Title: The Point Where the Two Graphs Converge
Characters: Raine Creevy, cast of Crime of the Century
Pairings: Ace & Raine friendship
Rating: T for safety (mature themes and violence)
Summary: "Raine thought that this job must have been cursed." Raine wants to put her strange experience with the man in the safe behind her and get on with business, but it would seem the universe has other ideas. Character sketch of Raine Creevy, featuring the major events of Crime of the Century
Warnings: One scene with strong human-on-robot violence, other brief scenes of violence. Markus Creevy's sexual shenanigans mentioned in passing.
Notes: Co-written with user ILiveInTheTARDIS. Part of the series The Book of Raine, but can be read as a stand-alone. Mentions of "Biker Girl" are a reference to Pizza for Creevy.
Disclaimer: Ace, Raine, and Doctor Who property of the BBC/Big Finish.
Raine Creevy was not impressed. She glanced at her watch, and back down the alley. It was half nine already. Her mysterious client had said to meet here 5 minutes ago.
The number one thing that irritated Raine most was being kept waiting. Normally she could take a deep breath, clench her fists for a moment and promptly ignore the offending circumstance, but waiting was not like that - it seemed to drag on longer the more patient she tried to be. It infuriated her how people could be so... inconsiderate. Commitment was taken far too lightly these days, and her time was valuable. Raine liked things to be kept short and straight to the point. Lingering to deal with small talk made her twitchy.
She didn't mind dust, or dirt or even an inconvenient locked door. Stand her up and you better have had the hounds of hell standing in your way as your explanation for being late.
Ten minutes, she decided, and then I'm out of here. She'd passed a pleasant looking town house on her way here. Raine would bet the black pearls in her saddlebag that there was something shiny and possibly gold inside somewhere. So the evening might not be a total waste after all.
Better still, she could keep the pearls. She'd sell the rest.
Rule one: Always have a Plan B. In this instance Plan B was to slip out of the deal, keep the jewels and recover her potential losses by selling the unusual but otherwise useless junk. She'd have to cross town for that though. Erik might be open this late. He'd give her a decent price.
Rule two: Never keep anything incriminating as a trophy. Few crime novels interested Raine, unless she was after a laugh at the cluelessness of the author. The idiots always kept something obviously valuable and displayed it for all the world to see. Might as well engrave 'Stolen' on the glass cabinet.
She strummed her fingers against her thigh and shivered again. The wait had shifted from annoying to downright infuriating. She opened the saddle bag and examined the goods. Rock, odd piece of metal, the pearls, some kind of lever, and... Her eye caught on the scaled hilt of the turquoise blade. It gleamed through the darkness as though emitting light from the steel. After running her finger along the flat of the blade, she corrected herself. No, not steel or any other metal she was particularly familiar with.
She raised it aloft and tested its weight. It rested comfortably in her hand, the grip almost molding to suit her. This isn't a purely decorative blade, Raine thought. The balance was too right, the grip too simple. It was intended for combat. A spark of energy jumped from the hilt and ran up her arm. "Oh," she breathed, marvelling at it. It was like nothing she'd ever felt before, and it seemed to thrum, radiating warmth into her chilled hands. Her muscles recalled drills and motions from years ago and she found herself disarming an imaginary opponent with graceful flicks of her wrist, the blade responding to her as though an extension of her arm. Without hesitation she gently tossed the blade into her left hand and caught it neatly with a flourish. She ran her fingers along the blade once more, marvelling at it.
"Put that down."
Her client, presumably, but at the moment Raine wasn't particularly interested. The voice sounded so far away with the thrum pulsing like a heartbeat in her ears. It was only interrupting the enchanting chime of the sword, a chime of bells accompanied by a soft bass drum that her heart had fallen into rhythm with.
A familiar face stepped out of the shadows in front of her.
"You!" she exclaimed.
"Put it down, Raine."
She glanced down at the blade. "I... I can't, " she stammered. "It just makes you want to lift it. The balance is exquisite." She waved it slowly through the air. "I did fencing at school, you know." Something nagged at her. He knows my name. How does he know? Unless he was being serious when he mentioned reading her diary, which was too absurd and creepy to seriously consider.
