IT WAS 20,000 YEARS AGO TODAY

Chapter Twenty Three

"John, leave him alone!"

John Lennon was sitting on his bed with George and Ringo taunting William as he thrashed around and tried to get out of the ropes binding him while he screamed through the gag in his mouth. John had been making snide "Mmmm-mmm-mmm," sounds which was making William even angrier and finally prompted Paul to tell him to knock it off.

"The Doctor has to deal with him, not you, and you're pissing him off," Paul said to him.

"Sorry, just having a laugh at Bilbo's distress there," John said, putting his arms behind his head and leaning back against the wall.

The Doctor looked down through the hole and then came down the ladder while William tried to get free. Once he did that, Paul got up and stood by the ladder while Tia slowly climbed down to him. Then Jane came down behind her while the Doctor knelt by William. William glared at him as the Doctor put a hand on his arm.

"I'm going to take the gag out of your mouth but you have to calm down or I'm going to render you unconscious again. I'm here to help you," the Doctor said.

He took the tape off and the handkerchief out of William's mouth. William sputtered a moment and then glared at him.

"You can't do this to me! I'm a fucking Beatle!" he growled at the Doctor.

"Uh…no, you're not," John said. "We voted you out of the group."

"Fuck you, Lennon! I'm in the group to stay, whether or not you want me…"

He trailed off when Jane went past with Tia towards the bed Paul was sitting on.

"So, you survived as well?" William said as Jane froze and looked at her.

"What d'ya mean, survived?" Paul asked. "You saw her in the restaurant, mate, or have you forgotten?"

"No, sorry, I thought that was her replacement at first. They were gonna send one out to do that audition for her play and I was just keeping up appearances since she's supposed to be my so-called girlfriend."

"Replacement? You mean…"

William laughed at Paul's horror.

"Yes…" he said, the S drawn out like a snake's hiss, "she was killed off as well after you were."

Paul got up and walked over to Jane, suddenly feeling an urge to protect her and Tia in case William got loose. William chuckled softly and Paul could sense the Beatles and Bill's barely contained rage behind him.

"Wanna know how?" William said gleefully.

"I s'pose you're gonna tell us even if we don't wanna know," John said.

Bill got up and moved beside Paul. He picked Tia up and took her back to his bed. Grabbing the ball, he distracted her with it while an evil grin spread over William's face.

"I don't know how you survived but perhaps you'd care to tell them what happened, Janie?" William said, his green eyes focused on her.

"I wasn't there. I'm not your Jane, just like this isn't your Paul. We're from another universe. So I s'pose you're gonna have to be the one to tell us what happened."

"Intriguing, the master spoke of other realities but I had no idea that you could cross them," William said. "Very well, since it appears you and Paul have escaped death in your universe, I shall tell you what happened to the two of you in mine."

"I know what happened to me, they told me," Paul said, pointing to the Beatles. "Unlike me, they are from your universe."

"Very well, I will tell Jane what became of her then."

Paul put his arms around his wife protectively which amused William greatly. He glanced up at the Doctor who was glowering at him.

"Well, out with it, you wanna gloat before I do a mind probe, go ahead and gloat," the Doctor said.

"Whatever you're going to do to me, I assure you it won't work," William said.

"Whatever, William, say your peace so we can shut ya up again," John said impatiently.

"Well, at first we tried to get the real Jane to cooperate but the stupid bitch wouldn't play along," William said smugly.

He laughed when Paul gritted his teeth and made a move towards him before Jane stopped him.

"She kept being obstinate so we decided she needed to be replaced as well," William continued, loving the look of anguish on Jane and Paul's faces. "My master thought I should handle her sacrifice this time since others had the honor of killing Paul. So, I rang Jane and asked if she would like to go on a little date with me, to Strawberry Field so she could bring some flowers to her beloved Paulie. Course the stupid cow fell for it since she was desperate to spend time with Paul's rotting body so I drove round to her house in my mini and took her to see her little sweetie. I let her out first and let her walk to the unmarked grave while I stuck a sheathed knife in the back of my trousers. We buried our Paul under a certain tree so we'd be able to find him and she went right to it, dropped to her knees and wept, telling Paul's moldy rotting corpse that she'd always love him and would never love another and other soppy shit like that. She had some flowers with her, white lilies she got somewhere and she laid them at the base of the tree while she talked to Paul, even though Paul was just a bunch of decaying matter but anyway…the trusting fool let me come near her while she talked to the ground and grieved and acted like the weak sniveling fool that she was. Then…"

He let out a low sinister laugh and Paul held Jane close to him, his stomach turning while he watched the gleeful look on his brother's double's face.

"Then…" William continued with relish, "I undid my trousers while her head was down and dropped my pants and then I fell on her, overpowered her and…"

Jane shut her eyes when William let out another chuckle.

