it felt like an eternity. Suddenly, Lilah slumped down, the only thing stopping her from falling to the floor was Mya’s tight grip on her forearm.
“Had enough?”
“W-What,” she barely rasped out.
“Not so bitchy now are you,” Mya chuckled.
“I-I,” she stammered out, dazed as she weakly tried looking around.
Mya pulled her up by her arm. “Care to explain to everyone how you’re feeling?”
Lilah winced. “F-Fuck you-”
Robyn jumped when Lilah started screaming again. She writhed in pain, her screaming becoming hoarse. This time it lasted a few seconds. Lilah slumped down, catching her breath.
“Another one and you might die dear.”
“I-I,” she choked out, but paused. Her eyes widened as she frantically looked around. “W-What h-hap – I can’t....”
Mya tightened her grip on her arm. “Can’t what dear?”
“S-See,” she squeaked out.
“Common side effect, it won’t last long. Just like when you were with Aunt Nessi hmm?”
“S-Shut – ah!”
This time it lasted two seconds. It was so quick it just looked like a spasm, though this time Lilah was continuously twitching as she tried breathing.
“You really should learn.”
“S-Sorry,” she squeaked out. “Sorry sorry sorry.”
“That’s better,” Mya grinned wickedly. “Now tell me Lilah, why did you disobey me? Stop Yaz from meeting the family?”
She didn’t answer, merely twitched and whimpered.
“Very well then,” Mya sighed. “Robyn, have you been told why? Or any of this?”
She shook her head. “N-No.”
“How did you two meet?”
“Um, I found her...”
“After the teleport then,” Mya gripped onto Lilah’s arm and pulled her up slightly. “Right Lilah?”
“Y-Yes.”
“Carry on Robyn.”
“Uh, s-she wanted help and I helped her. We got to know each other and… Y-Yeah, now we’re f-friends.”
“How long?”
“A year I think?”
“She never told you? About what happened to her, what she did to people,” Mya pointed to Yaz. “What she did to that human over there?”
Robyn shook her head. “N-No…”
“Well, we’re in therapy, why don’t we get those feelings out? No secrets huh? Or, we can start with Yasmin,” she smirked as she looked behind her. “Her recent confession shouldn’t be kept in the dark.”
Yaz's eyes widened. “N-No.”
“It's up to the Doctor,” she turned to face her, still holding up the twitching Lilah. “Which one?”
The Doctor shook her head. “I’m not playing this game.”
Pain radiated through Yaz’s skull. She groaned and whimpered as she clutched her head, leaning forward onto her knees.
“L-Lilah,” the Doctor winced.
The pain stopped immediately. She took a deep breath and blinked, hoping all the pain had gone. Slowly, she leaned her head up and against the wall, hands in her lap.
“Don’t comfort her,” Mya warned, noticing the Doctor take a step towards her.
The Doctor took a step back, clenching her fists at her side.
“Lilah?” Mya lifted her up slightly. “Care to explain to your new friend what you did to Yasmin?”
She shook her head weakly. “N-No…”
“I’m sorry?”
Lilah smirked as she strained to lift her head up. “A-Apology accepted.”
Lilah screamed and spasmed for a few seconds before Mya let go of her. She fell to the floor and attempted to curl up, her body twitching, her tail shaking as it curled upwards to her hands. Small whines were all that were heard.
“L-Lilah…” Robyn half whispered, tears in her eyes.
“Don’t worry, she’s still alive,” Mya chuckled slightly as she lightly kicked Lilah’s back, who jumped and whined. “Just can’t see and is having small shocks go through her body constantly. She's been through this before, she’ll be back to her obedient little self in an hour or so.”
“You...” Robyn snarled but got distracted by Yaz standing up.
“Yaz,” the Doctor spoke quietly as she reached out to her, trying to warn her to stay. It was useless. Yaz, almost in a daze, stumbled over to Lilah and knelt behind her. Gently, she picked up her head, put it on her knees, and stroked her hair and ears at a slow, soothing pace.
Surprisingly, Lilah started to purr at this. Among her trembling and little whimpers, Lilah was purring as Yaz stroked her ears. She even lifted her head slightly.
“Thank you,” Lilah spoke to Yaz’s mind.
“I remembered you like this, quite calming in any situation,” she thought back, not wanting anyone else to hear.
“ I’m sorry, I didn’t want her to know you knew, I wanted you to escape.”
“It’s not your fault I’m too thick to get a hint.”
They both giggled to themselves at that.
“What’s so funny girls?” Mya finally spoke up, towering over both of them. They froze, Lilah occasionally twitching.
“N-Nothing,” they spoke in unison, barely above a whisper.
“Just as I thought.”
Mya grabbed Yaz by the hair, pulling her up from Lilah, and to her side. The Doctor instinctively moved forward, but froze in place, her arm reached out, feet apart in a mid-step. Yaz and Lilah looked confused at her.