"Raine," he repeated impatiently. "Just put it down."
The blade gleamed slightly. "Oh, but it's beautiful... So unusual-"
"Yes. Don't look at it too closely.."
"Must I put it down?"
"It's not entirely safe. It's not even human technology."
Something nagged at her. "... Human?"
"Please Raine. Trust me."
After a long pause, she agreed. It was an effort to lower the blade, almost as if it were fighting her. "Yes. All right." She returned the sword to the bag.
The man sighed. "Thank you."
The chimes died the moment she released her grip on the hilt. Her arms suddenly felt heavy as though filled with lead, and the memory of the last time she met this man came rushing back. "About the other night...Leaving you like that-"
He nodded, seemingly more to himself than her. "Yes. Disgraceful. Fortunately I was parked nearby myself."
"What are you doing here?"
"Meeting you."
"I don't understand."
He gestured at their surroundings, and at the bag on the ground. "Your rendezvous here tonight, it's with me."
"You're my client?" She stared at him with her mouth open in what she felt must be a terribly undignified expression. The strange little man with the questionable fashion sense who she'd found in the safe on the last job? She supposed it might make sense, in some utterly absurd way. "You hired me to steal all of these things?"
"Yes." He paused, then amended, "Well, to 'recover' them from third parties who had obtained them illicitly, so not 'stealing' really."
A client with moral discomfort about theft? Well, that was new. Raine 'hmmm'ed but was not concerned. So long as I get paid I don't care, she thought. "Well, now I'm even more sorry about standing you up. I didn't know you were my client. You should have said something."
"I was too modest."
"So tonight I hand it all over to you?" She tried to hide the disappointment in her voice. "I don't mind telling you I'll be sorry to let go of the pearls. They rather suited me." Pause. "I used to have a picture of my mum wearing a necklace of black pearls-"
"Really?" inquired the man, interested.
"-maybe that's why they looked so good on me," Raine continued. The memory of the empty jewellery box sprung unwanted into her mind. She sighed. "Maybe it's just my memory of her..."
"A funny thing, memory..."
Raine sniffed once and attempted to bring the topic back to the business at hand. No sense standing around in the cold alleyway any longer than necessary. "So, anyway, you were behind it all. Now everything makes sense..." She paused. No. The explanation didn't sit right with her. There were too many loose threads in the clumsily woven jumper. "No! You know what? It doesn't make any sense at all!"
"I want to return these artefacts to their rightful owner, so I enlisted your help. There's nothing complicated about it.
But you were inside the safe! thought Raine still confused. Why were you in that safe, and how did you get inside in the first place? "Nothing complicated?" she repeated highly doubting that was true. Then there was the other matter of the sword. He'd described it as being... "You said this sword isn't human technology!"
"No, it's Martian technology."
Raine raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "Martian?" she repeated. She met with some peculiar clients, but never a lunatic until now. Plan B was becoming a more attractive option by the minute. "I see... And this?" She grabbed the bag and pulled something partly out of it. "Is it also 'Martian' technology?" she asked sarcastically. Her grip on the bag reassured her as her legs tensed slightly, ready to make a dash with the goods.
"Ah. No." It was then Raine noticed just what she had pulled out. It was emitting a steady, regular beeping. Her client continued, "That's human technology. It's a simple transponder."
You have got to be kidding, she thought as her heart sank. A deep voice only caused it to plummet further. "It lets you track something down when someone steals it from ya."
The pair turned to identify the source of the deep voice. A large beefy man with sausage-sized fingers walked imposingly towards them. Raine was unwillingly reminded of the most unsavoury characters she'd seen Daddy work with. This one was considerably larger however. Her strange client sighed. "Oh dear."
Almost hopefully she asked, "Is he with you?
She wasn't surprised to hear the answer was no. As the man reached into his coat and pulled out a handgun, Raine thought that this job must have been cursed. Witnesses to her safecracking, strange men inside safes, man's best friend at her heels, a hidden transponder and now a mugging by a common thug.
"Hands where I can see them."
Raine inhaled deeply. "You can't intimidate us with a show of armed force." She was reluctant to admit that it was working. This, she decided, is why I steal from buildings and not people. Buildings don't tend to want to shoot at me, at least not after I've disabled the alarms.
