mods! (![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} wariscomingmod) wrote in ![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} wariscoming,@ 2011-01-09 03:11:00 |
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WHAT: Lucifer needs Lawrence distracted. He figures personally killing off a powerful, influential type might do the trick.
WHEN: Very, very late.
WHERE: Romana's dream first, then someplace outside of Lawrence.
RATING: High. There is death. Several deaths, actually.
STATUS: COMPLETE.
NOTES: As of this thread, anyone and everyone can take note of the exploded remains of Romana on the front steps of the complex building. RIP, TIMELADY. D:
Romana had been far from herself lately, Tired and troubled with her choices in her time here. The Master confused her mostly and the memories from that horrible future world where she had been a being of such evil that she was willing to side with Lucifer of all beings. Since then she’d hidden away, from even her friends because the horrors of what she’d done were so real and reminded her so much of her beloved Gallifrey and how it had fallen. Lucifer was no better than Davros when one got right down to it. The same need for power, the same lust for control and really was she any different? Deep inside. She really didn’t think that she was by all accounts.
And so she’d stayed mostly out of everyone's way, less and less classes, distracted, and slipping out whenever she could. Just getting out. Missing when things had been easy, when it had been her and the Doctor and then later Adric. When she had just been her own Romana. So much had changed since then, she had seen and caused too many horrors, and she was tired, she was always just so tired. She supposed no one had really noticed, she’d been just around enough that no one would question the absences. And she’d been visiting the Master when he’d asked. It was probably foolish of her and she knew how much the Doctor would hate it, but she felt good around the Master, and there were occasions, just some, when because of him she forgot the horrors in her mind
She’d fallen asleep early this night after a great deal of restlessness, closing her mind off from everyone outside in the complex. But the nightmares still came. They always came. Her beautiful shining world burning, Rassilon talking her throne. All of it, and every little bit of it, caused by her.
The nightmares that had overtaken Romana that evening were very much the kind that Lucifer found he could appreciate. To Romana, it was obviously horrific. The loss of something important and dear - the sort of thing that a person never forgot, as much as they probably wished to cleanse the horrors from their minds and hearts. To Lucifer, what he witnessed was necessary. The end of yet another one of his Father’s creations, needless and flawed. Disgusting. He watched her world burn for a long time (concerned for the state of the planet in itself, but less so in regards to the beings that occupied it) before stepping into the nightmare. Rather than pulling Romana from the nightmare, as to spare her the misery, Lucifer merely snapped his fingers and froze everything. The destruction of her planet, as intriguing as it was for him to witness, was a thing of the past. They had more important matters to focus on. The future. His future and, likewise, what little was left of her own.
“Reminiscing, are we?” Lucifer’s approach was silent, yet sudden. He stood behind her, hands clasped in front of himself, demeanor calm and casual. In spite of the world burning all around them, he didn’t appear to be very bothered by it. In fact, a tiny glint of excitement danced in his eyes, one that suggested that he was quite pleased by the sight of it all. Surely not the fire that breathed down on a planet that was probably quite beautiful in it’s own standing way, but the overall idea. The end. What he craved so terribly, for his own plans. The very thing that he had been waiting centuries for while locked away inside of that cage Michael had trapped him in. It wouldn’t end that way this time. It would be like this. Terrible, yet great. And if he had it his way, the planet would survive. The fires would fade. Destruction would bleed into peace. Everything would be, as it once was, perfect.
“I apologize for the intrusion, Romana,” Lucifer said, focus shifting from the chaos and to the woman standing before him. “But we really should talk.”
The Time Lady turned, eyes widening as she realized who she was facing. He could have been wearing any body and she would have known. Her senses seemed almost to overload from his presence alone. Lucifer. But surely she was dreaming and... Immediately she chided herself. This was a dream and dreams held power too, she should know that as well as any, perhaps better. But why of all the people in this war had he chosen to invade hers. She tore her eyes away from the burning sphere that had once been Gallifrey and sighed. “Yes.” she said softly. “Reminiscing. Its something people do when they’ve lost something they love. Do you know of loss like that Lucifer?” she asked. Powerful as she was, Romana knew she had no hope against someone like him, and decided then and there that if she was to go then she would go fighting, arguing for humanity just like the Doctor would have.
“Now tell me, what could you possibly want with me? I mean what interest could you have in the ex President of a dead world and a near dead race?” she asked, turning from Gallifrey and circling the devil. She was scared, of course she was but she didn’t show it. She was trained not to show fear, and as Pandora’s genetic creation she had been created to be poised, and direct if faced with an enemy. Under her pillow she had a gun, but that was in the real world. Not in here. It seemed he controlled them in here. The thought alone was worrying. As she slept in the complex he’d ignored the wards as he was not entering the room. Did everything he needed to to get in her dreams. She needed to know why hers? She wasn’t important here.
