{Data Stream 18} - Zagreus eats you while you're sleeping
[so nightmares really suck. I'm sure most of you have figured that out. and now that the TARDIS has succumbed to this most wonderful of recent events, she's getting a full helping of one right now! it's all sorts of awesome fun, like when the Doctor rips apart her console, floods her living quarters and pins each and ever butterfly in her butterfly room to the walls of her Cloister Room. man that's fun! and then and then and then! he severs their mental bond and disables her engines, rips up her telepathic circuits and leaves her stranded on a remote planet after he decrees he really doesn't need her anymore.
man that's harsh.
but thankfully it all ends when the TARDIS wakes, trembling and biting back a cry, in the living room of the suite she shares with the Doctor! er, wait a minute. this isn't right. why is there nothing but darkness around her? and is that ... is that the Crucible? and no, not the ship, but the Dalek Crucible. oh man, and a Forge?
well shit.
after a few agonising moments of wtf, the TARDIS pushes herself to her feet, only to be stopped by a voice that she can't pinpoint and that comes from no set form. those watching on the spheres might notice a dark shape moving about the room, but it never has a set form and seems almost as though it isn't there if you look too hard]
He doesn't care for you. He never has. How can he, when he doesn't understand?
I do not understand.
Of course you do. I can free you, you know. I can give you purpose where he takes it away. I can care for you like he never has.
The Doctor...? He does care for me. What are you--
He doesn't. If he did, he wouldn't care so much for the others on this ship. If he did, he'd be here, now. He'd be here with you, protecting you. But he isn't, is he?
No. He must be on his way. He would not leave ... me...
Leave? Of course he will. He always does, doesn't he? Each and every planet, he leaves you behind, alone, as he goes off with his companions. But I won't. I'll never leave you, child.
He will not. He will not leave me. He will come back. He always comes back...
Will he? So where is he? He isn't here, girl. He'll never be here.
[she doesn't respond and the shadow comes closer, pressing its 'hands' to her head, and it laughs]
You're mine, TARDIS. You're mine and I'll be the one to give you what you want. You don't need him anymore.
...he is not here. He has left me alone again. You will not leave me?
Of course not, child. Just say my name. Let me take care of you.
[a long silence and then she nods, falling back to the couch and nods] Of course. Forgive me, Zagreus. Please do not leave me.
[the shadow laughs and steps up to her, wrapping its hands around her neck, and the TARDIS gasps, staring wide-eyed at the shadow, clawing at the arms as it slowly chokes her to death, leaning in closer until it merges with her and her limp body begins to laugh quietly. after a moment, she gasps, the shadow expelled, and she stares at it in terror as it laughs and begins its rhetoric once again]