"She was a surprisingly good shag, I have to admit," William said, loving the anguished look on Paul's face. "I managed to get her trousers and underpants off and I fucked her good and hard right on top of her sweetheart. Bitch screamed like a dying cow but no one heard her. And then once I had my way with her. I took the knife out and I stuck it in that whore's throat. And as she lay bleeding, I plunged it into her body and slit her from neck to navel and let her sacrificial blood bleed down to where the body of her lover rested. After that, I cleaned up the mess and put her body in some plastic and drove until I found a lake I could put the body in and I did exactly that after I weighted it down with some bricks and tied rope around it. And that, my friends, is what happened to little plainy Janey."

The Doctor ran over and stopped the Beatles when they tried to run over and punch him. Bill sat on the bed with Tia, his face ashen with a horrorstricken expression on his face while Paul calmed Jane who had tears running down her face. William took all this in with unmasked joy and the Doctor turned back to him once he got the Beatles to calm down and sit back down.

"I s'pose you're proud of yourself for ending an innocent life then," the Doctor said to William as he slowly walked over to him.

"I shed her blood in tribute to the dark lord himself; it was an honor to get rid of the little wimp. She was too much of a goody-two-shoes, just like her poncy boyfriend. I would have buried Jane next to him but sadly there wasn't enough time so the two of them will just have to be satisfied with being reunited in the afterlife. Now…what are you going to do to me? Kill me?"

"No, I don't do things your way," the Doctor said.

He quickly fell to his knees and grabbed William's head. He sent him back into unconsciousness and kept his fingers on his temples while he scanned his mind. Paul kissed his wife's forehead and they sat down beside Bill and Tia while the Doctor continued his scan.

"Once he's done with that, I want him to do that to me," Bill said after swallowing hard. "Whatever these repressed memories are, I want them gone. I don't want to relapse and do what he did."

"Bill, you'd never do that to us, not in a million years," Paul said to him.

"All the same, I want those memories gone from my head, whatever they are, I don't wanna take the chance that some dormant programming resurfaces and turns me into a monster like him."

John got up from his bed, walked over and hugged him.

"You're nothing like him, mate, that's a dead cert," he said while Paul smiled at that. "Whatever's been done to you, it didn't take quite as badly as it did him and maybe that's the difference between the two of ya. He may be a monster but you're not."

"Thank you," Bill said.

John smiled and gave him a friendly pat on the back before he sat back down. While the Doctor was probing and fixing William's mind, Amy appeared at the hole and came back down the ladder.

"I thought I heard him," she said to Paul as she climbed down the ladder. "What happened? Did he wake up?"

Paul kissed Jane's cheek before he got up from the bed. He took Amy to the other side of the room and quietly told her what happened to spare Jane from having to hear it again. The color drained out of Amy's face by the time he finished and she shook her head.

"God…" she said, "oh God, they must have done so much brainwashing on him for him to be able to do that… I'm glad Bill isn't like that."

"Me too but he's frightened now. He wants the Doctor to take the memories out of his head, the repressed ones, as soon as he's finished with William. He's scared he's gonna do something like that."

"No, Bill isn't like that," Amy said, shaking her head, "he's been walking around with those memories in his head all this time and he hasn't done one dark thing."

"I know but I think what William said just shook him to the core of his being and now he's scared he might become like him. Perhaps it is for the best that the Doctor take those memories out, if they're all stemming from abuse he doesn't need them anyway."

They looked over at the Doctor when he took his fingers away and William slowly opened his eyes. Paul and Amy walked towards him while William gave the Doctor a confused look.

"What did you do to me?" he asked.

"I blocked and erased some of what has been done to you. I don't know if I got it all but I think I got enough of it that your psychopathic tendencies are gone."

"Why do you care?" William asked.

"Because you're as much a victim as the people you slaughtered or stood by and let be slaughtered. I know you now, William, I scanned your memories. You are the son of Alistair Crowley."

"Yes, I am and I'm very proud to be that."

"I wouldn't be considering he basically left you in the care of abusive caretakers who abused and degraded you and sexually assaulted you in order to damage and split your mind. That's what they did to you, shattered your mind and then manipulated you so you'd be their slave. Hardly something to be proud of."

"I come from a great family."

"You come from an evil family that has done nothing but ruin lives and enslave people and if they couldn't be enslaved, they were killed and blood was shed for a fictional demon that wouldn't give a damn about you if he were real," the Doctor said. "You have had years of indoctrination by these people and it's left you deluded about what love and power truly are. Your emotions are practically nonexistent now save for hate and rage which is exactly what they wanted to bring out in you. You're nothing more than a tool in the hands of humans who are far worse than any imaginary demon. I have done what I can. I have blocked off your urge to kill but there is much more to be done. You need serious psychiatric help, William, perhaps for the rest of your life. I'm sorry but you need to be taken somewhere where you can get some help. You can't live your life this way, thinking you're superior to everyone else and anyone who gets in your way can be killed and replaced. Don't you think that one day you might end up like Paul and Jane if someone becomes dissatisfied with you?"

