au_muses | 001. Forgiveness
"God will forgive me. It's his job."
- Heinrich Heine
She sits in her Presidential Suite, all sounds around her blocked but the lead-lined walls. Alone with her thoughts, the demons come for her again.
"Madam President? No it can't be--"
The dying screams of her best friend's husband, his blood soaking her robes, tainting her skin, wet and slippery on the floor...
She doesn't feel them. Doesn't feel anything but the satisfaction...
No. That was not her. That was... Pandora. Romana would never kill Andred. He was a good man, underneath it all, and she had been sorry to hear of his death, not knowing that it was her who was guilty of the crime. It was that fact that drove the wedge between her and Leela to begin with.
"Romana? Please, just-- AHHH!"
Her former self crumpled to he ground at her feet, the Pandora creature fleeing back into the Matrix partition. The paradox was fixed, and she was now Imperiatrix again...
She had wanted death, welcomed it. Like putting a Pig Bear out of it's misery.
She tries to rationalise, but it doesn't work. It never does. So many dead by her hand...
"Madam Imperiatrix?"
"Commander Hallan?" she replies as an invitation to enter.
"I have the report on the Imperial Guard's action on Grybon.
"And?"
"They moved into the Free Time headquarters at four bells relative time. Eighteen suspected agents killed, twenty-four in custody, four Imperial Guards killed, six injured and eight civilians were caught in the cross-fire."
"And the prisoners?" she asks, making a mental note to interrogate Genatis on how civilians happened to be in the area.
"My men are applying the mind-probe as we speak..."
She rests her forehead against the heel of her palm. A wash of shame creeps over her. The voices of everyone who has died by her commands seems to cry out in the room ringing with silence.
She has no one. Leela and the Doctor want nothing to do with her. Brax won't speak to her out of the office and even Narvin has kept his distance. All afraid and disguisted.
There is no one. So alone. So tired...
She only hopes Hell will be warmer that how she feels now.
FIN
- Heinrich Heine
She sits in her Presidential Suite, all sounds around her blocked but the lead-lined walls. Alone with her thoughts, the demons come for her again.
"Madam President? No it can't be--"
The dying screams of her best friend's husband, his blood soaking her robes, tainting her skin, wet and slippery on the floor...
She doesn't feel them. Doesn't feel anything but the satisfaction...
No. That was not her. That was... Pandora. Romana would never kill Andred. He was a good man, underneath it all, and she had been sorry to hear of his death, not knowing that it was her who was guilty of the crime. It was that fact that drove the wedge between her and Leela to begin with.
"Romana? Please, just-- AHHH!"
Her former self crumpled to he ground at her feet, the Pandora creature fleeing back into the Matrix partition. The paradox was fixed, and she was now Imperiatrix again...
She had wanted death, welcomed it. Like putting a Pig Bear out of it's misery.
She tries to rationalise, but it doesn't work. It never does. So many dead by her hand...
"Madam Imperiatrix?"
"Commander Hallan?" she replies as an invitation to enter.
"I have the report on the Imperial Guard's action on Grybon.
"And?"
"They moved into the Free Time headquarters at four bells relative time. Eighteen suspected agents killed, twenty-four in custody, four Imperial Guards killed, six injured and eight civilians were caught in the cross-fire."
"And the prisoners?" she asks, making a mental note to interrogate Genatis on how civilians happened to be in the area.
"My men are applying the mind-probe as we speak..."
She rests her forehead against the heel of her palm. A wash of shame creeps over her. The voices of everyone who has died by her commands seems to cry out in the room ringing with silence.
She has no one. Leela and the Doctor want nothing to do with her. Brax won't speak to her out of the office and even Narvin has kept his distance. All afraid and disguisted.
There is no one. So alone. So tired...
She only hopes Hell will be warmer that how she feels now.
FIN