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It was a quiet night in Dottore’s lab where it happened.
Dottore was hunched over his lab bench, dozens of drafts and schematics laid out before him as he puzzled over ascension. Columbina was sitting on the other side of the room, resting her head on the bench in front of her and delicately playing with a severed ruin guard hand. She was occasionally sipping something green from a test tube she’d stolen from Dottore’s other lab bench. That bench was for his work on extracting the corrosive compound from rift hounds.
At this point, Dottore just didn’t question it.
“Sumeru was a failure,” he murmured to himself, head in his hands. “Though it succeeded long enough to prove that mechanical beings are not suitable.”
“Mn, too bad your special interest was in Khaenri’ahn machinery,” Columbina hummed offhandedly. “All that work, useless.”
Dottore scowled at the reminder. His experiment in Sumeru took almost a full year of work, not to mention billions of mora and having to deal with the Akademiya’s foolish sages. The results may have been interesting, but he wasn’t sure they were worth the cost.
So, what did he do now?
An archon’s gnosis was no use. Those were the easiest celestial objects to work with, but they failed to provide any useful results. What else was there?
“Ugh,” he grumbled, crumpling yet another draft. “Ascending to godhood is so troublesome.”
From the corner, Columbina huffed. “You can have mine.”
Dottore’s head lifted. “Oh?”
“Being a god is so troublesome,” Columbina echoed his previous words with an irked pout. “All the scions ever wanted was a god. They prayed and made offerings and never thought to ask what I wanted. And then there’s this—”
She waved her translucent fingertips at him, scowling. “The world itself rejects my godhood and my very existence. What am I supposed to do when it continuously tries to erase me?”
Doubtful, Dottore’s brows furrowed. “…Do you mean it?”
Columbina sighed in melancholy. “I never wanted to be a god in the first place. I just want to be accepted as me.” She lifted her head, her closed eyes meeting his in that too-observant gaze she had. A small smile stretched on her lips. “Well, Doctor? I’m afraid I’m not one for schemes, but I’m sure whatever you come up with will surely be fun.”
“Of course.” Dottore grinned now, his mind already racing with ideas. He offered her a teasing, over-the-top bow. “Any special requests then, dear Damslette?”
“As long as I get to be away from here.” Columbina sighed again, fiddling with the ruin guard’s fingers. “Zapolyarny Palace got old two centuries ago.”
Dottore’s grin widened. “Then how do you feel about going home?”
Columbina tilted her head. She considered this for a long moment, the little wings on her head flapping delicately as she thought.
“If it’s a long-game plan, I can’t promise that I won’t get at least somewhat attached,” she said slowly. Still, she lifted the test tube of green liquid she really shouldn’t be drinking, holding it up like a toast. “But why not? Perhaps it will be nice to feel something again.”
She downed the rest of the liquid in one go. Dottore watched her smile and lick her lips. It was a better reaction than the grimace she gave to fire-water. He knew her constitution wasn’t human, but to so easily drink whatever that was?
Columbina noticed his staring and grinned, reaching over to pluck two more test tubes from the lab bench. “Want some?”
…
A few hundred years ago, Columbina came to Dottore’s lab with a strange frown on her face.
“Did Sandrone say something untoward at that tea party?” he asked, barely glancing at her as he focused on the ancient machine before him.
“She said family is not about enduring,” Columbina said. She seemed troubled, turning the thought over and over in her head. “She said you’re merely using me, taking advantage of my naivety to perform immoral experiments.”
A familiar bolt of— No, not fear. Dottore did not fear abandonment. He didn’t. He hated it, but he did not fear it. Fear was such a—
He looked up, covering his hatred with a sneer. “And what do you think? Should I no longer expect your presence around here?”
Columbina hummed. Her head tilted, her little wings gently flapping open and closed. After a long moment, she wandered closer.
“I will not leave,” she said, her voice soft. “But I don’t want to endure any more, Doctor. I will answer your questions, if I can, but I don’t want to be a subject in your experiments. Please don’t ask me to do things that I don’t want to do just for your sake.”
“Is enduring not what family is about?” Dottore asked, mostly sarcastic and partly skeptical.