“I should have done that earlier,” Mya sighed as she twirled a small key chain with a silver block attached to it, two buttons on it. She pocketed it before taking a step towards the frozen Time Lord.
“Freeze Ray?” The Doctor asked.
“Somewhat. Still conscious,” Mya took another step closer, pulling Yaz by the hair with her. The Doctor glared at Mya. “Can still hear, see, and obviously talk. You can even feel.”
Mya lightly ran her fingers over the Doctor’s cheek and down her neck. She grimaced, clearly not liking the feeling of light touches.
“Wonder if Yaz can take advantage of that,” Mya smirked as she put her hand in her front coat pocket again.
“M-Mya please,” Yaz begged, squirming in her grasp.
“However, I want to test a theory first if you’ll all give me a few minutes,” she said, ignoring the human’s plea. She pulled out a blindfold from her pocket and dangled it in front of Yaz. “Remember this?”
Yaz’s eyes widened as she stared at the blindfold, suddenly remembering every set of tortures Mya inflicted on her that included one. “P-Please…”
“Put it on,” she ordered as she placed it into Yaz’s shaking hands.
After taking a shaky breath in, she slowly raised her hands to put the blindfold on. Once it went over her eyes, she struggled to control her breathing.
“Good girl.”
Yaz started to twitch, tears in her eyes, threatening to run down her face as she felt feather-like touches trace down different parts of her body. It was frustrating. It was terrifying. The grip on her hair wasn’t helping. She jumped at Mya laughing.
“Just the same. Interesting.” She pulled Yaz closer to her face to whisper; “does it happen when you close your eyes too?”
Yaz flinched. “U-Used to,” she said in a hushed tone.
“Hmm, let's see if I can bring it back.”
There’s a lump in her throat as tears fall down her face. “P-Please...”
“Mya,” the Doctor growled.
“Yes?” She turned to the blonde, annoyed at being interrupted.
“Leave her alone.”
“Or what?” she growled, taking a step closer. “You’ll kill me? Plan to cast me out into a supernova?”
“That was a mistake-”
“Please, you always have superiority complex. You wanted to help those hounds, you wanted to be seen as a hero, even if it meant killing beings that you knew nothing about-”
“Your sister was killing them for fun, she had no-”
“She was forced to-”
“Like Lilah,” Yaz piped up.
Mya growled and tightened her grip on her hair. “Did I say you could speak?”
“You do that a lot,” the Doctor said matter of factly. “You realize the other person is right and threaten them. Lilah was right, you are weak.”
“Shut your mouth,” Mya launched forward and grabbed her by the throat, tilting her frozen body up slightly. “You’re the one that’s frozen and has everything to lose here, don’t you dare even think you have the high ground right now.”
“W-What makes you think that?”
“I’ve got Yasmin,” she pulled her up slightly, making her squirm. “You really think I’m above killing her right in front of you?”
“Above? No. Like your sister, mostly no,” the grip on her throat tightened. “K-Kill her? Nah, you’re too weak to have blood o-on your h-hands.”
Mya let go of Yaz’s hair and put her other hand around the Doctor’s throat, squeezing hard enough that all the Doctor could do was cough and struggle to breathe.
“You can regenerate,” she growled. “To torture both of you I can kill you over and over and over again. I can even get her to kill you too.”
The Doctor, unable to breathe, gripped onto Mya’s arm.
Mya, stunned, pushed her backwards as she stepped away, letting go of the Doctor. “What? You’re-”
The Doctor, rubbing her throat, glanced over at Yaz. Mya followed suit and glared at the human that stared at her wide eyed, blindfold discarded to the floor, the freeze block in her hand, facing the Doctor. Trembling, Yaz points the block at Mya, her thumb moving to the red button.
Pain.
Before she could press the button, and end this torment, everyone clutched their heads and doubled over. Yaz dropped the freeze block and stumbled backwards to the floor. The Doctor stumbled, leaning against the window, wincing as she clutched her head. She wasn’t as affected as the others, but she definitely felt it now.
She glared at Mya. “Y-You’re panicking-”
“You’re in pain,” she grinned as she walked over to Yaz, standing over her. The pain everyone felt stopped. Yaz looked up at her and froze. “Now you. For that, why don’t we go to room thirteen?”
Yaz glanced over at the freeze button. Without thinking it through, she reached for it, only for her hand to be narrowly missed by Mya’s foot. The button was now in pieces.
“You really thought that’d work?” Mya chuckled.
“I hoped.”
Quickly, Mya slammed her foot down on Yaz’s hand.
“Ah!”
“Got anything else to say?”
“S-Sorry,” she winced. “S-Sorry, p-please stop.”
“You won’t disobey again?”
“N-No.”
“Is that the truth?” she asked as she applied more pressure.
“Ah!”
“Yaz,” the Doctor took a step forward.
“If you even try to help Doctor, I’ll turn her bones to dust,” she ground her foot into Yaz’s hand, feeling a crack underneath. “Good luck explaining that to her family.”