“You’re not getting inside the complex. I suppose you are aware of that and by all accounts your vessel is safe from you. You can’t find where he goes either. In which case this intrusion in my dream seems entirely pointless, Irrelevant to your cause. What does it gain you? Just let me return to my nightmare. Leave my dream. I will not speak to you.”
Lucifer smiled, all too gently for someone who was known for wanting to destroy all of humanity. "I do," he told her, "it's why I'm fighting now." His features softened, almost sadly. "It's what I'm fighting for. The race of beings inhabiting Earth now - the little..." He half grimaced, half smiled. "The humans. They took something beautiful, something that I loved, and they tore it apart. I feel the loss of what I care for. I have felt it for a very long time." Lucifer knew that Romana wouldn't understand. No one did. How could they, when the bible, humanity, and even his own Father had painted him as the villain throughout all of time? He was nothing more than a dark, evil thing in their eyes. The monster with the horns, red tail, and pitchfork, seeking to ruin and corrupt all. They would never see reason with him. They would never truly listen. Truthfully, Lucifer didn't expect for them to want to. He was, after all, the one who was going to destroy them.
Romana began to circle him, as if he were something to be cornered. Like a small rat, perhaps. Something that could be intimidated and terrified if it were approached like nothing more than prey. Again, Lucifer appeared unaffected. He smiled politely and answered her questions honestly without hesitation. "You're a survivor. Strong. Powerful. More importantly, the people inside of that apartment building you appear to be so adamant about protecting trust you. In fact, they rely on you, do they not? Your knowledge, your strength - it's part of what makes them so effective when they need to defend themselves. You are a great woman." Lucifer's smile grew. Still gentle, yet bordering on confident.
"I will leave you to your memories - if you agree to meet with me in person." Lucifer turned to the side, standing between Romana and the sight of her burning planet. The flames began to dance again, playing out darkly against Lucifer's figure. It was an intimidating sight, as much as Lucifer appeared to be very polite and calm. "This isn't a request. If you don't meet with me, I will send someone powerful to your apartment complex and I will tell them to burn the entire building to the ground." Lucifer didn't stop there. He wanted it all out, right in the open. "To be straightforward about everything: I need you. You're important, therefore you're probably going to serve as a wonderful distraction to the few people who can actually impact what I'm about to set into motion. I need them weakened. I need them hurting. For that, I'm going to need to kill you."
Romana wouldn’t deny he had a point. The humans really did know how to destroy a beautiful world, they were tearing it apart in many ways, but there was so much good that she saw in them too. “You know, a lifetime or two ago I would have agreed with you. These humans, on the outside they appear nothing more than wasteful and lazy. But when you look at them, when you get to know them, which one assumes you never have any intention of doing because of course you couldn’t be wrong, you get to see the good in them. The love that they have for each other, the happiness they can bring with their short lives. You want to rip that away from the world because He loved them better than you. Your father? See I can’t understand that. I never had a father, nor a mother. I was created, as I found out later, created to be a way back for a lost Time Lady. She used me and I committed many acts of evil. I nearly gave in to her again here, in your hellish future. But I learned you can’t crush their spirit, no matter how much evil you do. You can’t destroy that and if even two survive. They will find a way to destroy you.” There were little things though, that she had learned about him. He was a son, an angry vengeful son doing what the English had so wonderfully termed as ‘throwing his toys out of the pram’. He was just out to hurt, he was quite possibly mad and there was no arguing with madness.
So Romana listened, she was strong, a survivor. That was what Lucifer saw in her. She supposed to his eyes she would be, much as she didn’t feel like it much of the time. But she saw his intent clearly when he mentioned her knowledge, the trust the people in the complex had for one who had been there from the start nearly. And a lot of them she didn’t know, a lot of them she had hidden from, suddenly afraid of new friendships, and yet more had gone. Left, back to their own worlds she expected. And she had often wondered did they remember her. And how would Leela fare without her, or the Master. Could she ask him to protect them? Would he laugh in her face. She knew the threat he posed was very real. Fire would burn the apartment complex as soon as anything else and who knew what magic he knew, he was infinitely more powerful than anyone they had. But Lucifer was wrong about her, she was no great woman. She had failed her people in the worst way possible and it seemed was about to fail the people she had come to rely on as friends.
