Operation Bill Potts continues: This time: Bill rallies the troops
More chapters of [[ Scream of the Shalka / S10 finale fixit fic, ]] Where There’s Life, There’s Hope, are up at AO3. It’s about Alison Cheney, her robot [the Master], and the Doctor bouncing over from the Shalkaverse to save Bill from the terrifying Twelfth Doctor. Things become slightly complicated as they realize that Bill is working with another version of the Master [Razor] to de-Cyber people and overthrow Dystopiaville’s totalitarian regime.
In this excerpt, Bill talks to the rally attendees about Alison:
“Charlie was talking about rage and hope.” Bill’s eyes shine in the spotlights, like spotlights of their own. She’s about to cry. “The more that’s been taken from you, the angrier you’ve become and the more you’ve imagined how things could be different. Inside each and every one of you -- and inside all the people who feel the same -- there’s something that has survived everything Irons has done, some invincible kernel of rage and love. That’s the heart of the resistance. It was always you, all of you.
“I don’t want to co-opt your revolution or stand in your way, so that’s why this isn’t just a welcome speech. It’s also a goodbye speech. You all know that I’ve wanted to go home ever since I got here. And now I have the chance to.”
“Awwww…” A sigh goes through the audience. As much as there’s disappointment in it, it’s also warm; they’re happy for her.
“This is...Alison, Alison Cheney,” says Bill, sniffling and putting her arm around Alison. “She’s… She’s my…”
Friend? Girlfriend? Inevitable spouse? Alison wonders what she’s going to say.
“She’s...Alison,” Bill, now crying, says simply, as if words can’t do justice to everything that Alison is. “She’s...my...Alison.”
“Squeeeeee!” Alison jumps like an audience member. She’s never been so happy to be someone’s Alison.
“She answered my distress call; she’s taking me home. I’m finally going to be safe...safe and whole and happy.” Bill turns away from the microphones, which yet pick up the sounds of her sniffling and wiping her eyes. “And… And so are you, all of you,” she says to the Dystopiaville citizens, “as long as...you hang onto...the wonder and the hope and the love. Goodb -- “ A sob leaps out of her, and she never finishes the word, plunking back down in her chair again to cry.