The sun was over our building, but the second sun shone in through the windows. Mother said she could see the dual Suns in my amber eyes. The sky was a beautiful deep orange, yet the color also filled me with...I'm trying to think of a word better than dread. I missed the shining silver leaves. Everything looked like it was on fire.
'My planet's gone. It's dead. It burned like the Earth.' A voice that was familiar yet not floated in my head.
There was those voices again. The ones that got me into this mess. They've been there since I looked into the Schism, and it looked into me. The more I thought about it, the more I learned, the more I remembered. 'It's just remembering in the wrong direction.'
I didn't like it in the Academy. Everyone was mean here, especially the kids. The grown-ups were stern. None of them wanted to have fun. I missed running through the fields, playing with dirt and looking up at the clouds.
That wasn't who I was anymore. I missed who I was before the Untempered Schism.
"Tell us what you know." The Lord President ordered. He looked down at me, like I was garbage.
My lips clamped shut. He wouldn't get any answers from me. The secrets will be kept. 'Silence must fall when the question is asked.'
"Tell us, and you can be spared." The President pressed. "Tell us about what you saw." He kneeled down, a scary look in his eyes. "Tell us about the Hybrid."
Not a syllable from me. I couldn't decide whether to look at my shoes or up in his eyes.
The Lord President glared down at me. I squared my shoulders, chin held up high. "As punishment for your crimes of treason, you shall be exiled. At the time of your regeneration, your memories of Gallifrey as well as the people on it will be removed. Any remnant of home, gone. You'll forget everyone, your whole family, your whole life."
He had a sadistic glint in his eyes, making me want to back away. He knew that was what I was afraid of, losing my memories. It was a childish fear I had since first learning about regeneration. Mother had told me otherwise, but you don't just forget your fears.
I wanted to cry, scream at everyone that would hear me that this was wrong. I wanted Father to come save me, for Mother to tuck me back in bed and tell me a story. I wanted to be saved.
They wouldn't come. They abandoned me. 'You didn't save my life. You trapped me inside it.' I stayed strong, despite the coldness in this regeneration of Lord President. I couldn't give in. Lives were at stake. He wouldn't scare me. I refused to show him fear. 'He will not hurt me if I don't show him fear.'
"Lord President-" One of the other Time Ladies tried to reason with him.
The President glared at the Lady, holding up his Infinity Gauntlet. No...no the Infinity Gauntlet was something else...I always get these things mixed up...
He shot her, letting her drop to the ground. 'Death is Time Lord for man flu.' The President looked back to me, rolling his eyes in annoyance at being interrupted. "Now, where to send you?"
"Earth." The Visionary said. I turned to the elder looking woman in dismay. "The Star Child falls to Earth, where she will live out the rest of her days until she crumbles into dust."
I turned to the President, horror in my eyes. "You can't send me there! The humans, Mother told me stories of them! They'll kill me, then do it again before I can regenerate!"
This answer was all the President needed. I was on Earth before the second sun set in the Gallifreyan red sky...
'The second sun would rise, and the mountains shined...'
==HBA==
I woke up with a scream.
Latshaw was instantly at my side. "Leah, Leah, it's okay. You're okay."
"N-no!" I panicked, my breathing speeding up in panic. "No this isn't right! I- I can't do this!"
Latshaw held a flat palm out towards my hearts. "Leah. You need to calm down."
"I can't!" I gasped, clawing at my shirt to get to my chest.
Latshaw took my wrists in his hands. He held tight. "Leah. Listen. I need you to focus. Take a deep breath for four seconds."
Shaking, I followed the instruction.
"Good. Now, hold it for seven seconds."
I did so.
"Then let it out for eight seconds." The vampire instructed.
Shaking much less, I obeyed the command.
He continued instructing me on the breathing. In, holding, out. For ten minutes we did this. My breathing was long calmed by then, taken instead by sobbing. Latshaw pulled me in a for a hug. He let me sob out onto his chest, letting loose what felt like centuries of held-onto pain.
I missed my home- both of them. The one on Gallifrey that I had been banished from, given the additional punishment of memory removal when I regenerated. Meaning that the version of me that saved me? She had no idea I had ever been there. She would forget all about that awful day. Anything and everything to do with it- gone, as if it'd never been.
She would forget my human family too. The Luna-Johnsons, Mom and Mum. She would forget their kindness. How they welcomed me into their home, after Aunt Chloe brought me to their home.
She wouldn't know.
Why...why did they have to do that to me?!
What I did wasn't even that bad- just hid a very old, ancient prophecy from them. Why was that a crime? Prophecies aren't meant to be shared so openly. Not in the way the Council was demanding of us- of me.
I'm just a kid.
Why? Why am I suffering for this ridiculous crime? It's not even a crime! Keeping quiet to keep peace shouldn't be a fucking crime!
I would never see my family again. Gallifrey would be forever lost to me. Never again would I see my mother or father, my cousins, my aunts or uncles. If I even somehow managed then my future self would not have any clue who they were to her.
Earth would be all that we had. And if what I just saw meant anything, it's that I would lose Earth too.
This, I all cried out onto Latshaw's shoulder.