The thug's face twisted into a menacing smile. "Bite me." Despite the gun, Raine was tempted to try it. If I pretended his fingers were sausages... She shook her head slightly. On second thoughts his hands were filthy. "I've come here for the sword."
"This?" She nodded at the hilt of the sword that poked out of the bag.
"The people you stole it from aren't very pleased. They want it back.
"How gauche," Raine mocked.
"I'll show you how 'gosh' I can be," he retorted, and Raine winced at the pronounciation, "if you don't leave everything here and make yourself scarce."
Hold on a moment here, thought Raine. "Leave... everything?" she repeated. "You've come for the sword." Losing one item was unpleasant but the thought of losing everything sent a cold shiver down her spine and she felt her fingers clench into fists.
The man grinned. "True, but I think I'm entitled to the rest of it as well."
Raine stomped her foot down, furious. "That is not going to happen."
"Raine-" her client began.
She cut him off and glared at the mugger. "These are the fruits of my hard work! My capers! Months and months of them, all carefully planned and executed!" She spun on her heel to face her client. "For you!" She poked him firmly. "I worked hard to get you these! Who is he to take them all away from us?" Her heart racing and blood pounding in her ears, she wheeled to face the man once more. "You're not going to let him get away with this," she promised venomously.
She heard a whisper in her ear. "Did you say something about fencing at school?"
Time seemed to freeze. The sword's inner light winked encouragingly at her. The man had a gun certainly, but the pins of a safe weren't the only clicks her ear was attuned to. He had not removed the safety.
She answered the sword's call by grasping the hilt in her dominant hand and slid it free, allowing the bag to fall to the pavement. The thrum of energy filled her once more and Raine felt as though the blade was whispering instructions to her.
Time jerked back to normal as the man backed away slightly "What you doing with that?"
Raising her right arm for balance out behind her, she levelled the blade so it was parallel to the ground. She stepped forward, the tip of the sword resting against the barrel of the pistol. In her mind, she saw the motions to disarm him. Guns were considerably smaller than fencing swords and were gripped differently but the sword reassured her that the motions needed little adjustment.
En garde, whispered the sword. Yes, thought Raine, en garde fiend. Let him see what a real weapon is capable of.
She lunged to the right, flicking her wrist as the sword slid underneath the barrel. She twisted and the gun was jerked out of his hand and scattered onto the pavement. Instinctively she sliced downwards at it and it fell into two pieces onto the ground. Raine was dimly aware of her surprise at her own strength but she sank back into the ready stance for another round.
"I don't think your gun will work anymore, wouldn't you agree?" remarked Raine's client. There was almost amusement in his voice.
"That's... impossible..." stammered the man. Raine feinted a lunge and he recoiled, falling backwards onto the pavement.
"Unless you want you your delicate sensibilities exposed to some further impossible things, I suggest you leave immediately," her client continued.
"Oh, don't let him go. I'm just starting to have fun." Raine grinned and swung the blade in light circles, tossing it from her left hand to her right and back again as she approached the man who was desperately trying to crawl backwards.
I mustn't toy with him, thought Raine dimly. I need to stop and let him go before he becomes too desperate and does anything stupid.
Why? asked the sword. You're not hurting him. He tried to take me from you. You need me, don't you?
I do, thought Raine. You make me feel... strong.
He tried to make you weak, crooned the sword, he tried to threaten you, tried to harm you...
The man's threatening voice disappeared and was replaced with one of terror. "W-watch it! Watch what you're doing with that thing!" As if in a dream, Raine watched as her wrists directed the sword this way and that. She watched herself make another lunge. "H-hey!" He managed to scramble to his feet.
Enough, thought Raine. I have to stop... I need to stop.
"I admit it..." Raine managed as she swung wide. "I'm getting a bit carried away."
"Make her stop!" begged the man. "Please mister," he pleaded as Raine raised the tip of the sword to his throat.
"Since you asked nicely," agreed her client. "Let the man go, Raine."
There was something soothing in his voice that calmed her. The rolling 'r' of her name was almost hypnotic. "Well, since he asked nicely." She lowered the blade and the man immediately scampered away. "You could at least said thank you!" she called after the retreating figure. She bounced on her toes, idly drumming her fingers on the grip.