Columbina shook her head, disagreeing. “I spent years ‘enduring’ for the people who worshiped me. That was not family, and neither is the abandonment you faced from your parents and your village.” Dottore bristled but Columbina went on, “Our family doesn’t have to be about enduring.”
Dottore frowned. He set the machine components down and turned to face her as she stopped in front of him. She took his hand in hers, pressing their palms together.
“We are not that different,” she hummed. Her eyes slid open, her gaze calm as she stared at him. “Alone. Rejected by the rest of the world… I will not abandon you, Doctor. Please don’t abandon me.”
Dottore opened his mouth, then closed it again. That seemed like a simple deal. All he had to do was accept some unknowns. Some questions left unanswered. In return, Columbina would stay. Would that satisfy him?
He looked at her, then at their hands still pressed together. Her palm was warm, even through his gloves. Dottore experimentally intertwined their fingers. Columbina let him, squeezing his hand in hers.
Zandik was long dead. He was, but some lingering part of him still craved companionship. Some pathetic, human part of him still craved acceptance. For someone to see the monster he was and still choose him.
Columbina was a recent addition to the harbingers. New, unknown, still settling into her place. For all Dottore knew, she could be gone within the decade. But she spent time with him for the sake of his company. She lingered in his lab and asked questions and treated him like family.
No one ever bothered to do that.
…Dottore did not want to lose her.
Columbina blinked up at him. “Please, don’t ask me to shatter myself to make you stay.”
Dottore squeezed her hand, lips thinning as he nodded. “I won’t.”
…
Their plan was executed flawlessly. Columbina ‘abandoned’ the Fatui and hid away in Nod-Krai. The Sinner exposed the eternal moon marrow. The iridescent moon marrow was unearthed from its resting place. Columbina fooled the Traveller and their companions so thoroughly that if she hadn’t been secretly sending messages to Dottore about her amusement in how easy it was, even he would have begun suspecting her attachment had grown too deep.
Everything was going smoothly.
And then, at the final scene, Columbina threw herself into the moon gate.
Unplanned. Unexplained. Unreasonable.
That night, Dottore destroyed one of his lab rooms in a fit. He had no idea what she was thinking, and he had no idea if she was alright or if she’d manage to escape. It was such a stupid move that there had to be a reason. He couldn’t accept that she had done that for fun.
They had both of the moon marrows, and the artificial one was nearly complete. There was no reason to pretend any longer. The plan had been for her to return to the lab with him, the scheme over and the mask removed.
So why—?
If Dottore screamed, there was no one around to hear. The sound echoed in his ears alone.
There had to be a way to get her back. There had to be, but Dottore had his hands tied, balancing the completion of the artificial moon marrow and keeping the Traveller from destroying the entire experiment.
Dottore wasn’t ignorant to the fairytale way of the world. The hero prevailed while the villains were left to suffer in pain and defeat. Dottore knew what he was, and he would have to work to keep his experiment on track.
…However, he could use his role as the villain to his advantage. If anyone else would succeed in finding Columbina, the innocent Damslette in distress, it would be the hero.
The Descender.
Had Columbina managed to so thoroughly fool them that they would prioritize saving her?
…That wasn’t enough for him. He couldn’t rely solely on that.
It was a risk, but Dottore set aside the task of completing the Trilune so that he could start researching the realm beyond the moon gate. There wasn’t much he knew, and he couldn’t access the gate himself. His options were limited, but he had options. He wasn’t about to lose Columbina.
Ultimately, what he found prompted him to go ahead with the plan. If he could get the unnecessary variables out of the way, then there was less risk of losing everything. He could win and then devote all his focus into finding his little sister. She was his.
All he needed was the Traveller.
And then Sandrone showed up on the battlefield with her robot and a formula.
They were trying to stall. They had a plan in progress, and they were stalling. Whatever Sandrone’s formula was computing, it was important enough that they chose to fight him to give it a chance to succeed. From their point of view, Columbina was the only one who stood a chance at defeating him. Had they…?
Dottore went along with their bid for time. He used only half of the power the Trilune offered and put up a believable display of a predator toying with its prey. He disabled Sandrone’s robot and fought both her and the Traveller, all while running numbers and contingencies in the back of his mind.
The moon came down. Something in the Trilune’s power shifted, accommodating for a new variable. The original deity of the moon. Columbina.
