Vengeance - Chapter One

Author: Milady Dragon

Author: Here it is! The sequel to "Resurgence". It is officially the longest thing I've ever written. I'll be using the same posting schedule, Tuesdays and Thursdays, unless something comes up.

Also, a little note on this first chapter - Armstrong Dome was set up by the Americans, so their law enforcement is set up more along the lines of what is in the US. The Second Precinct is also based on the same precinct in the short-lived television show, "The Unusuals", which I've added to the fandom tags. The show stars Amber Tamblyn and Jeremy Renner, and if you ever get the chance you should totally watch it.

Now, on with the story!

30 January 5193 (Earth Standard Date)

Armstrong Dome

The Moon

The Second Precinct was made up of a bunch of misfits who didn't quite fit in with the rest of the police force currently assigned to Earth's Lunar Dome complex. That didn't make them bad cops; in fact, their solve record was one of the best on the Moon.

The Second was the one that handled the weird shit. Strange little crimes, like that one family who wanted to be a criminal conglomerate but who'd managed to fail at everything they'd tried, including the time one of the younger members had attempted to steal a lollipop from a little kid and got a concussion when he'd stumbled over the wheels of the pram the child had been in. Or the Otirian who'd started breaking every timepiece they could find because they believed they were a secret Time Lord and that their Time Lord essence had been hidden in one and they'd misplaced it somewhere, and this was the only way they'd ever become their normal self again.

Okay, so that one hadn't been as far-fetched as it sounded; Time Lords did apparently do that sort of thing, but the Otirian wasn't one of them. There was still only one official Time Lord left in the Universe, thank you very much.

So, when Luna University Security called in an attempted murder of a respected member of staff, it really should have gone to one of the larger precincts, who would have been better able to deal with the politics involved.

Instead, it had come to the Second, just because they were the closest to the main Luna University dome and could get someone there quickly.

It had ended up being assigned to Jason Walsh and Casey Shraeger as the next detectives in the rotation. And because their sergeant felt they had the most tact of anyone else in the squad room, since no one wanted to see Eddie Alvarez deal with authority as he had a tendency to cave and then start to suck up in the most embarrassing ways possible.

Of course, Casey considered, this case had turned out to be a bit weirder than most, which was par for the course for her and her partner.

For one thing, the respected member of staff had ended up being Professor Rowena ap Llyn, Chair of History, who just happened to be a Star Dragon.

Whose mate was Henry Morgan, Professor of Ancient Languages, and one of the two acknowledged true immortals in known existence.

And whose parents were Director Jack Harkness, the other acknowledged immortal, and Second Ianto Jones, the Dragon of Torchwood and Patriarch of the aforementioned Star Dragons.

Yeah, weird. And potentially a political time bomb waiting to blow up in their faces.

Although, she did get to see a real Star Dragon out of it. That had been impressive, even if that Star Dragon had been badly injured in the attack. So, while that would have been something to tell the proverbial grandchildren in any other circumstances…it just wasn't in these particular ones.

But at least Casey could get autographs under the excuse of needing paperwork signed.

So, sue her… she was a fangirl.

When she and Walsh had shown up at Hospitaler Tower to do the preliminary interviews, it had been a shock to discover just who their victim was. Still, they'd been professional…so much so that they'd apparently impressed Director Harkness enough that he'd personally called their sergeant and requested that they be kept on the case despite the fact that both she and Walsh had immediately assumed that Torchwood would be taking over.

That didn't turn out to be what happened at all.

To be honest, Casey had been intrigued with the man. Jack Harkness was handsome, and charming, even though he'd been scared out of his mind about his daughter having been stabbed and his grandson being the one to walk in on the attack. It took a special sort of person to remain charming under those conditions.

He'd also informed them that this wasn't Torchwood business, and proceeded to tell them that he suspected the person who'd attacked Professor ap Llyn had been responsible for the death of another daughter of his, named Sabrina. That his clan had declared war on whoever had done it, and that was why Torchwood wasn't involved.

Casey had thought she'd heard somewhere that the Star Dragons were their own, designated race within the Empire, so them going to war against someone who'd targeted their family was perfectly legal.

So far, though, they didn't have much to go on.

The son, Abraham Morgan-Jones, had managed to give an artist a fairly decent description of the man he'd seen in the house, as had both Professors ap Llyn and Morgan…when Professor Morgan had come back from wherever he'd resurrected to. Which, yeah…he apparently had to come back to life in the nearest body of water, and since there wasn't such a thing on the Moon he'd done it on Earth, smack dab in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Well, maybe not the exact middle, that was just a figure of speech. It had actually been somewhere in the Southern Hemisphere a couple of hundred miles off the coast of Australia.

Once again…weird. Maybe this case did belong with the Second.

Still, it was enough to get a likeness out to all the other Lunar precincts and to ImpSec, and hopefully someone would notice the guy and call the authorities.

They'd also been able to add to that the possibility of the killer having been injured when young Abraham had flamed him. That had had them putting out an alert to all hospitals and urgent care facilities for people who'd sought treatment for a severe burn somewhere on their body.

Casey had seen the inside of that bedroom, and that kid had done a number on the furnishings, so she could imagine what sort of shape the would-be killer was in.

