OK, people, here we go. As always, reviews are welcomed as are thoughts and pointers. Read on and I hope you like it.
Chapter One: Revelations
As the rotor on the central column came to a smooth halt, a soft thud rang out from beneath the console, followed by a string of curses. Long slim legs kicked, then shimmied out, revealing rounded hips and a slim waist. A pair of long fingered hands gripped the edge of the console and the rest of the body emerged, showing firm high breast, a slender throat, a heart shaped face and a cascade of long dark red hair with a black strip running down the left side. Evie wiped her hands on the legs of her black jeans, pulled her red polo jumper down over her slightly rounded belly and turned the monitor to face her. The soft green light that shone down on her from the rotor gave her pale skin a luminous quality. Each strand of hair came alive with an unreal shimmer of green fire and her emerald eyes seemed to practically glow as she read from the screen. When the machine hummed at her, her left eyebrow raised in question. "What do you mean, we've landed?" she asked aloud, apparently to no one, for she was very much alone on the strange vessel.
The answering hum made her frown. "We can't have just landed!" she told the machine. "I didn't give you any co-ordinates and, I know you didn't pick any,"
At an offended beep, she took a deep breath to calm her rattled nerves. "No, no. I'm not annoyed, I'm just... puzzled. I mean, we've spent so long and worked so hard to stay away from here, I can't think what could've drawn us to Earth. Let's see, where are we?"
She gave the monitor a light tap and watched as the image of their surroundings blinked into life. "Cardiff? What's so special..? Oh, I see. We're on a rift. Time to refuel then. How long do you think you'll need?"
A low hum answered her and she huffed in annoyance. "Alright then, twenty four hours. I can entertain myself for a whole day. No problem. Let's have the handbrake on this time," she said, pulling down a blue lever then turning one of the many silver dials and then finally pressing a green button. "We don't need you getting yourself carted off again. I think it's time I met the natives,"
With a bark of laughter she bounded from the console and down the ramp, snagging her long black coat from the side coral arch. Stopping when she reached the doors, she quickly patted down her pockets, then turned the Yale lock on the door. With a deep breath of excitement, she flung the door open wide and stepped out, closing it behind her. People walked by, not bothering to look at her or they simply didn't notice her. The sun was warm on her face and the gentle breeze caused her hair to tickle her jaw. "Right then!" she said, rubbing her hands together. "Let's see what you've come as this time, shall we?" With that, she turned on her heal and stepped back, only to look up at her ship with wide eyes and an open mouth. After a few seconds spluttering, she pulled herself together to frown up at the ship. "A box?" she asked in disbelief. "A big, blue, box. Why would you want to choose that? I mean, it's not unflattering, but you do kinda stick out a bit,"
At the slight tingle in her mind, she chuckled to herself. "Alright, alright. I'll go explore,"
After almost a half hour of walking down the streets and past shop windows, she was finally deciding that she was hungry when she heard someone shouting. Though she glanced around, she couldn't see anyone she might have recognised, so she carried on walking. As the shouts came closer, she looked back again and it was then that she saw a man running towards her. She looked behind her to see if anyone else was going to answer his calls, but seeing that no one was, she came to a quick and – even if she said so herself – brilliant decision. She bolted. Without a second, or third, thought, she ran, easily slipping through the crowd, her long legs and extra stamina eating up the ground beneath her feet. She hadn't spoken to anyone, hadn't stopped for anything, so he couldn't possibly mean her, right? Well, she wasn't about to stop and ask.
Instead, she put more effort into her running, looking around for a possible rout that would lead her back to her ship. Stopping at the edge of a pavement, she rubbed at the stitch in her right side as she tried to catch her breath. When she looked back she found that she couldn't see the man that had been chasing her, but she wasn't about to thank her lucky stars just yet. Turning back, she felt her lungs stall as she met the dark eyes of a slim man standing on the other side of the road. She didn't know him, she was sure of that, but there was something about him. Maybe it was the shock that she saw on his face as he looked at her, or maybe it was the slight tingling sensation at the back of her mind that she felt as she looked at him. She didn't know. Before she could dwell on it though, a hard shove to her back sent her tumbling straight onto the road.
The black car had no chance of seeing her and less chance of stopping in time as it sped towards her. Her eyes met the terrified eyes of the male driver a split second before everything around her froze. Time became quiet and still as she pushed herself to her feet and quickly stepped back onto the pavement. Even so, she saw him. The man across the street, the one with the dark eyes, moved, and she let go of her grip on time, fighting the nausea as events sped up and resumed their normal pace. Seeing no sign of her follower, she made her way back to her ship, not once looking back. If she'd thought about it a little longer, if she had looked back, she would've paid more attention to her surroundings. So when a strong arm wrapped itself around her waist and a large hand clamped over her mouth, both dragging her into a side alley, she could've kicked herself.
As it was, all she could do was pull at the hand over her mouth and mumble words into the palm. "What'd you say?" hissed a man's voice in her left ear. For a reply, she sank her teeth into the flesh between his thumb and index finger, wriggling free when he lost his hold on her and began cursing.
