Zagreus


 * See also Zagreus (audio story)

Zagreus was a character within a Gallifreyan nursery rhyme and was a boogeyman to the Time Lords (Similar to how the Toclafane were as to bogeyman stories the Doctor and the Master used to hear when they were children). However, Zagreus isn't in fact an individual living being, it is in fact the conscious minds interpretation of being infected with Anti-Time and the power to manipulate events in space-time. (BFA: Neverland, DW: The Sound of Drums)

Legends stated that Rassilon himself destroyed Zagreus when the Yssgaroth came into the Universe and as the Eye of Harmony was created. It was said by the Neverpeople that when a casket of Anti-Time was detonated at the Capitol then chaos would engulf the Universe and the empire of Zagreus would form. When the Doctor prevented this attempt, he absorbed the Anti-Time particles into his own body becoming a dark being and the embodiment of Zagreus (BFA: Neverland), the TARDIS itself being fractured into a similar state, torn between its attempt to help the Doctor and its resentment of his willingness to sacrifice it for Charley. Although the Zagreus-TARDIS sided with Rassilon to turn the Doctor fully into Zagreus so that he could serve as Rassilon's assassin in exchange for Rassilon freeing the TARDIS from the Doctor's 'enslavement', the TARDIS's 'good' side maintained enough control to provide Charley, Leela and Romana with a cure to the anti-time energies in the form of pure zero matter, stabilising the 'infection' of Zagreus within the Doctor, although the Doctor was forced to travel to the universe of anti-time to prevent the anti-time still within him from destroying the universe (BFA: Zagreus).

Eventually, the anti-time energies were purged from the Doctor by Rassilon, allowing Zagreus to manifest as an independent spirit that could possess the bodies of the dead, eventually confronting the Doctor in the body of Perfection, the 'perfect woman'. Although she tried to trick the Doctor into taking her into the main universe, the Doctor saw through her deception, leaving Zagreus trapped in anti-time while he and Charley returned home (BFA: The Next Life).

Zagreus Rhyme
Zagreus sits inside your head,

Zagreus lives among the dead,

Zagreus sees you in your bed,

And eats you when you're sleeping.

Zagreus at the end of days,

Zagreus lies all other ways,

Zagreus comes when time's ablaze,

And history is weeping

Zagreus taking time apart,

Zagreus fears the hero heart,

Zagreus seeks the final part;

The reward that he is reaping.

Zagreus sings when all is lost,

Zagreus takes all those he's crossed,

Zagreus wins and all is cost,

The hero's hearts he's keeping.

Zagreus seeks the hero's ship,

Zagreus needs the web to rip,

Zagreus sups time at a drip,

And life aside, he's sweeping.

Zagreus waits at the end of the world,

For Zagreus is the end of the world.

His time is the end of time,

And his moment time's undoing.