“P-Please stop,” Yaz begged. “I-I won’t - I’ll obey, p-please.”
“Well then, if you’ll obey, why don’t you tell them what you told me?”
Yaz looked up at her confused. “W-What?”
“Surely you remember?”
“N-No, what d-did-”
“When you thought I was your therapist dear.”
Yaz’s eyes widened, a catch caught in her throat. “N-No, please.”
“What happened to not disobeying?”
“P-Please I’ll d-do whatever you w-want just... N-Not that.”
“Fine,” Mya sighed and stepped off Yaz’s hand. She immediately pulled it to her chest, lightly holding her wrist. There was already bruising around the finders. “I’ll do it myself.”
“N-No please Mya-”
Mya swiped her hand in the air and a holographic screen appeared, showing Hyacinth’s usual room, with Yaz sitting in a chair and what looked like Hyacinth sitting opposite her.
“I think I like the Doctor.”
Yaz squeezed her eyes shut, shaking her head as she buried it in her arms, and pulled her knees up to her chest. She just wanted to disappear. “P-Please.”
Lilah looked between the screen and Yaz.
“Okay,” the fake Hyacinth said slowly on the screen, catching everyone’s attention. “And the problem with that is?”
“I think I like her but I don’t know why I still do...”
“Why wouldn’t you?”
“Because it’s...”
The Doctor looked over at Yaz with a pained expression, trying not to pay attention to the video. Trying not to invade her friend’s privacy. It was hard to do when it was all she could hear.
“It’s not her fault but... It’s still in my head, y’know?”
“Did you like her before?”
“I idolized her at first, I’m not sure if I loved – liked her before-”
“You love her?”
The Doctor looked back at the screen.
“Well... I’m not sure... I don’t get how or why I would I mean, she’s an alien – no offense.”
The screen glitched and disappeared. Mya turned to the Doctor. “Do we want to see that again or?”
“You bitch.”
She turned to Yaz. If looks could kill, Yaz would be dead. “What was that dear?”
“Y-You’re a bitch,” she sniffed, attempting to subtly wipe at her eyes as she glared up at her.
Mya growled and stormed over, grabbing Yaz by the throat. “You really think you should be talking that way?”
“I-I...”
“I think room five will make you realise your mistake, if not, then I’ll place you in room sixteen over night. What do you think?”
A yellow spark appeared behind her. It shimmered into an arch, showing a darkened hallway in the middle of it.
“N-No please-”
“There’s no point in begging,” she snarled as she lifted Yaz up by the throat, taking a step backwards towards the portal. “You should know that by now.”
Panicking, Yaz flailed, trying to plant her feet on the ground, using her injured hand to try to lift Mya’s hand from her throat, the other to claw at her arm. Nothing worked. She was choking, struggling to breathe, as she was being dragged back to her past torment. Her eyes squeezed shut as she prepared to the nausea of entering a portal, as she tried to focus on breathing, tried to prepare herself for another amount of time with Mya.
“You’re not taking her anywhere.”
She opened her eyes to see the Doctor standing in front of the portal, arms crossed, glaring at Mya.
“Yes, I am,” she snarled. “You can come too if you want, I’ve got plenty of games to keep the likes of you occupied.”
Before the Doctor could respond, the door into the waiting room slammed open. Three heavily armed lizard beings stormed in with what looked like lazer guns. The one in front was plated in red and black, red scale like skin shown in the face with a translucent helmet over them, whereas the last two behind them were covered in solid black attire with blue biker like helmet with a transparent visor.
“Don’t move!” They all shouted in unison.
Mya snarled at them, but paused, and looked around. “Why-”
“Your explosives are disabled,” Hyacinth piped up rather smugly. “We have people for those types.”
“Let go of the human, now!” the red lizard creature yelled out as they aimed their weapon at Mya.
Her grip on Yaz’s throat tightened for a second before she shoved her away and stepped away from her with her hands up. “Fine.”
Yaz and Lilah both started to scream, their voices hoarse. Yaz’s throat burned as she screamed and sobbed, her voice giving out on her. The agony that shot all over their body made them fall to the floor.
“Lilah!” Robyn rushed over to her, attempting to hold her squirming body somewhat still so she didn’t hit her head on the floor.
“Yaz!” the Doctor called out as she ran around Mya and to Yaz. She knelt and gently held onto her, her head resting on the Doctor’s thighs, her whole body twitching. She was trying to scream but nothing came out. There’s a catch in the Doctor’s throat. “I-It’s going to be okay. Y-You're going to be okay; I-I promise.”
The guards all groan and grip onto their heads, lowering their weapons. Mya turned to the Doctor, scowling at her.
“Until next time Doctor.”
Mya leaned backwards, falling through the portal. Immediately after, it closed. The guards regained their composure, breathing heavily, guns aimed at the air.
Yaz and Lilah, however, were unconscious.