Her power gathered first. Kuuvahki energy filled the air, charging the atmosphere with a thrumming heartbeat. Her body formed next, quickly followed by her soul. Something tight beneath Dottore’s skin eased and settled. She was alright.
Her eyes opened slowly. Pale white wings extended from her back as she glided down to stand before him.
“Doctor,” she greeted, her voice far too light for what she’d put him through. She tilted her head back to look at him and grinned mischievously. “You got taller.”
Dottore didn’t smile, instead choosing to stare her down. “Columbina. I think you owe me an apology.”
Columbina frowned and tilted her head. “How so?”
“You told me that family is not about enduring for one another.” Dottore crossed his arms. He refused to turn his nose up like a child, but he was unable to keep the scowl from his lips. “I no longer ask you to do things you don’t want to do, and yet you cast yourself into the moon’s reflection and make me endure not knowing if you’re alright.”
Columbina considered this, then nodded, her expression softening. “I understand. I am sorry, Doctor.”
“Thank you. Now explain to me why.”
Dottore noted the Traveller taking a few steps forwards, seemingly torn between approaching or not. Columbina was standing far too close to him for the Traveller’s comfort, apparently. Dottore didn’t care. He called two of his drones to pin both them and Sandrone down, sending them to their knees so they couldn’t attack. He wanted to be able to focus on Columbina.
Columbina smiled. “The ritual’s destination was the moon. You created a false destination, but for a brief little moment, the ritual plotted a real course, and I saw something that we’d all missed. I knew I had to get it. I met my sisters, Doctor. I gained their blessing, and their power.”
“Hm, how interesting. The original moon goddesses?”
“Yes.” Columbina’s smile widened. She showed him her hands, whole and solid. “With my sisters’ power, the world no longer rejects me.”
Dottore tilted his head, swallowing back the bile that rose in his throat. “Oh?”
Columbina—who had gotten far too good at reading him—glided closer to pat his arm. “No need to feel insecure, Doctor. I am not going anywhere.”
Dottore pursed his lips. How dare she pin him down so easily. How dare she so casually assuage his hatreds. He wanted to be mad, but all he managed was a weak huff. Columbina took his hand in hers, pressing their palms together and intertwining her fingers with his. She squeezed his hand, pale eyes opened to gaze at him.
“I am here, Doctor,” she hummed, soft and sweet as she always was. “We’ve succeeded.”
Dottore squeezed her hand in return. “So it seems we have.”
She grinned now, proud and triumphant. “We don’t have to settle for only two-thirds of the moons, Doctor. I return with a gift.”
“Hm.” Dottore tilted his head, then squeezed her hand tighter and scowled. “Never do that again.”
Columbina frowned briefly, confused, before understanding crossed her gaze and she nodded. “Not if I can prevent it. I am sorry that I made you worry.”
“Hmph.”
She laughed lightly and flexed her fingers to dig her sharp little nails into his knuckles. She grinned, a wide, wild thing that she had probably picked up from him at some point over the past few centuries. Spending most evenings together in his lab would do that; her picking up his mannerisms is hardly the worst thing for her to have learnt. She’d never learnt what the world called cruelty in him.
“Well, Doctor?” Her head tilted, her voice too sweet to be truly innocent. It was the kind of sweet that covered the rotten aftertaste until it was too late to avoid. Ah. She was back. “Shall we finish the experiment?”
“Of course.” Dottore nodded once, then glanced behind her. “Do you have anything to say to your… friends?”
The Traveller’s eyes widened, something like panic flashing across their face. Sandrone’s expression was arranged into something carefully neutral, a thin facade that would crack at the slightest provocation. Columbina hummed in thought as she turned to face them, still on their knees and pinned in place.
Then, she gave them a saccharine smile. “These past few months have been delightful, Traveller. Sandrone. Thank you for the experience.”
“Columbina—” the Traveller choked, eyes wide. “You’re—”
“You’re siding with him?” Sandrone demanded, her mask shattering instantly. “He tried to kill you. He tried to kill all of us multiple times.”
“He’s my family,” Columbina countered.
“And what about us?”
Columbina pursed her lips and shook her head. “An act. All part of the experiment.”
Sandrone puffed up even further, anger and indignation clear in her sneer. “What?”