"They'd never do that! I'm the son of Alistair…"

"These people don't give a damn!" the Doctor said angrily, "they don't give a damn about you, your pedigree or anything else. They care about results and if one day you fail them, you'll head will end up severed from your body and you'll be buried in Strawberry Field beside the man you're impersonating. I'm sorry, William, but you're still too much of a danger to be set free. You're going to sleep and this time I'm gonna make sure you can't wake up and when I get a spare moment, I'm taking you to get some psychiatric help."

"No! You can't do this!" William said as the Doctor grabbed his head and closed his eyes, "I'm the son of Alistair…"

He trailed off and his eyelids fluttered as he went back to sleep. They waited until about five minutes later when the Doctor finally let up and breathed a sigh of relief. He shook his head.

"I did what I could but they've had years to do this to him and I couldn't fix it all," the Doctor said sadly. "I don't know if he'll ever be completely sane but I can take him to an institution where they'll keep an eye on him and he can get the help he needs."

The Doctor looked up when Bill laid his hand on his shoulder.

"Could you take out my repressed memories now?" he said. "I…I'm just worried that I'm carrying something that might trigger a relapse and cause me to be like him."

The Doctor smiled fondly at him.

"I don't think you're as bad as him, Bill. But if you want me to check your memoires, I will. Lie down on the bed and make yourself comfortable."

Bill nodded. He lay down on an empty bed and smiled when Tia came up to the bed and watched him quietly. The Doctor knelt down beside her and put his hand on her head while she smiled at him.

"You're not capable of any cruelties like that, Bill," the Doctor said to him. "He's had years of indoctrination, you haven't. You don't have it in you to hurt others."

"All the same, I'd rather have the repressed memories checked and gone from my head," Bill said.

The Doctor nodded. Paul took Tia's hand and led her away while the Doctor put his fingers against Bill's temples.

"You aren't evil, my friend," he said to Bill. "You aren't capable of it and believe me; I'd trust you with my life any day."

Bill smiled at that and the Doctor closed his eyes and sent Bill into a deep sleep so he wouldn't have to view his memories. Paul, Jane and Tia sat down on the bed next to him and Amy sat down on the other side while the Doctor looked at his memories.

"Yes," the Doctor said while his eyes remained closed, "he was the victim of abuse in all forms when he was a child."

John cursed loudly while Paul raised his eyes skyward and muttered a curse against the Illuminati under his breath. The Doctor swallowed hard, his hearts aching as he watched one of his dearest friends suffering, being molested by his adopted father and being forced to have oral sex with him at the age of four.

"My friend, my very dearest friend, I will indeed take these horrible memories away from your head," the Doctor murmured. "I won't allow you to suffer any longer, consciously or unconsciously."

He began to go through his mind, drawing out and erasing the horrifying memories of abuse he saw. As he watched the beatings, molestations, rapes and torture, a tear trickled down his cheek and Paul got up and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Thank you for helping him," Paul said. "I imagine what you're seeing is horrifying, I can see it on your face and I'm glad he has someone like you to save him from that."

"I love humans," the Doctor said in a choked voice as he kept his eyes closed, "but sometimes your capacity for cruelty and depravity astounds even me. It sickens me to the core what they did to poor Bill and yet at the same time I'm also astonished he came through it with his sanity intact. Your brother has incredible inner strength."

"I know that, I can see it," Paul replied. "I just hope with these memories gone, his self esteem will go up."

"Oh, I think it will. I think you might see quite a change in him since his subconscious is no longer dealing with these horrors."

Paul squeezed his shoulder before he sat back down. While they waited for him to finish, John Smith came down the ladder and told everyone he was taking a break. While the Doctor continued to erase the trauma from Bill's mind, they filled him in on what happened. John Smith shook his head when they finished explaining what the Doctor was doing.

"Good, I'm glad he's being purged of these memories," John Smith said as he sat down beside Amy.

Twenty minutes later, the Doctor finished and woke Bill up while he leaned back and breathed a sigh of relief. Bill looked around and smiled when Paul and Jane walked over and helped him sit up.

"You're free now," Paul said, "the Doctor got rid of all the horrifying memories you had."

"Then it's true? I was like him?" Bill said to the Doctor. "I'm Alistair Crowley's son?"

"Yes," the Doctor said while Jane hugged him from behind, "you are but you don't have to claim him as your father. He was never a father to you anyway; you were just one of his many babies he had that were going to be used as tools."

"Trust me, I'm not claiming the bastard, I want nothing to do with him," Bill said. "Thank you for doing that for me."

The Doctor got up, leaned forward and gave him a hug.

"You're a lot stronger than you realize, Bill," the Doctor said in his ear, "I knew that before but after seeing what I saw, I am convinced of it. You're more than worthy to be my companion."

Bill smiled at that and hugged him while everyone smiled at that. The Doctor finished the hug and looked around at everyone before he looked at John Smith.

"John, can you go get Rory and Pepa? I want to speak to them about Rose."

John Smith nodded and climbed up the ladder so he could find them.

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