Her client eyed the sword warily. "May I suggest you put that sword down?"
"But I was starting to quite enjoy it." A little voice inside her head urged her to listen to him. It was unsettled by her reckless spinning of the sword around her. The sword whined as she reluctantly handed it over and her head was suddenly clear and the whining ceased. Raine massaged her temples, disorientated by the silence in her head.
Her client reached into his pocket and pulled out a leather sheath and carefully slid the blade into it. Raine didn't have time to consider how he could have fit such an object in his pocket for another voice echoed down the alleyway.
"I saw a bloke that looked like he'd seen a ghost. Moving at a fair clip too. You've been up to your old tricks, Doctor-"
Raine's eyes widened as the newcomer stepped into the light. He'd frozen at the same time as her too.
"Raine?"
"Daddy?"
As if things could have gotten any worse, thought Raine.
Raine had looked up to her father long ago. At age 6 Raine knew her parents had met in Russia during the '60's. By age 8 she knew that the 'business trip' that led to their meeting involved stealing goods and transporting them out of the country. Aged 9, her dad had bought her a pony, an expensive bicycle and taken her on a holiday to France to ensure she never mentioned that to her teachers again.
By age 11 Raine was proficient in blackmail. A year later, she'd uncovered enough on her father and his laundry list of mistresses to break her heart. At fifteen her mother died of illness. At least that's what the doctors blamed. There really only was one person to blame in Raine's mind.
At sixteen, Raine began boarding over the holidays whenever she could to avoid going home. At nineteen she visited home for the last time, and by age twenty she had ceased answering his letters. By this point she had developed the skills she'd picked up from watching him and established herself as a 'safecracker for hire' to pay for the remainder of her studies. She accepted no money from her father and did her best to disappear from his life altogether. She kept an eye on his activities however, justifying it as knowing what not to do. The number of botched dealings and near brushes with the law only affirmed her decision to work alone.
He was evidently doing the same; within the last 12 months Raine had identified six members of his gang whose sole purpose seemed to be to follow her. The third time she spotted them she simply called the police to deal with the 'stalkers'. She'd have thought that would have taught him to give her some space or at least to send somebody competent after her but evidently not. No, only brainless muscle tried following her around, unless she counted the mysterious biker girl whose name Raine wished she could remember. For all her strangeness, she still believed the girl's claims of innocence.
The world needed more mysterious biker girls and less thick-necked thugs, in Raine's opinion.
"I didn't know you were gonna be here."
Raine eyed her father and replied coldly, "Likewise..." She turned to her client accusingly. "What is going on?"
The figure she tried to ignore answered instead. "You remembah the Doctor? The one I was always tellin' ya about? Well this is him."
The Doctor? She peered at her father then the strange client who apparently was the fairy godfather she'd grown up hearing about. "You're the Doctor?"
"Yes," replied the figure from her parents' bedtime stories, "and I need your help, both of you."
Her amazement was cut short by her fury. "I'll help you but I want nothing more to do with him." She pointed, determined not to give him so much as a glance.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him hold up his hands in a futile attempt to calm her. "Ah, love please..."
"After the way you treated Mummy?"
"Y-your mother and I-"
"You never even tried to hide them-"
"-what was between her and me-"
"-all those other women-" Raine continued in disgust.
"You-you don't u-understand-"
"No, you know what? You're right. I don't."
He pleaded, "Don't let it come between us."
Too late for that now, she thought. "It came between us a long time ago."
"Well unfortunately we all need to work together as a team," the Doctor interrupted, "so we have to set aside personal differences."
Raine's voice dropped in volume. "I'm not going to 'set aside' what he did."
Her father sighed. "Your mother and I had our difficulties-"
"'Difficulties'?" she repeated indignantly.
"-but there's no need for you to get in the middle of all that!"
"In the middle's right where I always was," yelled Raine, "right between the two of you!" She took a quick breath to compose herself. "But I'm not there anymore. Mummy's..." she swallowed, "gone and now I'm as far away from you as humanly possible."
Her father softened his voice. "... I know you are, love. I know and... I-I miss ya."