Heh. A Time Lady, crying on the shoulder of a vampire. Who would have thought?
By counter of before, I would never know what Latshaw did that endeared my future self to her. Which I guess is the struggle of knowing your future self's friends. You never know the shared history, shared loss, shared jokes. You were just a stand-in, really.
Soon my tears ran out. The crying was going on, still. Silent sobs screeched out into his shoulder. Through all of it Latshaw refused to loosen his hold even a little. He was rubbing his hand on my back, the other holding my shoulders.
Latshaw squeezed my shoulder. "It's okay, kid. You're alright. It's okay to let it out."
I sniffled, hiccuping sobs out. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."
"Don't be sorry. It's an understandable reaction. It's been a fucked up day." Latshaw assured me.
To be fair, it had been. We'd just escaped from Torchwood- surrounded by Cybermen on all sides as well as Daleks in the sky. This wasn't an easy day. That doesn't make me feel less shitty nor less emotional.
"Yes. Yes and I hate it." I whimpered. "I...I want to go home. I want my moms. This...I can't do this."
"We're surviving." Latshaw reminded me.
"Until when?" I snapped. "How much longer? How are we not home yet?!" My legs were starting to, well, not work, from the emotional pain.
Latshaw let us fall to the ground. He held me close, while I let go. "Because your family has gone through extreme lengths to be kept hidden." He explained. "Not even Terra knew where they'd gone."
I took a bracing breath.
Terra.
Terra, the Time Lady.
Because...because she got to be.
Because I clearly wasn't good enough to be one anymore...
==HBA==
It took another two weeks getting back to Cardiff.
Only two days after that to find...to find my family.
Multiple hotels or motels, hiding to avoid cameras, a ridiculous amount of running. Latshaw always kept up the pace. He was somehow always able to get food for us. Us. Because I knew enough about vampire lore to know that...that they didn't eat the things Gallifreyans or humans ate.
He-thankfully-maintained such a schedule that I had no idea when he ever ate.
Because of course he had to eat sometimes...
Otherwise he would-
He would-
Alright so I was hesitant to go home.
You would think after all this time that I would be eager to return home. Why was I so wrecked with nerves?
This was the closest I would ever have to a home for...who knows how long.
"Tell me...what would be the point?"
"All it would be was a sword hanging over our heads-"
I shook my head, trying to push away the voices. They always left me feeling chilled-
"It feels weird. Like I'll never be cheerful again."
Course, they also got worse when I was...highly anxious.
Latshaw had found my human parents in a motel. They had purchased the room under fake identities, using cash. They had been here since the Dal-
-since the Cybermen flooded the streets.
Latshaw assumed they went hiding from the ghosts.
I knew they were hiding from Torchwood.
A quick search had found the room they were renting.
I glanced over my shoulder. Latshaw was hiding at the end of the hall, near the steps. He stood vigil, reminding me of a Centur-
"...my favourite topic at school. Invasion of the Italians..."
It just reminded me of something.
He continued standing there. Not encouraging me to step forward, nor to step away.
I could knock on the door-
"He will knock four times"
-or I could just go-
"-like the walls aren't even there-"
-and he wouldn't cast judgement on either choice.
Latshaw was...nice like that.
It seemed that the world was tired of my waiting, as I stood there in front of their door. It opened up to reveal Mom.
Oh she looked exactly the same. Her hair had grown out a bit, stretching into frayed burnt brown curls beyond her shoulders. She was dressed in a baggy blue sweater from her college- she loved that thing, wore it all the time no matter how much paint she'd gotten on it over the years.
"I'll be back in a bit with fo-" She stopped short when her body realized there was something in her way. Her brown eyes widened in recognition.
My chin trembled. Tears that I had kept in were beginning to fall. "Mom."
Thelma Luna-Johnson's jaw dropped. "Oh my god. Leah?!"
"Mom." I fell into her arms, crying onto her chest in relief.
Thelma yelped out, holding me tighter. "Leah! Oh thank god! We thought- oh my sweet girl!" She held me so tight that it chased away the pain I felt inside. "Leanna get over here!"
"What are you on abou-LEAH!" Leanna Luna-Johnson ran to the group hug, squeezing me tighter than Thelma, which I was exactly what I had wanted for so long. Her blonde hair had been cut short- most of our hugs before would mean her hair getting in my face. "Oh thank god- thank god."
She kept muttering that. They both did. I was surprised I heard it over my own sobbing. It was nice to finally be home.
==HBA==
AN: Yes. This story will be in the Torchwood-verse.
Let me explain a few things:
This a side-story to my Fallen Star Series. Read Child of Nowhere or The Tenth Impact if you want details. Because this story will make little sense without that.
Leah is a Time Lady. That's a known fact from the start of this fic. She was banished from Gallifrey, found by Leanna and Thelma Luna-Johnson. She was abducted by Torchwood a few months before the events of Army of Ghosts/Doomsday. Her aunt, Chloe Johnson, will be another OC in this fic.
Get ready, folks. I don't pull any punches where my characters are concerned.
AuthorA97's Law: If a character can get whump, give them whump.