A/N: Allllllll righty then so this is my first published fic so sorry if its a little rough around the edges (although i did hand it in for an english project- it got a 97 btw :) ) and i will probably add more later, which will require me to change the ending of this so there's an actual plot (i would do this not but its almost 4 am and I'm rambling so...)
um yeah so the rani is not mine no she isn't i wish she was but sadly no she belongs to whoever among the DW original writers who created her (sadly i don't know who that is)
Esmeralda whippenpuff, however is mine (along with the other characters) and i quite like her so i'd appreciate if no one took her from me kay thx
you probably want to read the story now so, here
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Esmeralda Whippenpuff was having a very long day. First, the paper on quantum mechanical three dimensional wave functions she had been assigned a month ago (she had only been working on it for a week; Esmeralda was a bit of a procrastinator) had been due this morning. True to her nature, she had spent the entire night finishing up the last few pages. Not to say that Esmeralda had no knowledge of quantum mechanical three dimensional wave functions- she was a very bright student and it was no surprise when she got accepted to Princeton University. She just hated writing papers.
Looking on the brighter side of things, today had been the last day of the semester and Esmeralda was headed home for the winter holidays. Immediately after turning in her paper, Esmeralda ran to her dorm and began throwing anything she saw into her suitcase. As mentioned before, Esmeralda is a procrastinator. She waited until the last minute to write her paper and she waited until the last minute to pack. She was ready in record time; break was only a week and a half after all.
With a steaming cup of coffee in hand, Esmeralda packed her car and began the long drive to Maine. Why she had insisted on driving to school, she had no idea.
Eight hours later, Esmeralda was pulling up in her parents' driveway and all she wanted to do was sleep. After exchanging a few hugs and greetings with her parents, she went upstairs to her childhood room and did just that.
Over the next few days, the preparations for Christmas dinner were going swimmingly. Esmeralda's siblings Marco and Larissa had arrived with their respective wife and boyfriend in tow. Numerous aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents cluttered the house, putting the previously empty space to use. Still, the place was right crowded.
On the morning of the third day of break, Esmeralda came down for breakfast to find most of the family milling about the kitchen in their unique morning routines. Grabbing a muffin, she sat down between Marco and her twelve-year-old cousin, Jake. Grandma Jean sat across the table, chatting with Uncle Lou about a missing person from nearby.
"Oh, it's so awful, and right before Christmas too! I'm tellin' you, Lou, they need to step up the security."
Uncle Lou grunted in agreement and took a bite of his donut, eyes never leaving the morning paper.
"Who was it?" asked Marco, somewhat intrigued by the topic.
"You know, Old Barry Beaner, runs the grocery mart downtown," Grandma Jean answered.
"I reckon he got caught by the witch!" Jack exclaimed to his twin, Alex, who gave a "No way, dude!"
"Enough with those ridiculous rumors! That isn't even remotely funny," Grandma scolded the two boys. "For all we know Barry could be at his family's for the holidays."
"Not likely," Jack muttered to Alex.
"I wouldn't bring up the witch if I were you," Marco said with a sly grin. "She'll be after you next! Legend says that at night she comes out and-"
Esmeralda slapped him lightly, exclaiming "Shut up, Marco! You'll scare them!"
"Us? Scared of a little old witch? Hardly!" Alex scoffed.
Esmeralda used to be terribly frightened of all that stuff, but she had grown out of it like any other adult. Still, she remembered when she had first heard the story of the witch…
It is only at night when she emerges. Her eyes gleam with the hatred of a thousand years, for in her mind, she's been wronged. Being the creature she was, revenge lies at the top of her list. She'd spent centuries pursuing her hateful justice throughout time and space, but as of the past five decades or so, she's been stuck. The fearsome, powerful, clever Rani is stuck on Earth with a dysfunctional TARDIS and unfinished business.
To say the least, she is not pleased. Crash-landing in the middle of a forest has not done her TARDIS any favors; the only useful task it could preform, besides keeping the lights on, was giving their location: some unknown town in Maine.
But the Rani doesn't give up so easily- this is her opportunity to come up with a plan, a foolproof plan that wouldn't get her stranded on some godforsaken planet again. Still fresh from the Time War, she had barely escaped with her life before being blown out of the time vortex. They were going to pay for that. No- He was going to pay for that.
However, that will have to wait. First things first: fix the TARDIS. Everything was intact, but it couldn't dematerialize. Most of its systems had failed- the chameleon circuit (the spaceship was now a steel box), the translator (leaving the Rani to ramble on in Gallifreyan), but most importantly, the engines. The spark of life that had always been so constant within the ship was dimmed to almost untraceable. But the Rani was more connected to her TARDIS than any other Time Lord or Lady. She knew what it needed, how much of it, and how long it would take until it was fully operational again (the latter being a discouraging number).
Her TARDIS needed life it couldn't get on its own, and the Rani certainly wouldn't give up her own for the ship- who would be there to fly it, to escape, to seek her revenge? Yes, she smiled to herself. I will need supplements. Surely this was no different than one of her experiments? That was exactly how she would treat it, she decided. Not that she ever cared a bit for the lives of her test subjects. A quickly rigged device would allow the Rani to directly transfer the life energy of the inhabitants of this planet to the Heart of her TARDIS.
