Chapter Text
It had been a ridiculous mistake, really. All she’d been trying to do was cause a tiny bit of mayhem. Not to get anyone’s attention, just to satisfy her desire to cause a little chaos. A small part of her knew it wasn’t just to appease the beating of drums, but at this very moment, she did not care.
They’d gotten Missy from behind. Humans, of all the species. She’d been on Earth, enjoying a coffee, when a commotion from behind her caused her to turn. Two cars on the street had collided, and the owners were out of their vehicles, yelling obscenities and such at each other. She shrugged, smiling and turning back to her porcelain mug.
And she was out before her head hit the table.
—--
Darkness. A dull pain throbbed in the back of her head. Her tongue felt heavy in her mouth. Her thoughts trailed slower than they normally would. Her hearts beat normally, despite the panic that quickly overtook her thoughts.
It occurred to the time lady that her chin rested against her chest. Her hair hung loose down her shoulders. When had she taken her hairpins out? She attempted to sit up and stretch out but found her limbs too heavy to move. A sedative, then.
The sound of a muffled voice behind her grew in volume. She couldn't make out what they were saying.
A hand grabbed her chin and pulled her head up so it tilted almost backwards. The movement caused her brain to spin, disorientation flooding her temples and a wave of nausea rose in her stomach.
She was blindfolded, she realised eventually. Humans couldn't function in pure darkness like this. Not for this long. How long had she been here, anyway? Her internal clock, usually impeccable, seemed to have been left in Italy. Hours, perhaps? Days?
She’d get out of here eventually. Besides, she was too important to be kidnapped for no reason. They’d have to stop drugging her eventually.
She heard muffled laughter from somewhere in the room. It occurred to her finally that she was the one laughing.
She gave into the darkness, still chuckling to herself.
—--
The Clash was singing to the Doctor. He had just rediscovered his old record player and hooked it up to TARDIS, despite the fact that the TARDIS speaker system had much clearer sound. But this was fun: humming along to the refrain, the Doctor tinkered underneath the console. The TARDIS has been exceptionally fussy lately. He figured it was high time to clear out debris, or at the very least dust.
“So you’ve got to let me know, should I stay or should I go?” the Doctor sang. He really should relearn to play the song. Where was that guitar, anyway? He hadn’t seen it in months. Maybe the TARDIS was hiding it from him.
He was about to confront her about when an alarm began to blare loudly.
“That’s not how the song goes,” he grumbled, sliding out from underneath the console to see what was up.
ALERT: Video Call Incoming, the TARDIS display screen read.
That was wrong.
How did someone get the TARDIS’s number? He frowned and hit accept, making a mental note to change his ringtone to something less grating.
The screen flashed and a pair of humans appeared. At least, the Doctor only thought they were humans. They wore large black masks that obscured close to seventy percent of their faces. There was a third figure in the background, but it was too fuzzy to make out.
“Doctor,” the one on the left spoke first. “Listen very carefully. While we respect you and the business you carry out with UNIT, we have some requests we’d like you to carry out. We highly suggest you comply.”
The Doctor’s eyebrows shot up. “And what happens if I don’t?”
The man on the right laughed, an unfriendly sound. “Well, you don’t want your little companion to get hurt, now do you?”
At that, the Doctor smirked. “Nice try. Really, very convincing. But I travel alone these days. Ever since... I haven’t traveled with a companion in years.”
The two men looked at each other, then turned back to face the screen.
“Is that so? Then who, pray tell, is this?” One of the men asked, and the other reached behind them towards the blurry figure. There was a sound of a wood chair scraping against concrete, and the Doctor paled as the third figure became recognisable.
Missy. Her hair was a mess, hanging dull and limp over the left half of her face. Her half-lidded eyes were red, and, based on the bags beneath her eyes, she hadn’t slept in days. Two pieces of gray duct tape covered her mouth in a crude X.
“What do you want?” The Doctor spoke coldly, his voice flat and low.
“We’re sending you coordinates now. Land your TARDIS outside. Enter the establishment unarmed. We’re just going to ask you a couple of questions about UNIT.”
“Really, it’s no big deal. Just a little chat!” The second added.
“Anything else?” the Doctor asked, eyes narrowing.
The first man shook his head. “That’s all. Remember, your companion’s life depends on you.” As he spoke, he brought a piece of black fabric out of his pocket and tied it around Missy's eyes. The Doctor could see her try in vain to strain against it and-
The call ended.
Missy.
What had she gotten herself into?
The Doctor screamed, slamming his fists into the TARDIS console he had just cleaned. Rationally, he knew that this was a trap. Everything about it was dangerous. But he couldn’t bring himself to care.