"'Miss' me?" She turned away once more and took deep breaths to steady her voice. "What is he doing here, Doctor?" she hissed. "Why did you bring him here?"
The Doctor's face remained blank. "I told you we all need to work together and, anyway, we must return his property to him."
She stared. "Return what?"
"The 'fruits' of your 'capers' over these last few months."
"This?" She gestured at the bag. "All this?"
Her father stooped and began looking through the contents of the open bag. Raine recoiled at his approach. "This... this is all my gear!"
"You had me steal it all so you could give it to him?" Raine demanded. If I'd known that was what I was doing...
"Give it back to him," the Doctor corrected. "He's the rightful owner, insofar as there can be said to be one on this planet..."
"This is-" Pitiful, thought Raine. "Amazing. Oh it's just amazing, thank you. It's oh so very good of you, Doctor."
"You're welcome."
"Just-just one thing. Just, well, one tiny thing. I-I don't want ta seem ungrateful but there is, ah, one item I can't see here. It's a sort of Faberge egg-type thing. The government took it away, yeah, said something about unpaid taxes."
Raine rolled her eyes. More like they had tracked down the undoubtedly stolen item. The Doctor nodded and explained, "No, it's not here. As it happens, I have other plans for retrieving that particular item.
Her father thanked the Doctor again for his generosity.
"Nothing generous about it, I fear. I need your help to deal with certain difficult situations." He then ran a finger along the sheath containing the sword and drew it. "I must keep this."
"Anything you want. Take it, it's yours. Think of it as your commission fee for getting me this lot back."
He hasn't done anything, Raine thought bitterly as they continued to talk. I've done the work. My planning, my capers. Daddy ought to be paying me. Not that I'd accept it, she hastily added to herself.
"It's wonderful to get this clobber back-"
"'Clobber'?" Raine mockingly echoed. What kind of a word was that?
"-it broke ma heart to sell it, but I'd gone bust, hadn't I? Had to cover ma debts. Lost everything."
"So I understand, but you are now liquid once again." The Doctor hummed to himself, looking thoughtful. "Odd expression that; 'You are liquid'. Mind you, I've known some people who actually are... liquid." He brought himself back to the matter at hand. "We've work to do."
He can't be serious, thought Raine. She repeated her earlier complaint, "I'm not working with him."
"I'll just go get my car to load this stuff..." her father mumbled to his shoes. Raine as she knew that shifty expression. It was the one that marked his face when he was planning on bailing. She silently urged him to hurry it up and was more than willing to help him along, with a physical push if needed.
"... Yes. Take it and go."
He bent down to pick up the bag, but made no move to leave. "All except one item."
For Pete's sake, just go already! Raine thought. Every second in his presence was a second she had to keep remembering the shouts and slamming doors she'd tried to block out from her memories. As if he hadn't done enough damage at the time, only there was no Mummy now to come wipe the tears from her face. He'd never seen them then and she was determined he never would.
He shoved the necklace into her hands, wrapping her fingers over it. "This. Black pearls, look strange, don't they? Makes you wonder what kind of sea they were at the bottom of." He sighed. "Lovely though. Listen, erm..." He took a shaky breath. "Raine. .."
She was forced to meet his eyes. She couldn't recall the last time he'd addressed her by name.
"I never provided any kind of inheritance for you. So at least take these. You don't have ta think about me when you're wearing them but... think about your mum, eh?" He gave her fingers a final squeeze, then let go. "Goodbye, love. Be lucky."
She stared down at the pearls. Mummy's pearls. She remembered how angry she'd been when she'd come home the last time to find the jewelry box that contained her mother's silver gone. She'd been upset to find her motorbike had vanished before that, but the silver... That was unforgivable in her eyes. It hadn't seemed like he had cared then. But now... She swallowed hard.
The sound of footsteps cut into her thoughts. He was leaving, and as the tears came, she realised she wasn't glad to see him go. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the Doctor make a small nod. Go after him, the nod told her.
She ran, and when he stopped and turned, she buried her face in the collar of his coat. "Daddy," she choked out.
He brought his arms around her in a tentative embrace. She couldn't remember the last time he'd actually hugged her. "Aww, darling...My little darling..."