The life energy of a human is almost negligible to that of a TARDIS, the Rani's especially. However, the ship would only need energy until it became self-sufficient again. This would still require an immense amount of human lives, which was 'regrettable' in the Rani's opinion. She never gave it a second thought.
Nevertheless, over the next fifty-or-so years, people began disappearing in the dark of the night, lured in by the Rani's silky voice and foreign cadence, promising trust and love, happiness and friendship, knowledge and power. And they went willingly. No human ever returned from an encounter from the Rani. Quiet observers relayed their suspicions, watching as people vanished inside that unforgiving steel box, the cold eyes and evil smile of the woman in the forest, the white light that pierced their eyes and the screams that pierced their ears as the Rani's TARDIS fed off the victim's soul.
Rumors spread about the witch of the forest- to meet her was the last thing you would ever do. Her real name was forbidden from knowledge, her self-given title was forbidden from speech. To speak of her would invoke her presence. People avoided the woods, save for a few daring teenagers and Halloween tricksters, neither of which returned. The disappearances went under "missing" files, as no hard evidence could be found to prove neither the Rani's existence nor her murderous tenancies.
And there she remained, hidden in the forest, waiting...
It was later in the evening, but Esmeralda wasn't tired anymore. However, she was annoyed at her cousins for being little twerps, her brother for goading them on, her grandma for being a buzzkill, and everyone else for generally existing. To put it mildly, she needed some alone time.
And that was how Esmeralda ended up walking through the forest at night. Completely alone. At least she hoped…
Esmeralda hadn't meant to get lost, obviously. She'd been having a lovely time clearing her head and just wandering around. Before she knew it, the sky was dark and Esmeralda had no idea where she was. The sound of the wind echoing through the bare branches had her on edge. Even the slightest noise made her jump. Esmeralda cursed herself for being so stupid- and she was freezing.
"Are you lost?"
Esmeralda yelped at the voice, jumping twenty feet in the air. The speaker was a woman, but, in the dark, that was all Esmeralda could tell.
"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," the weird forest-woman chuckled. She spoke with a strange accent. Esmeralda was liking this situation less and less. She narrowed her eyes.
"Um, okay…"
"Here, I can help you! Come with me."
"I don't think that's the best-" Esmeralda was cut off as the stranger took her by the arm deeper into the forest.
"And how about some hot chocolate? You're shivering like mad!"
"Hey! Whaddya think you're-"
Failing to yank her arm away, Esmeralda was reluctantly pulled through the trees towards who knows where.
"Excuse you, but I really don't appreciate you dragging me around the forest in the middle of the night," Esmeralda said frostily. "What is your problem? Who the hell you think you are? I have a right to know where you're taking me!"
"Rights?" the woman laughed. "Don't hold on to those." A shiver ran down Esmeralda's spine. "And I'm only trying to help."
"With what?"
Esmeralda's question went unanswered, but she hardly noticed because the woman's appearance had just been brought to light. Her skin was as pale as the moon while her hair was silver and wild. This did not make her look older- in fact it emphasized her youthful face. Well, youthful compared to Grandma Jean. Esmeralda would place her at late twenties, early thirties. She was wearing all black, but the amicable expression on her features beckoned Esmeralda towards her.
However, something about this woman didn't line up. Her eyes were…different. Esmeralda couldn't place her finger on it.
Esmeralda looked past the woman and saw something even stranger. A harsh steel box (there was no other word for it) stood in the middle of the forest, right behind the woman. A bright white light was pouring form its open doors. Esmeralda gasped.
"Hello, Esmeralda," the woman said, her strange accent twisting the words into something almost alien. "I am the Rani. Won't you come inside?" She gestured to the open doors. "I promised you a hot chocolate. Let's not keep the TARDIS waiting." Though her words were spoken with friendliness, there was a sinister tone underneath.
Esmeralda didn't trust this woman, the Rani. She had no idea who or what a TARDIS was (though she had an uneasy feeling she was looking at it) and she was definitely not down with sharing a hot chocolate with a strange woman she had meet in the forest who somehow knew her name. "I…uh-"
"Don't just stand there, come along," the Rani said with a grin that Esmeralda wasn't sure what to make of. She was suddenly reminded of the witch that supposedly lived in this forest. The Rani pulled her into the 'TARDIS' before she could make up her mind.
The interior was huge. Approximately twenty times the size of her room at her parents' house, which made absolutely no sense. On the outside, the box looked to be the standard size of a refrigerator.
Smack dab in the center of the room was a green glowing column connecting the ceiling to the floor. Something inside of it was pulsating, which led Esmeralda to believe that maybe it was alive after all. Surrounding this column was a hexagonal sort of keyboard system, complete with innumerable knobs, buttons, and levers. Esmeralda was itching to press one if not all of them. Lining the walls of the room were a bunch of human-sized capsules containing-
"Esmeralda," the Rani said, placing a firm hand on her shoulder. Esmeralda flinched. "Isn't it wonderful? Take a look around! I've come so far since I came crashing down on your puny planet all those years ago, only to be trapped in this wretched forest. My TARDIS was all bungled up- that became a problem. I couldn't leave."