He typed in the coordinates in a fervor, not bothering to look at where he’d be steering the TARDIS to. From the first few digits alone, it was on Earth. That was enough to get his blood boiling.
Take anyone else. Not Missy. Not his Koschei.
Humans. Sometimes they made it really, really hard to keep forgiving.
Before his thoughts could spiral any further, the TARDIS shook, alerting the Doctor that he had arrived.
Not bothering to grab his coat, he snapped to open the TARDIS door and immediately broke into a run. The TARDIS had landed in a car park of all places, an acre from a large warehouse.
Weak streetlamps lit the area surrounding the warehouse, their dim light reflecting onto the concrete, cutting into the harsh midnight shadows. Barely registering this information, the Doctor stormed forward, nearly breaking the warehouse door off its hinges when he yanked its handle.
A dimly lit room lay before him. The two men from before stood on either side of Missy. She was slumped over in that damn chair, blindfolded and seemingly now gagged. The Doctor shuddered as to think of what had necessitated that.
“Welcome, Doctor—”
The Doctor punched him in the face, but before he could turn to give the other the same courtesy, a sharp electric current shocked him from behind. He grunted as his muscles spasmed, falling to his knees in pain. For a short moment his whole body felt as if it were engulfed in flames.
“Untie her. Now,” He spat, turning to face the other man.
“Whoa, relax, Doctor! All in due time. We have business to attend to first,” the man chuckled. He pulled the ski mask off his face, revealing matted dark hair and a crooked grin.
He snapped his fingers and two more men emerged from the darkness, each grabbing hold of one of his arms. They dragged him to sit in another chair, which seemed to appear out of nowhere.
“Don’t try anything, Doctor.” One of them beside him said, and he felt the cold metal of a taser press into his left arm.
Okay, so this was going to be a bit more difficult than he thought. Mind racing, he ran through various different plans, none of which actually feasible.
“Y’know, you could have made this a lot easier for us, Doctor. We didn’t want to have to tase you. But you didn’t want to cooperate,” The main man tsked. “Now, Doctor, I’m going to be a bit vulnerable with you. Promise you won’t tell anyone? Aw, who am I kidding. You won’t tell a soul, will you, Doctor.” He grinned cruelly.
“Believe it or not, Doctor, I used to work for UNIT.”
That explained how he was able to call the TARDIS. There were only four people in existence who were supposed to know that number, two of which were currently hostages in the room.
“Pete Hudson. I was a good soldier. Really. Top ranks,” Pete continued. “I wanted to change the world. But Kate must have changed her mind about me. I got too violent, she said. She demoted me. My gun got taken away. They had me working in the attic, filing things.”
“Sounds like you deserved it,” the Doctor said calmly.
“NO!” Pete screamed. “I am more than that, Doctor. Kate is a coward. All of UNIT are cowards. There are monsters, and they are a threat. But no, the first priority is to talk to the aliens. Freaks. That’s what you are, Doctor. A freak. This is our planet. And you think you can just waltz in and declare yourself President of the World!”
The Doctor considered telling him that it was Kate who gave him that particular title, but thought it perhaps better to leave it. Behind his back, his right arm inched ever-so-slowly towards his back pocket.
Pete continued his monologuing. “Well, Doctor, some of us have had enough. And that’s why you’re here. See, Kate knows I’m good at this. She’s scared of me, Doctor. She ran and hid, moved the whole UNIT operation somewhere new. You’re going to tell me where they are.”
“I don’t know,” the Doctor said, shrugging. “Really, I don’t. Sorry, Pete.”
“Liar!” Pete spat at the Doctor’s feet.
“Haven’t visited the twenty-first century in years. And really, Pete. You should know better by now. Always take away the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver.”
Aiming the sonic at the taser, he jumped out of the chair and blasted the taser out of the hands of the man beside him. He made a noise of surprise and then grunted when the Doctor punched him, hard. The Doctor spun around, extending the screwdriver towards the other man that had been holding the Doctor in place.
The man raised his hands in surrender and turned on his heel. “No. No. Thanks. Sorry sir, not today,” he muttered.
“David. Don't you walk away from this.” Pete clenched his teeth as the Doctor turned to face him.
“Smart lad, David,” the Doctor exclaimed, advancing towards an increasingly affronted Pete.
“Doctor, we can talk about this,” Pete begged, eyes wide. The Doctor threw his fist into Pete’s stomach and he crumpled. He rushed past Pete to examine Missy, who must have awoken during the commotion and now stared at the Doctor like a foreign creature.