"What'd you do that for?" he demanded as she faced him, never one to back down from a challenge if she knew she could win. Ice ran through her veins as she looked at the face of the dark eyed man. Brown. His eyes were brown, not black as she had first thought. It wasn't the colour of his eyes that made her blood run cold though. It was what was behind them. Pain and loss and disbelief. Time is what lay behind his gaze and she should know. It's what she saw whenever she looked into a mirror. Time.
"I said I'd bite you,"she told him, keeping her voice calm even though what she really wanted to do was run. "You stay away from me. I don't know who you are, but you just leave me alone,"
"Why?" he asked, directing a dark frown at her as she backed away from him into the wall behind her.
"You drag me into an alley and you ask me why I don't want you near me," she muttered, pushing away the tingling feeling from her mind with a mental slap, inwardly satisfied when she noticed his small wince.
"Don't you recognise me?" he asked, holding his hands out in question. "Don't you recognise that feeling inside your head? That small tickle, filling a part of you that's been empty for such a long time,"
"There's nothing there," she told him, edging out of the alley, keeping her eyes on him. "As I already said, I don't know you,"
"You have to!" he told her, lunging towards her and grabbing hold of her shoulders, effectively pinning her against the wall as he glared down at her. "You must know who – what I am! Where'd you come from? How long've you been here?"
"Get off me!" she demanded, pushing him away, turning to run out of the alley only to stumble to a halt when she saw the man that'd been following her through the crowd.
"Hey, Doc, I saw you land," said the American, his blue eyes never leaving her, even though he was talking to other man. "How long're you planning on staying this time?"
"I haven't just landed, Jack," replied the man called the Doctor, his eyes never moving from her. "I've been here almost two days now while Martha's visiting her family. I'm betting the TARDIS you saw land today belongs to this young lady here,"
She didn't need a mirror to tell her that she'd gone pale at the Doctor's words. Instead, she swallowed hard and tilted her chin up. "Look, I really don't know what you're talking about, but I have to be going now, so I'll just leave you two gents to it and be on my way,"
"I don't think so, sweetheart," said Jack, grabbing her left arm as she tried to slip past him and out of the alley. "Where you parked, Doc?"
"Right above the Hub," replied the Doctor. "I think it's time for a visit, don't you, Jack?"
"I think you're right, Doc. Let's go,"
Left with no other option than having her arm pulled out of it's socket, she allowed the man named Jack to pull her along out of the alley and into the crowd. After a few minutes, they stopped on the pavement. Seeing the people pass by them, not even noticing them, it took her less than a minute to realise they were stood in a perception field. When they started to lower, moving through the ground on some sort of lift, she had to swallow hard again as her stomach threatened to revolt.
"So who are you then?" asked the Doctor, but she remained stubbornly quiet, earning a tighter grip from the other man.
"You're hurting me," she told him quietly as the lift came to a stop and he dragged her off it.
"It's the least you need to worry about if you're the Master," he growled, pulling her past several desks, numerous machinery and taking her up a flight of stairs, only letting her go when they'd entered some sort of office. She watched him warily as he shut the door with a quiet click.
"How long?" asked the Doctor, staring at her as if she shouldn't exist.
"How long what?" she replied, crossing her arms over her chest and staring back.
"How long has it been since you last stepped foot on Gallifrey?" he asked.
"How do you know-?"
"Just answer his question!" barked Jack angrily.
"I don't know," she snapped, her own anger beginning to build. "It must be almost five months now. I was sent away during the war. Although, the aim was a bit off. Was supposed to be in the twentieth century, but judging from the look of this place, I hit the twenty-first century instead. Looks like you could do with a cleaner. What is this place anyway? It's like some sort of underground secret base. In which case... I think I'll be quiet now,"
"She talks almost as much as you do," laughed Jack, shaking his head in amusement.
"Jack, could you give us a minute?" asked the Doctor quietly.
"I'll be just outside. Shout if you need anything," replied Jack, opening the door, slipping out, then closing it again.
"Why can't you sense it?" asked the Doctor so suddenly that all she could do was stare at him. "Why can't you feel that empty space?"
"What're you talking about?"
"That emptiness, where they all used to be. Everyone from Gallifrey could feel it, so why can't you?"
"What makes you think I'm going to answer you?"
"Because you want to know who I am as much as I want to know who you are,"
"I was told to block the link off. Not to open it again, as they wouldn't need me. I was told to never open it again,"
She looked at him then. Really looked at him. Tall, skinny, a mop of brown hair and brown eyes. The pain she saw behind those eyes though, made her feel ill just to look at it. Dread filled her as a sickening thought entered her mind.
"What did you mean, 'where they all used to be'?" she asked, letting her arms fall to her sides, her hands clenching so tightly that her nails cut into her palms. "What's happened to Gallifrey?"
"Open the link. See what you can hear,"
She was already doing that even as he spoke. The walls that separated her from the others slid away and she braced herself for the onslaught of minds but... silence. There was only silence apart from the soft tingle from the Doctor. She searched farther, spreading out as much as she could before the headache started, but the result was the same. There was no one else. She closed it down again, blocking everything out, then looked up at the Doctor.
"I don't understand," she told him quietly. "Where are they all?"