A/N: This story is mild AU that is woven into the DW canon universe. Mostly original adventures, with a few actual episodes that have been hacked to bits and reconstructed to better serve my needs.
Follows the 10th and 11th Doctors and their meetings with Calypso* along with the odd companion or two. Because companions are amazing.
If you have any questions or suggestions please feel free to drop me a line. I'm generally not very bitey. Reviews and critiques are greatly (GREATLY) appreciated.
All rights to BBC where necessary.
*Not an ultra-powerful mystical princess who is a thinly veiled version of myself. You know, just to be clear.
Summary: Calypso first meets the Doctor in a monastery where he tries to convince her they've met before. She thinks he's mad. Even more so when they fight off a sky-demon that's been plaguing the Sisters and he shows her an unusual blue box. Before she can get an explanation, she's torn away from this stranger; hurtling uncontrollably forward through time. Again and again she finds herself crossing paths with the Doctor. Despite his unusual behavior and his penchant for trouble, she finds herself looking forward to these sporadic meetings. But without any way of controlling her movements, she begins to fear that each trip might likely be her last. 10/OC 11/OC
-1304-
-Convent-
The clouds swept across the star strewn sky above Calypso, but her eyes were focused to the east where the lights of the city glowed like a beacon. There were no details of the skyline, but the warm glow of so many lights and so many lives was mesmerizing. She wondered how the people of London ever got any sleep.
The breeze picked up and she shivered, the chill of autumn quickly turning to winter frost. Pulling her cloak tighter she refocused her efforts on the task at hand. She was meant to be watching the animals.
The Sisters of St. Ada lived on a hill overlooking the city because they served its people, both by spreading the word of scripture, and by feeding those unfortunates who found they were unable to provide for themselves. The farm they tended was quite fruitful, and they had a small collection of livestock to provide meat.
They had modest pens, but they had always been sufficient in the past. Only now, some of the animals had begun to disappear. First it was a hen, they thought the fences had failed and the animal had wandered into the woods. But then a goat vanished, and a cow after that.
It took a desperate kind of person to rob a convent and so they had decided to post a watch in the hopes of dissuading the thief, and perhaps offering some guidance in the right direction.
All took a turn at the watch, but Calypso only ever seemed to get the shifts during the deepest part of the night. And she knew exactly why. It was the same reason she was usually assigned an extra laundry shift, or an extra turn at mucking out the stalls. Prioress Florence was in charge of such things, and she wasn't especially fond of Calypso.
The problem was with Calypso's past, or lack thereof. The Sisters had found Calypso face down in the road, miles from anywhere. It was as though she had fallen straight out of the sky. When she finally came to, all she had to call her own was her name.
She knew most of the sisters suspected her of hiding the truth out of shame or fear, Prioress Florence especially so. But if there was anything in her history that she needed to repent, Calypso could not recall it. Sometimes there were dreams. Fields of blood red grass and skies crowded with too many suns. Impossible bright lights and sharp desperate screams. Nothing that gave her any real insight to her past, or help to understand how she had arrived here.
The clouds above dissipated further and the cool pearly light of the moon lent a brightness to the grounds. The animals still slept inside the stables, only the sound of their breathing interrupted the night. That's when she realized she had not seen Sister Anita's lamp bobbing out in the fields in some time.
She crossed the fence and circled the small cluster of buildings, thinking perhaps Sister Anita had passed out of view. As she moved forward, a single scream pierced the night, followed by something else entirely. A dark animal howl that froze Calypso to the core.
Her mind screamed for her to flee, to wake the Sisters and escape to the safety of the stone walls that surrounded the convent. But the growing silence clawed at her chest. What of the Sister?
"Sister Anita!" She shouted, her feet pounding into the frost hardened ground before she could convince herself against it. She was running, not toward the convent, but in the direction of the scream. Hoping desperately she wasn't too late. She could see the shadow of the tree line where the fields gave way to forest and headed toward it. "Anit-" Her cries were cut short as a hand clasped over her mouth. She struggled against the thief but he'd pinned her arms to her sides with his free hand.
"Hush. Hush now." A man hissed in her ear. "I'm terribly sorry about all this, it's just important we don't attract any unwanted attention. Anita's fine, she's just fainted. Had a bit of a scare. I need you to keep quiet, do you understand?" His hand still muffled her, waiting for some sign that she had heard him. "I'm not going to hurt you," he promised in the same low tone he'd been using. She considered screaming but it seemed unlikely anyone would hear her this far from the convent. "Can I trust you to stay quiet?"
She nodded quickly, even as she tried to formulate some plan in her mind. This was clearly the thief who had been stealing their livestock and she had only his word that Anita was even still alive.
"Alright, I'm letting go now." He warned her, loosening his grip and stepping back.
She spun on him and took a few steps back. She could see him plainly in the moonlight, his pale hands raised in an appeasing gesture. His short dark hair stuck up at odd angles like some kind of madman, but his dress was that of a man of means. He wore an unusually tailored blue jacket, with trousers in a matching shade. His white tunic was tied at his throat with a red scarf that fell to his stomach and disappeared inside his jacket.
"Oh!" His somber face transformed suddenly, a grin splitting his face. "Hello Calypso! Didn't know I'd be seeing you here." His familiarity made her uncomfortable. She was certain she would remember such a strange man as this.