Forensics had been all over the house, looking for any sort of evidence that would narrow down their search, and she and her partner were currently going through what the techs had brought back…which wasn't much, to be honest.

The Evidence Room of the precinct building wasn't Casey's favourite place to be. It was dull, drab, and crammed full of evidence bags and boxes that would stay there until their cases had been solved and the alleged perpetrators were convicted and sent on to whatever punishment the courts had seen fit to enforce…however long that happened to take. The light in the ceiling flickered slightly as she and Walsh stood at the long examination table that took up about a third of the room, the contents of several containers spread out so they could go through it themselves. It wasn't that they didn't trust Forensics…okay, maybe they didn't trust Forensics. Most of the time the techs would just catalogue the evidence without any sort of context, and it was up to the detectives to do that.

"Have you ever got the feeling that the forensics crew collect all this stuff just to irritate us?" Walsh groused as he poked around a bunch of charred pillows with a stylus, to avoid actually touching the mess. Even though he was wearing gloves. There were tons of the things and they all smelled of smoke and sogginess.

"I guess dragons like to sleep on lots of pillows and cushions," Casey commiserated. She'd taken the boxes of sodden quilts. "At least we didn't have to go through the hoard they found in the basement."

"Please tell me they secured it."

"According to the notes," Casey used her own stylus to call up the report on her tablet, "it's been secured with a crime scene lock." Those things were supposed to be unbreakable, but Casey had been a cop long enough to know that anything electronic could be hacked with the right equipment and a damned good motive.

"Well, at least we know this wasn't a robbery." Walsh made a face as he stuffed pillows back into the evidence boxes they'd been stored in.

"Yeah, the techs on scene claimed the hoard was pretty impressive."

"That would be just one more thing we'd need: someone getting their hands on that sort of shit."

"If they didn't want to risk pissing off a dragon that's already been stabbed."

"Point."

Casey was glad she was wearing gloves, because these quilts were just plain nasty. She was really surprised the entire house hadn't burnt down. From the report, the flame set loose had been impressive and had burned a lot hotter than a normal fire.

She had to admit she was proud of the kid for managing to get some sort of licks in. Although it had destroyed most of the crime scene.

"What's this?"

She glanced up from where she'd been poking through the stinking pile of cloth, to see her partner holding a small, sealed evidence bag between his fingers.

Within the bag was what looked like a ring.

Walsh was holding the bag up close to his face, the better to see it. "Looks old. Silver, maybe?" He moved the bag around a bit. "There's some sort of symbol on it." He handed it over to her.

Casey took her own look at the thing. She thought Walsh might have been right about the material; it definitely looked like solid silver, somewhat slagged on one side from the heat of the dragon's fire. She felt herself going cross-eyed as she also held the bag up, the better to get a look at what was carved into the ring's flat surface.

She squinted. "Is it some sort of animal?"

"Think it's a horse."

Yeah, she could see it now, although the design was pretty primitive.

"They didn't get this from the hoard, did they?"

This time, it was Walsh who consulted his own personal computer. "Nope. Says it was found in the bedroom, and it certainly looks like it was exposed to tremendous heat."

"Maybe it belongs to Professor Morgan." It was obviously a man's ring, just from judging from the size and bulk of it. "It was in the bedroom, after all."

"Or our killer lost it."

Walsh could sometimes leap to conclusions that Casey didn't see, but this time she was inclined to agree that it was possible. "We could ask either professor about it."

"The family was moving Professor ap Llyn back to Earth today," Walsh answered. "It's late; I doubt we'll still catch them at Hospitaler Tower."

Casey nodded. They'd been told that the professor would be moved as soon as she was cleared to, because the fathers trusted security at home more than they did at the Tower. Not that she didn't blame them. After all, their killer had ambushed the professors in their own home.

They'd been provided with personal comm codes and transmat coordinates for Director Harkness' home, though, so they would still have access to the witnesses. Casey was positive it was also for them to keep the man updated on their progress.

"Why don't we run it through the system," she suggested, "and if we don't come up with anything we can ask about it."

"Good idea," Walsh agreed. He set the ring aside. "The rest of this is trash." He took a step back from the table, and Casey could tell he wanted to put his hands on his hips but had just avoided from doing it and getting black smears on his suit trousers.

She had to agree, but kept on poking her pile out of habit. "The tech guys also say that the perpetrator obviously teleported from the scene, from readings they got when they scanned the room, although there's no way to pinpoint whether it was magical or technological." They'd come a long way with magical forensics, but there were still things that eluded them.

"Makes sense, from the eyewitness statement." He began to clear away the ruined pillows. "I do get the feeling that Director Harkness hasn't said everything about what's going on."

"Well, yeah." That really hasn't needed to be said. "Torchwood might not be directly involved, but he did request us to send in a copy of our findings to the Institute." As well as the Grand Master of the Imperial Shieldsmen, and to the Adjudicators. Sure, they were perfectly willing to do it, but if this had been a private, Star Dragon, matter, then all these reports wouldn't be going out all over the place. The only agency they weren't requested to send on was to ImpSec, but then Casey supposed the Shieldsmen would most likely forward that sort of thing on anyway.

There had to be something else going on. Well, it wasn't in their job descriptions, although looking at her partner's face Casey could tell he was just as curious as she was.