When I agreed to this job, thought Raine, I wasn't aware that it would entail travelling across time zones and countries. Nor was it made clear that it would involve navigating around battlefields and avoiding dozens of killer robots and insect warriors from outer space. Or deceiving members of the Russian army, she added as she eyed the gun attached to her partner's waist. So far so good. Killer robots had been disassembled and the space insects had left for who-knows-where. The breaking and entering stages had been successful, and all that remained was the actual safe-cracking... and losing the Russian.
Right on time, a voice from the hall called out. "Hello Colonel."
The Russian turned violently on his heel. "You! What are you doing here?!" he demanded as the Doctor emerged from a doorway, flanked by two figures still in shadow.
Raine smiled sweetly at him, savouring the moment. "You remember when I said I was quite certain that the Doctor didn't know anything about this little project of ours? Well, I was lying."
"I believe you remember Ace, Colonel."
The shadowed figure on the Doctor's right stepped forward, brandishing a blade. "Hand over your gun, Colonel," commanded a voice.
The figure on the Doctor's left stepped forward into the light and Raine immediately knew her father was not in a good mood. "Do what the young lady waving a sword says and hand over the gun, eh?" he suggested to the Colonel. "There's a good lad."
Said young lady walked forward until her face was fully illuminated and the tip of her sword rested on the Russian soldier's chest. Poised on her toes, she looked ready to gut the man if he so much as spat at her. Hatred burned in hot in her eyes.
Raine blinked in surprise, recognising the face. "Biker Girl?" she breathed but promptly silenced herself. Now was hardly the time or place to greet the welcome stranger but something wasn't quite right about her. It wasn't possible of course but she looked even younger than she had a year ago. Just my imagination, Raine concluded. Been a year since I've seen her, and it was pretty dark at the time too. I just misjudged, happens to everyone.
The Colonel drew his gun from his holster slowly and, perhaps noticing how eager the girl was to draw his blood, placed it gently on the ground. Her eyes not leaving his, the girl picked up the weapon in her left hand and emptied the magazine, pocketing the ammunition and returning the weapon to the ground.
Raine quickly lost track of the conversation as she stared at the girl's face, waiting for her to speak again. By the time her father made his farewells, she had not. However, Raine had definitely caught her name - Ace. She hadn't caught on when she'd heard the Doctor mention the name in passing, but now she recognised it instantly. Could this really be the same girl?
The Doctor interrupted her thought as her father made to escort the Colonel outside. "I want the Colonel to reach his destination safely," he reminded. "Alive and well," he added almost as an afterthought.
Muttering something that sounded like "Alive at least," he left, dragging the Russian along by his arm. Raine was watching them go when she heard the voice she'd been waiting for.
"Was it just my imagination or did I detect some lingering hard feelings on your father's part?"
Raine felt a broad grin spread across her face. "Perhaps just a few," she replied.
The girl chuckled. "So is Colonel Felnikov as stuffed as I think he is?" She looked somewhat satisfied, though after how she looked with the sword Raine suspected she'd rather have a clean shot at the man's nose herself.
"So..." Raine paused to swallow and try to keep her curiosity out of her voice. "You're the famous Ace?" Her heart leapt as Ace looked directly at her. Will she recognise me too?
"Nice to see you're out of nappies," Ace commented dismissively.
Raine blinked. What on Earth was that supposed to mean? She tried to recall if it was an obscure reference to their previous encounter but struggled to find a connection. Uneasily, she stepped forward to get a better look at Ace's face.
"Oh, how remiss of me," began the Doctor. "I haven't introduced you properly."
Having noticed no sign of recognition in her eyes, Raine interrupted, "No, don't bother." The comment sounding sharper than she intended, she quickly added, "We haven't time for introductions. I've got a job to do."
Ace's eyes narrowed. "That's right. Let her get on with it. She's supposed to be the safe-cracker, isn't she?"
"'Supposed to be'?" Raine echoed angrily.
"I haven't seen anything to back it up." not-Biker Girl retorted.
Ace's words were barbed. Raine inhaled and rose to her full height and looked down on her, noting that this Ace was shorter than Biker Girl had been. "Watch this and you might learn something."
