Those Who Aren't Afraid to Fly
Season 1 Episode 1 - To Feel the Freedom
A/N: This is the fruit of long hours of brainstorming, thinking, crying, and procrastinating. tumblr user Geeneelee and Spaceprinecss-Nyssa are extremely proud to present the first chapter of "Those Who Aren't Afraid to Fly" What will hopefully, be a really long, Romana centric fic that you will hopefully enjoy enough to stick around until the end :)
The void beckoned to her as she bid the Doctor and Adric farewell and as the Doctor was giving K-9 to her as a companion and shouted his goodbyes, she knew that the next big adventure of her lives was about to begin.
She was unafraid of this great adventure, and in fact was quite glad to be going on her own terms. Of course, this meant that she was now a Renegade Time Lady, and the only one in E-space at that, and so the title she gladly accepted for herself. Besides, she had thought of leaving the Doctor for some time for her own chance to see the Universe, to be her own Romana.
It was not that she didn't appreciate the Doctor's company, for he was a wonderful teacher and Time Lord, but his cheshire grin and love of jelly babies had influenced this incarnation of herself a lot more than she had realised at first, she had obtained his rebellious, independent spirit. With a smile, she supposed to herself that it was hard not to take a bit away from someone after years of being together, in mind, body, and occasionally bed.
Biroc awaited her at the entranceway, and together they went walking into the awaiting universe, with the Doctor's last words to her still ringing in her ears.
"You were the noblest Romana of them all."
The words lingered in her mind as they started their long walk ahead. Had she less self-control, she would have gladly ran back to the Doctor. She had grown to appreciate him those many years they had travelled together in the TARDIS. Now, she was alone so to speak. Of course, she had Biroc and K-9 for company, but for the first time since her days at the academy, she was a Time Lady by herself.
It turned out that the slavers were more aware of the resistance than previously suspected, thus the long journey ahead had seen many troubles as she and Biroc staged raid after raid after raid to free the Tharils from their enslavers. The slaves' masters had grown cunning in their counter attacks, and the ever rising body count in their numerous attempts had left Romana feeling drained.
Giving up, however, was not an option, and as experience had taught her, running away from problems only made them worse. The Tharils needed all the help they could get, with the rapid decline of their numbers that had occurred within the few weeks she had been in E-Space, it seemed that she was one of the few who could actually make an impact. But the sheer amount of death she had seen in those first few weeks had deeply unsettled her. She watched as many of her new allies and friends were killed before her eyes, witnessed the brutality of the slavers first hand, and suffered both physical and mental backlash.
They had set up camp for the night, deciding that it was best to get at least a little bit of rest before they raided again. It was cold out, she noticed as she rolled out of her cot; Much colder than what she was used to. She chided herself. This wasn't a vacation. She shivered before crawling out of her measly tent. Unable to rest, walking was the next best option for her as she thought about the enormity of the task before her.
Romana felt very strongly about her new mission. She mused that perhaps the slavers' total lack of respect of anything different reminded her of home, but her personal motivation was irrelevant. Just do the job and get it done, then move on to the next one. She hated to admit it, but she was much more emotional in this incarnation than she was in her previous one, and much more invested in a task that she was willing to complete.
Not that finding the Key to Time was something that she didn't want to do, in fact...she was quite pleased with herself in the end having completed her mission with the Doctor, more or less. She could only hope her mission to free the Tharils would end well. She was outside the camp now, and even knowing the dangers that were at hand when one wandered out alone in the dark, she continued. This would probably be the last time she would be able to walk freely without the threat of being ambushed.
It was cold out. Even more so out in the open, but she cherished it with her hearts. For some odd reason the cold reminded her of Gallifrey. Its indifference to the universe changing around it, the way the people looked down upon the rest of eternity with disdain. Yes, the cold did remind her of her homeworld, and it was not as comforting a thought as she originally intended.
She shivered at the thought of having to return to Gallifrey. What would become of her? Would she be punished for abandoning her duties? She had just graduated from the academy back home and was barely out before the Black Guardian (under the guise of the president) had informed her of her new task. Then she was whisked away and her life hadn't been the same since.
She could picture the entire Chancellery Guard coming after her if she were to return. And she had heard enough stories to know just how dangerous the Celestial Intervention Agency could be, the Doctor had warned her about what they did. Did they really exile Renegade Time Luxes for meddling? Romana decided that she wasn't going to be afraid of the Time Luxes. If they somehow found a way into E-space, and somehow found a way to track her down then she could just keep running. She could run her entire life because now she was free from them, and they didn't control her anymore. She was as free as the cold wind that whipped around her.
The sun was beginning its slow rise, had she really been out that long? Nonsense. Then she remembered, the planet they were on only had a 15 hour day cycle. But she had only been out for a little while, and there was still time to get back to the camp before anyone noticed that she was missing. She could already smell the smoke from the fire, so that meant that they were starting to wake up, and that also meant food. She hadn't ate anything recently and could feel her stomach growling at the smell of the wild beast Biroc had managed to hunt down yesterday.
She never thought she would grow to like the taste of wild animal, but when you need to eat … unfortunately you need to eat. And Romana had quickly learned that if she wanted to survive, it was best to not be a picky eater.