Esmeralda had no idea what this crazy lady was talking about. There was no trace of the former friendliness in the Rani's face- it now matched her cold, hateful eyes. But Esmeralda was willing to let the Rani ramble on, despite the large lump of fear in the pit of her stomach- she might be able to make her escape if the Rani was distracted.
"Right after the Time War too! How inconvenient. But I'm a relatively patient person." The Rani smiled. "My TARDIS needed energy and what better energy to restore life than life itself? However, even with feeding all those human lives to the TARDIS it still took half a century to retain the necessary self-sustaining energy."
A horrible feeling stirred in the back of Esmeralda's mind, quickly making itself known. She knew what was in those capsules, and with the way things were looking, she was going to join them,
"This is where you come in," the Rani spoke directly to Esmeralda now. "I need your life energy to start my ship. You are the key to my freedom." Her wild eyes bored into Esmeralda, staring right through her as if she could see the spark of life that would set her free.
"Why can't you just be happy on Earth?" Esmeralda asked, stalling. She cast a nervous glance towards the front of the TARDIS. The doors were still open.
"Oh no, you don't!" They slammed shut with a snap of the Rani's fingers. Esmeralda gulped. She was really trapped now. "I have an agenda- unfinished business. You will not work I've spent half a century on!" the Rani growled, advancing towards Esmeralda. Her eyes widened in fear at the angry Time Lady. She stepped back.
Thinking quickly, Esmeralda looked wildly around at the capsules- cryotanks. "Your work?" she said bravely, hoping the fear didn't show through her words. "You've been sucking the life out of people and for what? Your stupid ship?"
The Rani's anger flared, forcing Esmeralda to recoil again- her back pressed against a cryotank.
"You – know – nothing, you stupid human girl!" she hissed, grabbing Esmeralda's neck in a chokehold. Esmeralda's hands scrambled at the edges of the cryotank. "You think, after all I've been through, that I will just sit here?" Come on, Esmeralda thought, feeling for the buttons behind her. Just a little further. "There – are – things – that – cannot – go – unpunished!"
Esmeralda's fingers found a button on the cryotank and she pushed it without hesitation. The door slid open sideways and she fell from being pressed against open air, released from the chokehold. The Rani, however, was not so lucky. Gasping for breath, Esmeralda watched as she tumbled forward into the (thankfully empty) cryotank, hitting her head on the hard steel. The Rani watched, dazed, as the door automatically slid in front of her, trapping her inside the cryotank. She began banging on it as soon as she realized what happened, silently threatening Esmeralda behind the glass, eyes flashing furiously.
Esmeralda's fingers found a green button on the cryotank. She pushed it and immediately the Rani's cage filled with blinding white light. Esmeralda watched in horror as the TARDIS sucked out the Rani's soul, her life energy- the screams were becoming quieter, the pounding on the door weaker. Esmeralda stood frozen.
Then lights began to flash all around the TARDIS with newfound energy. An odd noise rumbled from deep within the organic machine, almost like a growl.
Esmeralda knew she had to get out of there.
She sprinted for the door, the Rani forgotten, and pushed on it with all her might. It did not budge. Fear fluttered in Esmeralda's chest as she hurriedly searched for a way to open the unyielding doors. A set of buttons to the right of the hinges caught her attention. Praying her luck would hold, Esmeralda frantically slammed every button at once to no avail. The thick metal doors loomed over her, showing no sign that they had ever been opened, separating her from the only life she had ever known. Esmeralda sank to her knees and choked back a sob, wondering what the hell she got herself into. The TARDIS, which had been vibrating slowly, started to shudder violently, jerking Esmeralda away from the doors. She sat, helpless, as the TARDIS took her farther away from her home, from Earth, farther than any human could hope to reach.
Through her misery*, Esmeralda saw a bright yellow light suddenly emanate from the Rani's cryotank, followed by a rushing noise. Shielding her eyes, Esmeralda sat up straight, homesickness forgotten. A new wave of fear rose like the tide in her heart.
The cryotank door slowly creaked open. Esmeralda held her breath as the figure of a woman stepped out, sheathed in yellow particles of pure energy. She turned to face Esmeralda as the sparks dissipated. Esmeralda gasped. It was the Rani, she knew, with a different face, colder, harder, and more sinister than before. It was if the previous one had been a guise and Esmeralda was just now seeing the true nature of the Rani.
"Foolish girl," the Rani said. "You thought you could kill me?"
She laughed, high melodic tones, somewhat soothing, but at the same time sent cold shivers down Esmeralda's spine.
. . . . .
A/N: This is the updated chapter, not that anyone saw the other one. well, hopefully someone'll see this part. If you do click on this, i wanna know what you think. did you like it? did you hate it? was it dumb? too basic? i wanna know, so please review. it would mean the world :)