"I doubt it," mumbled the moody teenager, idly spinning the sword around in a circle in front of her.
"Yes, so do I," answered Raine equally as frostily. "Doubt you're capable of learning anything."
And so the search reaches another dead end, she thought. Biker Girl remains at large and her whereabouts unknown. How could I have mistaken this... this surly urchin for her? I can't be that desperate to meet her again that I project her face onto everyone remotely resembling her!
To complete the task and get out of there as quickly as possible as well as to distract her thoughts, she turned to the safe and began turning the dial. She gave a commentary as she did so, hoping to annoy the child. "I spin the dial... and listen for clicks. Now just one more... Now I add it to the graph I've drawn in my notebook." She pulled out her notebook and hastily flicked past her diary entries at the front before anyone could get a good look at them. She almost missed the pages she wanted twice. "Two graphs on two pages. I look at them side by side and I note the points-"
"Where the two graphs converge," finished the Doctor, who had wandered closer to peer over her shoulder.
"Exactly, Doctor. Now we're off to the races." Secretly pleased at the rolling of the eyes behind her, she resumed her commentary in a sing-song voice. "I enter the combination and..."
The vault door clicked as it accepted the combination. Raine tugged at the door. "Open sesame. After you, Doctor."
The Doctor entered and Raine made a point of shoving in front of Ace and smirked slightly at the dark look that earnt her. She almost walked into the Doctor' back when he stopped abruptly.
"Ahh..." she heard him say.
"'Ahh' what?" Ace repeated nudging forward to see. "Oh."
"Oh dear," breathed Raine.
The warrior aliens had left too soon - one last killer robot remained. Red LEDs blinked at them in the darkness and its metallic joints hissed slightly as it rose to its full height.
"Look out!" cried a voice and Raine was shoved backwards as Ace lunged forward to the Doctor's side, sword scraping the ground as it trailed behind her. The robot snapped its arms forward to slam him into the floor. In a movement too quick for Raine to catch, Ace blocked the strike with the sword, clenching the grip tightly in both hands, her knees and elbows bent to help take the shockwave. With an extremely unlady-like grunt she forced the arms to fall out of harm's way. She took a huge back-swing, ready to hit a baseball out of the park.
"Ace, get down!" cried the Doctor and, alerted to the strike, she leapt sideways to dodge the oncoming blow. The robot's LED eyes surveyed its surroundings and locked on the closest target. Raine's eyes widened in alarm as it approached. It swung its arm down.
"Aahhhyyyy-yah!" Raine half-staggered, half-toppled away as Ace pushed her back again and charged into the robot's path. Winded from the fall, she watched the blade flash as alien-made sword met human-made robot. After what felt like a small eternity of metal grating on metal in a stalemate, Ace let out another cry as she forced the sword down, the blade slowly cutting through. Raine rolled to the side as the robot's severed forearm clattered to the ground mere centimetres from where her head had been. With a roar of a possessed beast, Ace surged forward, wielding the sword as though it was part of her... or controlling her, rather. Seconds later the head followed, but Ace kept fighting, turquoise blade flashing as she hacked the robot to pieces in her fury. Only after she heard a satisfying 'clunk' when she kicked the remains, did she lower her arm.
Raine continued to gape, heart racing. "You got it," she said, still in shock.
Ace stopped, then blinked as if coming out of a trance. Raine could have sworn she saw a momentary flash of gold. "I think I did, yeah," she panted. Glancing at the sword, she hurriedly sheathed it, hands trembling violently. It had taken Ace seconds to release the blade. It was unusually quick and Ace had not needed to be prompted. Raine was all too aware of the urge to fight that the blade fed its wielder. It wanted to be held, it wanted to fight. No doubt it had lent its strength to Ace in that battle.
Ace's eyes were dark as she stared off into space, her fingers twitching uneasily. It bothers her, Raine realised. She knew the sword had controlled her... and she was afraid. Was it fear of the weapon that affected its level of control over its wielder?
The Doctor began examining the wrecked carapace, muttering to himself as he did. "A robot guard inside the vault itself... I should have anticipated that..."