“Sandrone, every time we spoke at your tea parties, you tried to convince me to abandon the Doctor. Even when I asked that you not speak on it, you continued. That did nothing to endear you to me. In fact, only Rosalyne and the Captain listened to me. The Doctor is who I choose to stand beside.”
“Even if he chooses to destroy you?”
“He won’t. Everything of mine he has, I offer freely. I have no need of a godhood that only ever resulted in isolation and expectations.”
Columbina didn’t even look as she offered her hand to him. Dottore took it carefully, bracing for the transfer. The moon’s authority poured from her to him. Dottore staggered slightly, adjusting to the weight of it. The eternal and iridescent moon marrows in the Trilune merged with the authority, consumed by the tide and joining smoothly into one cohesive whole. The artificial marrow fed all of its power into the current and went dark.
Ascension. True ascension, not as a false god, but as one gifted the right to the heavens. Dottore grinned madly as the power merged with his being, irreversible and undeniable. Triumph like this was intoxicating.
Despite that, he pulled back before it was done.
Columbina frowned, confused. “Why stop?”
“You said yourself,” Dottore replied, giving her a bow of his head. “Alone, godhood is a lonely affair. What do you say to there being two deities of the moon, now?”
The smile that grew on Columbina’s lips was bright and delighted. Her thrilled laughter echoed in his ears. Dottore grinned in return. Columbina held out her hand again and he took it, guiding her in a graceful twirl around him. She retained enough of her rightful authority that she still stood on heaven’s scale. She had given him enough power that he was much stronger than she was, but she would recover, and she had made her stance on her birthright clear. Either way, she would be alright. Of course she would be.
She was his, and he was hers.
“Columbina…” the Traveller said quietly in desolation, looking between them with wide, betrayed eyes. “How long?”
Dottore gave them a patronizing smile. “This was always the plan, Descender. Everything, from Columbina’s arrival in Nod-Krai, to her departure on Moon-Prayer Night.”
The Traveller paled.
Sandrone glared. “You can’t have planned every last detail—”
“Humans are predictable.” Dottore shrugged carelessly. “Utterly foolish and incredibly predictable. So-called heroes, especially. True, I didn’t have every detail, but the overarching plot was laughably easy to draw out. I only got one thing wrong, thanks to this little gremlin.”
His hand landed on Columbina’s head. Columbina giggled, looking up to give him a cheeky grin. Dottore huffed at her, ruffling her hair. She pouted and ducked away. She didn’t go far.
“You’ve talked enough,” she hummed. “Isn’t time to go?”
Dottore inclined his head. “If that’s what you wish.”
With a dismissive snap of his fingers, he released the Traveller and Sandrone. An instant later, his power twisted in the air and their bodies began to fade, rejected by the world just as Columbina had been. They had no further use. Dottore had all he needed. He watched carelessly as the last variables disappeared. He had to be sure they could no longer disrupt his work. Columbina hummed beside him, her gentle lullaby filling the air.
“Columbina,” the Traveller gasped. “Please—”
Columbina paused. “Are you trying to appeal to me?” she mused, her brow furrowing. Then she grinned, wide and sharp. “How amusing.”
“If the past months meant anything—”
“Truthfully, they didn’t. Not anything important, anyway. It was a sweet dream, yes, but it was only a dream.” She floated up, a silver crescent moon shimmering into being beneath her. She lounged gracefully, without a care for the dying. “This is the family I choose. As we planned from the start, I choose to give my power to my brother.”
“This is insane, Columbina!” Sandrone raged. Her arms had fully faded now, and patches of her face were barely visible. “He’s insane, you have to know that—”
“Is it insanity just because you don’t agree with where he draws his limits?” Columbina considered this thought briefly. Then her lips twisted, her gaze hardening into a rare look of true contempt. “You cannot reject my home simply because it doesn’t conform to your ideal.”
Sandrone was gone before she could reply. The Traveller was gone too. Dottore didn’t particularly feel anything for the loss. Perhaps the Traveller could have been happy with them, another outsider who didn’t belong to this world. Alas, they would never know. The Traveller had made their choice clear.
Family was a choice.
Dottore offered Columbina his hand. She took it, and together, they turned away.
“Well, Doctor?” Columbina smiled. “Show me the world you choose to create.”