It turned out of course that Lucifer wanted to kill her. He wanted to destroy her because it would serve as a symbol but for that she had to walk to her death, and her first instinct was that perhaps on some level it was fair. Perhaps on some level it was just that she were to die. The last surviving ruler of Gallifrey. The Doctors faithful companion on an alien world that her Doctor had loved so very very much. She hoped the Master would keep it safe for him now if she could not. But there was an idea brewing in her head and before she could think about it, just in case he would somehow know, Romana nodded just once. She would indeed die this night. She took one last look, Gazed at her beautiful world in flames. And woke up.
She sighed, and rose from her bed still clothed, she’d need to tell Leela what she was doing but there would be no psychic communication. It was always possible of course that she wouldn’t die, the Master would feel her regeneration and that would have to be enough. She would do her small part for this War and maybe...well there was always the chance that Lucifer would kill her, slowly and dramatically as show and leave her to bleed to death or something. If he did, well, she would loose this form. But she would live on. She was only on her fourth incarnation after all. She left behind everything she had, slipping into the formal Gallifreian Robes she had arrived in Lawrence wearing oh so long ago now and made her way downstairs, past the salt lines and the sigils and out past the barriers of the wards.
“I’m here” she said simply to the night air once she was far enough away from the complex. It would hurt either way, regenerations were painful, but already the mantra was running through the head of the Time Lady. ‘Kill me and leave, kill me and leave’
Romana was right about one thing - Lucifer didn't want to hear about the goodness in the hearts of humans. Truly, he didn't care. They were as much of an abomination in his eyes as the demons that he had twisted and created. As to whether or not they were good and decent did not matter to him, not when they were the exact reason for his imprisonment for so very long. The mere thought of trying to bond with that race of vile creatures brought a sickening feeling to his stomach, one that Lucifer hid behind a smile. Not so much in the eyes, however. There was, undoubtedly, a flicker of pure hatred reflecting from them, in that brief moment in which Romana suggested he try to get to know them. He would use them to the best of his ability - like Sam - but beyond that, he wanted nothing more than to watch them all writhe in agony as they burned. Romana appeared to be confident that the humans would find some way to best him in the end, but Lucifer was far too smug to so much as consider that a possibility. They had the ability to complicate matters, surely, but to actually defeat him? Impossible. As tempting as it was to boast and brag about how he was too clever and powerful to be defeated by such an inferior race of creatures, Lucifer chose to shoot Romana a look of pure amusement. She was giving in to his demands. There was no need to debate against someone who wouldn't be able to use their tongue by the end of the night.
Exiting her mind, Lucifer reappeared at the obscure, far off, quiet location that Romana had chosen for their meeting place. He appeared as calm and respectful as ever when he approached the woman, very much the live portrayal of a wolf in sheep's clothing. "You're an honorable woman, I'll give you that," Lucifer stated, examining her thoughtfully. That didn't make her superior or better, but it was something that Lucifer found admirable. He decided right then and there that he would make her death quick, if only for that reason alone. If she had run away, she would have been much worse off. "You should be proud," Lucifer continued, "your death will stand out among billions of lives that will not. Your name will be remembered to the end of this war, Romana. And I, personally, will not forget you and how much you've helped make a difference."
By distracting them. That's all that this was. Between Romana's death and the Sins rushing their way, they wouldn't see Death coming. Lucifer smiled, one last time, before he reached out with an unimaginable amount of power and crushed Romana's hearts (two, he found, existed within her body - unusual, certainly, but Lucifer didn’t think much of it, as Romana wasn’t entirely human). A quick death indeed. As her body toppled lifelessly to the ground, Lucifer turned on the spot and began to walk. Easy enough.
...except it wasn't. Not really. As he began to consider his next location, a sudden surge of power erupted from behind him. Lucifer turned, curiously, to find that that Romana's body was no longer in the state that he had left it in. It was...glowing? Head tilting to the side, Lucifer watched as her body lifted and a blinding light began to unnaturally pour outward from her limbs. Blinding to humans, at least. Lucifer stared at it straight on, a cross combination of surprise, curiosity, and anger flashing across his features. What, exactly, was going on here?
The light faded and, in the place where Romana had once stood, another woman appeared. This one was blond. Tall. Beautiful, by human standards. She too, from what Lucifer could sense, was Romana. She was also killed. In her place, another was born - dark haired, thin, sort of gawky, really. Lucifer put her down too, but it wasn't very long before another sprouted from the demolished body. Quickly, Lucifer realized that Romana was far more complex than he had given her credit for. That only served to further infuriate him, as he murdered reincarnation after reincarnation of the woman, never quite being able to put her down completely all the while. Eventually, Lucifer decided to give it a rest. He was a determined creature and he would see to it that Romana was killed, but for now...