Ace seemed to have recovered somewhat as she bent down to join him, detecting he was searching for something. Raine cleared her throat. "Erm... Ace?"
Ace turned, frowning. "Yes?"
"Earlier um..." Raine found she couldn't meet her eyes. "I'm sorry if I erm..." Why was it so hard to say? "...if I was a little, well-"
She was relieved when Ace interrupted her. "'Snotty'?" Raine nodded slightly. "And 'snooty'?" Ace pressed.
Raine reluctantly nodded again. "And probably 'snitty' too." She sighed and forced the apology out. "I'm sorry."
Sensing that was difficult to admit to, Ace softened her expression and let it go. "No worries."
"And... thank you for... for saving my life just now."
"No problem." It was over like that, which surprised Raine. Ace just let the matter slide without further comment. Then she smiled and Raine shivered as she experienced deja-vu. Odd considering she'd never seen the girl before.
"Impressive swordfighting skills," Raine added.
Ace 'hmmmed'. "Your safe-cracking wasn't too shabby either."
The Doctor had halted his examination to watch the exchange. "Excellent!" he declared. "This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship."
The pair were extremely quick to correct him.
"Hold your horses, Doctor-"
"Don't get carried away, Doctor, I mean she's probably still a gormless, toffee-nosed slapper.-"
"-probably an insufferable bog-trotting oik."
This only amused him. "As I said, a beautiful friendship."
They did discover one thing they couldn't argue over within the next five minutes, however.
"Is she very good with detonation, Doctor?" Raine asked when Ace began preparing to destroy an artefact they had found inside the vault.
"As a matter of fact, she is."
Common ground at last, Raine thought.
"No! Wait a minute." The Doctor hurried over. "Why don't I just use the manufacturer's recall code? The recall code for faulty merchandise. Yes! That's it."
Ace stepped aside as he began pressing buttons, disappointed.
"Is this what he's always like?" Raine murmured to herself.
Ace heard her and chuckled. "A fair amount of the time, yeah."
The Doctor casually walked over, looking pleased with himself. "Ahh... There. And now it will self-destruct."
Raine was troubled by his lack of concern. "And... will that involve an explosion?"
"Actually, yes."
Ace straightened to stand upright. "Then, should we...?"
"As a matter of fact we should."
Raine was puzzled. "Should what?"
There was a maniacal shine in Ace's eyes as she and the Doctor simultaneously shouted, "Run!"
They took off at a breakneck pace and Raine struggled to catch them. She almost managed to get alongside Ace but couldn't maintain their speed and started falling behind. "You can really run!" Raine panted.
"Had lots of practice!" Ace called back with barely any additional effort.
Clearly, Raine thought, willing her body to move faster.
The resulting explosion was one of the most beautiful things Raine had ever seen. She'd never been more filthy in her life, and yet she listened eagerly to the Doctor discuss his plans.
"I'd like to investigate this 'Margrave University'. It sounds like a fascinating place."
"Uhh," groaned Ace. "When he says 'fascinating'-"
"It actually means terrible dull?" asked Raine.
"-it actually means 'take cover'," Ace clarified with a smile.
It sounded exciting to Raine. She felt her chest tighten. My job's done, she thought. A pity really. Things were just starting to get interesting. "Well, I suppose I better... leave you to it."
Ace's smile morphed into a look of confusion. "...Why?"
The Doctor turned to look at her as well. "Yes, why?
Raine glanced between the two of them. "You mean..." She paused, then asked hesitantly, "You'd like me to come along?"
Ace nodded, smiling. It was contagious. Maybe she's not so bad after all, Raine thought. She tried to recall what had bothered her. Yes, looking like Biker Girl... Something sparkled in Ace's eye as she added, "Yeah. You never know when you might need a good safe-cracker."
Was that... gold? Raine shook her head. Just seeing things, I must stop doing that.
So thrilled Raine was to be invited along for the next part of the investigation that she forgot to ask about the payment she was owed. If she had really thought about it, perhaps she would have mused that the free travel was payment enough or that he had never intended to pay her at all.
Or she at least would have noticed where they were going. "I thought we were going to Margrave University," she commented.
Ace gave her a puzzled look. "We are."
"Then why are we walking towards a police box?"