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"He saved you, and this is how you thank him?!"
"Believe me, none of us wanted this to happen,"
"Oh, fuck off with that nonsense, last I checked - you shot him,"
The older looking gentleman, still dressed in the same commander armour he had been when Luna had last met him - complete with the stupid looking hat with a stupid looking plume that Luna had to physically stop herself from calling 'Ermintude' - stared at Luna as she continued to rant and rave.
She'd arrived at the Commander's Office five minutes ago, and he was absolutely not prepared for her to arrive. She'd stormed in, and shouted at the guards - "I'm a friend of the Doctor, the man who is currently imprisoned in the Confession Dial, where the fuck is Commander Maxill?" - so, Maxill decided to answer her request.
In spite of the tense situation, Luna had made tea for both of them. She glared at him, taking a sip from her cup.
"I only made this 'cause I'm fairly sure you or one of your friends would try to poison me,"
"Perish the thought, Ms Derbyshire," Maxill remarked.
"Would've thought you got a promotion," She said, spinning the spoon around in her cup, "for your excellent work in stopping Omega for taking over the Doctor's biodata - oh, wait. You didn't,"
"Are you going to tell me what you want, or are you going to waste time insulting me?"
"Believe me, I can do both," Luna said, taking another sip of tea, "but why? The Doctor saved your ass - he put you back in this little pocket dimension, safe and alive, no longer fighting in the Time War,"
Maxill sighed, "because, at the end of the day, he still stole a TT Capsule and ran away,"
Luna rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, and you still shot him, and yet I'm having polite conversation with you,"
"Is that your only argument?" Maxil remarked, causing Luna to blink in surprise.
"…Okay, touché,"
"What the Doctor was planning on doing would be catastrophic," he continued, "ripping apart reality just to save one woman from her fate. Do you really believe that the punishment is too extreme for that sort of… Crime?"
"Oh, I forgot, you're the masters of the non-interference policy," She took another sip of her tea, and cleared her throat, "Except… Do you remember Jamie McCrimmon?"
"I'm sorry?"
"Jamie McCrimmon, one of the Doctor's companions," Luna explained, "the Time Lords wiped his memory and plopped him back on Earth in the middle of a warzone. How is that not interference?"
"He would've died there anyway—"
"Oh, really?" Luna raised a brow, "what was their proof? Do you have actual proof that him being there was a fixed point? Aside from 'he was a friend of this man that we've decided must be punished'? What about Zoe Herriot? Or Peri Brown?"
"You're being overly emotional,"
"Oh, yeah, what about that time the President of Gallifrey put five versions of him, five versions of me, and his companions, in the Death Zone?" Luna took another sip of her tea, taking a breather from the conversation for a few seconds, before returning, "then Flavia made him President of Gallifrey. Doesn't putting him in a Confession Dial count as treason?"
"Ms Derbyshire—"
"They forced him to fight in the Time War, they tried to kill him and destroy Earth 'cause Rassilon didn't want to die, they put him on trial when he was wearing your face and his response?" She sighed, "was to save the whole fucking planet. Put Gallifrey in a little pocket dimension away from everything. Away from the very war the Time Lords caused. He still hears those screams in his sleep, the screams of children… He truly wants to love his home, I have no idea why, they've treated him like shit from the start,"
Maxill looked at Luna, noticing that her hands were shaking. She was clearly angry, but her voice was a whisper.
"He treats himself as one of you," she continued, "he calls himself a Time Lord with so much pride, so much honor… I always want to remind him what they did to him, but I can't. His people have betrayed him, over and over again, and he keeps forgiving them. He's a better man than what they made him,"
Maxill paused.
"You know what they said about the Doctor, during the Time War?" He asked, as Luna nodded, "that the most terrifying thing about him was that he didn't use a weapon. He was so tired of all the fighting, all the violence. He was still kind. I shudder to think what he's like when unkind,"
"Well, now you're gonna get that. An unkind Doctor,"
"Do you think none of us know that?"
Maxill's statement - said in a raised volume that Luna immediately recognised - caused Luna to give pause.
"No one here wants Rassilon in charge," he continued, "but we all accepted it, because it was a Time War and we needed a strong hand to guide us. Said 'strong hand' has been wasting time, resources and infantry on fighting shadows, invisible threats, prophecies, even his own death. No one feels as though they can stand up to him,"
Luna raised a brow.
"Not even the War Council?"
"Especially not the War Council, they were created because of him," Maxill explained, "I doubt they want to be accused of treason for speaking out of line,"
Luna scoffed.
"Cowards," she remarked, "the lot of them. But, uh… A good friend told me—"
"Was said good friend the Doctor, by any chance?"
Luna huffed, "yeah, yeah, but… He once said to me that 'courage is not a matter of not being frightened. It's being afraid and doing what you have to do any way'. Said that while he was on Exile. I think now's the time to do what you have to do,"
Maxill smiled.
"I believe you're asking me to commit treason,"
"Indeed I am," Luna smirked, "now, let's get the Doctor out of there,"