The small resistance force greeted her on her return to the camp, several paws were raised in a salute, and she soon realised that she was the reason this mission was going anywhere at all. It was because of her and Biroc that these Tharils were free and able to do as they please, and in return they all agreed to help, because they knew...they knew the horror of being a slave. She supposed she knew what a lack of freedom was like as well, as the Time Lord society was strict and old fashioned in its ways. If it hadn't been for the Black Guardian she would still be in Heartshaven, wasting away her lives with tedious bureaucracy.
And those thoughts stayed with her that morning, the dew shimmering on the grass, reflecting the sunlight. It was a beautiful sight, the tents scattered about, Tharils talking to each other as they ate and roamed around. And she felt that yes, this was the right thing to do. She had made the right choice for once and was actually seeing the fruit of her hard work.
Smiling, she decided that it was best that she did get some sleep. They still had plenty of time, and there was no chance of anything going bad, for their camp was well hidden. We are safe, she thought to herself before closing her eyes and letting the calm, soothing wave of sleep consume her.
There was something wrong. She could feel it. Her senses were coming back to her as she eased herself out of sleep. She could hear guns and the distant sound of screaming echoing around her as she stood up and braced herself for the worse.
She knew that the slavers would try a counter attack to try and recapture as much Tharils as they could. They were relentless in their tactics which had ultimately lead to the deaths of many of her comrades. Moreover they were better equipped than the small resistance force Biroc and her were able to form within several days of being in E-Space.
All they had were the few guns, knives, and various other outdated equipment they could find, and although Romana had opposed the use of force and weaponry at the start, she soon began to realize that she would die if she continued to refuse the valuable purpose they served when fighting a dirty war against the enslavement of Tharils.
While rummaging through the assortment of various weapons from various time periods, she had happened across a powerful looking weapon she soon identified as something resembling a late 16th century Spanish halberd. She had never held one before, though she had seen many. Grimacing briefly, she remembered the meeting the Spanish Inquisition had with her and the Doctor. But when she picked it up, she knew that she had decided which weapon she was going to fight with.
It was comfortable in her grip, and despite being more than a foot taller than her (taller than the Doctor even, she mused). She felt powerful wielding it, as if it had been made for her. Its shining silver blade gleamed in the dim light, still lethal after all these years of disuse, and she wondered how such a weapon could have ended up a storage closet, or even in E-space to begin with. She consciously put the thought aside; it was hers now, and she'd be needing it in a matter of minutes judging by the sounds she heard in the distance.
Running outside with her weapon of choice armed and at the ready, Romana wasn't prepared for the gruesome battle that laid ahead. Though she and Biroc had prepared their own little militia, the slavers had evidently prepared an even larger one.
She felt a shock of warm as a bullet whizzed by her head. This was a life or death game she was going to be playing, and she needed caution. Her hearts fluttered as one of her friends, Rekor, was struck down by a bullet, but she didn't have time to help him, not in the heat of battle. To fend off the slavers for just a little while longer…
Biroc was behind her, she could tell by the distinctive footfall that padded along behind her where he was there with his gun at the ready.
He had not questioned her choice of weapon, in fact he had laughed the night before, saying that a dangerous Time Lady with a dangerous weapon made a lethal combination. He taught her the basics of the weapon, allowing her to know exactly where to aim and how to make sure the wounds were lethal.
She stabbed a slaver, the blood splashed her and she grimaced as she realized that her outfit would need to be washed or tossed away in favour of something more stain resistant. She felt little remorse for the slaver currently bleeding to death at her feet. She had learned to accept that dirty wars needed to be fought with dirty tactics.
At any other point in her lives she would have opposed the usage of weapons and force, but this was a situation of life or death. She had grown and now faced the fact that the universe was cruel and unforgiving; her travels with the Doctor had only begun to show her how bad it could be, and that unsettled her deeply. Just the mere thought of all the injustice and hatred in the universe made her stomach curl as she slashed at another slaver, successfully hooking them around the neck and throwing them to the ground.
They were advancing too quickly for her however, and soon she was surrounded by a thick horde of angry slavers.
Suddenly, she was thrown back several feet, her legs giving out as she collapsed, her halberd being thrown just out of reach. As soon as it happened the pain went shooting through her, as if a bomb had went off in her chest, and she screamed in pain for the first time.
The pain was blinding, it clouded her vision and through the tears she could see Biroc fighting for his life, fighting for them all, she could see him gazing at her with a look of panic and horror written on his face. she surged forward, adrenalin rushing through her veins as she struggled to get up and fight. Every aching breath she took felt like someone was repeatedly stabbing her lungs, her vision was blurring as she tried again, and again to get up.
They were crowding around her. The slavers. This was it. She screamed in utter agony as the realisation that she had just been shot in the chest sunk in. She was going to die here. Before she could even regenerate. She didn't feel the blinding heat that came with regeneration, no...instead she had only felt cold. A chilling coldness that spread through her pain filled body until she couldn't move...not that she could move in the first place.
It was as if time had slowed down completely, leaving her to drown in the rivers as she desperately tried and tried again to reach her weapon. She would not go out without a fight.
"Romana!" She heard a voice call to her, a familiar voice, a voice that had brought many memories rushing to the surface, and as she struggled to just see. she had to see. This couldn't be true. Her vision returned briefly, and she could see the vaguely familiar shapes fighting off the hoard of slavers.
She could see the familiar yellow rompers that Adric wore, he was fighting off a slaver. And then she saw him. The endly curly hair and multi-coloured scarf. The Doctor was here.
Then everything went black.