"Why won't you die?" He asked Romana (she was blond again; curvy, with a somewhat crooked nose and blue eyes that burned brighter than expected when looked into), a surprising amount of fury radiating from the creature who usually went so far out of his way to come off as calm and approachable.
She didn’t like dying. It hurt. It hurt really rather a lot each time, he didn’t always make it quick either, she supposed wondering if that would help. But she kept coming back, oh yes. Unfortunately he’d seen it so the whole amazing plan she’d had was rather blown out of the water. So she supposed she eventually would die, which had always been a risk Romana had accounted for, and while she didn’t want to die, she was ready to. But she had a lot to say to the arrogant little snit before she went. Things she supposed no one ever had before, he had asked her why she wouldn’t die and in truth Romana could have spouted science, she could have explained about the Time Lords. But she had looked into the Untempered Schism and she had been inspired, she hadn’t run, she hadn’t gone mad. She had seen so many things, wonderful mesmerizing things and who was to know that one of them wasn’t the God that had created this errent child. All things were possible
“By all accounts one of your Fathers creations had...had...” she had had a whole speech in her head and she’d get to it but...new shape of mouth and her mouth was making a funny accent, why did she sound like she was from the North of England now. That was annoying. Also her hair was in her eyes. Not that she supposed it mattered now, unless she found a way to bluff Lucifer, she supposed she only had one last shot at it. “...sorry, funny mouth, different shape, words get all jumbled up, I have a strange accent, and have you seen the size of my...” she trailed off, not the time nor the person to joke about regeneration with since he had taken many lives from her already. “...anyway never mind, the point is... Your Father made us too if you are to be believed, he made us, the Time Lords, to watch over the many civilizations, countless beings, on countless worlds through the millennia, he made the wizards and witches, the Jedi, the heroes from worlds you can’t begin to fathom the annoying ones who can’t die at all.. And he made me keep coming back, over and over no matter what you do. He made so many different things on so many different worlds and you are arrogant enough to believe you can beat them all. By all accounts he loved you. Just as he loves Castiel and all the others, but the fact that he made other things bothers you so very much because then you have to share the love. I don’t understand you, I never hope to either because it must be very sad being you. Very lonely with only the demons for company, and not all of them follow you either do they, one by brave one they slip away. What will you have at the end of this?”
She really did like this form. That was unfortunate she supposed. he’d kill her, and there were ways if he was persistent enough.
“Now be a dear and get on with it or walk away and lick your wounds. Daddy’s going to be very very cross with you you naughty self indulgent little child”
That explanation of hers was annoyingly vague. It was filled with more belief and talk than actual fact, which was what Lucifer had wanted to hear. That and, of course, comments on him. What he loved, how he was loved, theory behind his true thoughts, feelings, and motivations. Lucifer wouldn't have it. He wasn't about to belittled by a being that was more than beneath him. Instead, he focused on the task at hand. Was there a specific way to kill her? Did he have to remove her heart from her body entirely to get the job done? Decapitate her? Saw her in half? What was required for her death, exactly? Like Romana in her dream, Lucifer took to circling her, examining the new body thoughtfully. "You can be killed," Lucifer stated flatly, "nothing is truly immortal." Nothing. Not even him, as much as it pained Lucifer to admit it. He reached out again, this time making her head pop clean off her body. Blood sprayed everywhere, as it had countless times before, but it didn't last. Before she could even bleed out entirely, the body was up and at it again, regenerating itself as it had done so many times before. Scowling, Lucifer removed her lungs from her body next, watching as her brunette figure writhed and gagged from the sudden loss of oxygen.
This went on, again, several more times. As Lucifer rounded his way past the twelfth and, unknown to him, final regeneration, he decided that he'd destroy everything. Take her apart, so that her limbs were all over the place and, logically, she wouldn't be able to piece herself back together. Lucifer pushed Romana's body back, watching with a silent, dark fury as she stumbled. He'd had enough of her. It was time to finish her, once and for all.
"Nothing is truly immortal," Lucifer repeated, "you will help me, Romana. You will die." At that, her body tore itself apart from the inside out. It was a painful death, far from the one that he had promised her the first time around, but it was necessary. She blew apart, blood, bones, and body flying grotesquely in every direction. None of it touched Lucifer. He made it that way, as to keep his vessel from being soiled.
Then he waited. When her body failed to rebuild itself once more, Lucifer gathered what was left of Romana and left it at the apartment building doorstep. Before departing, he reconstructed her head, re-building it in the form that those at the complex were familiar with. They needed to know that it was Romana who had been destroyed.