"Are you from London?" She asked, doubtfully. Perhaps if he were one of the lesser fortunate she had helped on a trip to the city, she might be able to convince him to let her and Sister Anita go.
"Oh, no. No, no." He shook his head adamantly. "I'm from- well, it's a long way off." He frowned, inspecting her carefully. "Do you really not remember?" Calypso stared at him, unsure of what to say. "Oh," he said thoughtfully as he ran a hand through his wild hair. "Right, right. You only move forward. So this…is this the first time we've met?"
His question caught her off guard, especially since she could make no sense of it. "I'm sorry, I've seen many faces in the city with my Sisters. We help feed the needy and heal the sick. Perhaps I have seen you there?"
"Nah," he drawled. "Not really the 'sick' type. Well, I suppose that depends on your definition. Well," he shrugged. "And who you've been talking to."
But she had stopped listening, because over his shoulder a shadow flickered across the moon. She stared, transfixed as she saw it more clearly between the branches of the trees that stood above them. It was huge, larger than any animal she had seen. Its translucent wings carried it through the sky as it passed across the moon once more. She opened her mouth and raised to point, but she was too terrified to scream or even breathe.
"Calypso?" The man stepped closer, waving his hand across her line of sight. "Are you-" His words were interrupted by the creature shrieking above them. It reminded her of the cry of a hawk, but louder and vastly more frightening. "Oh, right." He said brightly. "That'll be the thing whose attention we wanted to avoid. Come on!" He shouted as he threw himself against her, causing them both to crash into the ground beneath the trees.
She felt the wind of the animal's wings as it pulled out of its swooping dive at the last moment, tree branches snapping and cracking above them. She heard the rippling of its leathery wings as it beat the air powerfully to regain height and it screeched in rage at its escaped prey.
"Sorry," he apologized as he rolled off her. Calypso struggled to catch her breath as she rubbed the back of her scalp where she'd struck an unearthed tree root. She blinked and she watched the retreating form of the creature as it disappeared.
"He'll be a bit, needs to regroup. We should have enough time to get back to the church." He ducked past Calypso as she pushed herself up from the ground. When he reappeared, he had Anita's unconscious form with one arm draped over his shoulder. "Grab on will you? We haven't got much time."
Calypso moved quickly to take Anita's other arm and help bear some of the load.
"Alright, ready?" He looked at her with a smirk playing on his lips as they reached the edge of the trees again.
"Ready for what?"
"Ready to run," He grinned. "Allons-y!" He didn't wait for her to answer, instead he ran and Calypso was dragged after him. She did her best to keep pace with his long bounding strides, too afraid to fall behind and be left with the creature. Anita's head bounced between them, unaware of the danger they were in. Calypso scanned the skies, hoping against all hopes that it had gone away; or that it had never even been in the first place. Her breath raked in her chest and her legs began to falter, but she could see the flickering torches of the convent growing nearer and she knew they were going to make it.
The cry of the beast from behind them chilled her blood, it no longer needed time to regroup. She tried to push her legs harder but she could feel them turning to rubber and the sound of wing beats above them sapped her remaining strength.
"Keep going!" The man shouted, dropping the full weight of Sister Anita onto Calypso's shoulders. She staggered and nearly fell to the ground, coming to a complete stop. "Come on now, the Calypso I know is no quitter." He nodded toward the convent. "You keep going. I'll keep it distracted. Get inside!" He shouted as he took off in the opposite direction they had been running.
"Oi!" He shouted at the sky. "Big boy! Lookit here!" His voice faded and she took a deep breath and struggled forward, closing the distance between her and the stone gates. She heard the creature scream again, but it was no longer directly behind her. She reached the convent doors and threw her weight against it, bursting inside with Sister Anita in tow. Her legs gave out beneath her once inside, both women dropped heavily onto the stone floor.
"Novice?" Sister Margaret's voice rang with concern, prayer beads clasped in her hands as she stood from the wooden bench where she had been seated. "What has happened?"
"Please," Calypso gasped for breath as she sat upright. "Take Anita to the infirmary. Get Mother Catherine." She said firmly. Sister Margaret stood there, shock plain on her face. "With haste!" Calypso snapped, her tone harsher than she intended, but the woman ducked forward, scooping Anita up and carrying her deeper into the convent.
For a moment she wanted to follow, but her eyes turned back to the door as she stood up. That man, as perplexing as he was, had saved her. And likely Anita as well. Not only that, but he knew her. She couldn't leave him out there, not without finding out who he was and what it was he knew about her past.
It was still another moment before she could force her legs to obey. Her steps were halting, but she finally stepped back outside, beyond the safety of the convent walls. She saw no sign of them, man or monster.
"Sir?" She whispered into the darkness, her voice hardly audible. Nothing moved, save the gentle breeze that tugged on her cloak. She took a few more steps in the direction of the stable, thinking he might have taken shelter there. Her eyes strained in the darkness, every shadow held a threat of the creature. "Sir, are you there?" She spoke as loudly as she dared but still there was nothing.
She took one more step toward the stable and suddenly the wind was whipping up all around her, blowing dirt and her own dark hair up into her eyes. She threw up her arms and turned for the convent. The same chilling cry from before pierced the night and now she could see it clearly up above. It had been sitting on the roof, waiting for her. Its glowing coal eyes stared down at her and it leapt into the night, screeching as it made a wide circle to dive at her and finish the job it had started.