A/N: Hey! How are you all doing? I've been working on this fic for a while, and I'm proud to finally release it for you all. If you're a bit confused about what's going on with Anthea, don't worry! It'll all be explained in a chapter or two. Enjoy, dear readers!
Disclaimer: I don't own the Doc or Martha. I own all my oc's and most of the plot, though. The rest of it is the BBC's!
Anthea knew that the ship was being boarded, and that she needed to get out right that second. She could hear the rumble and creak of the pirate ship magno-grabbing onto the airlock. She cursed to herself and broke into a sprint through the cluttered hallway, passing over anything that was unnecessary, which at the moment included everything. Where was Darius? Anthea wouldn't leave without him.
Hot sparks flew into her face, leaving behind angry pink skin, and she stumbled onto her knees as the pirate ship completed attaching to hers. The ship's lighting shut down with a whir and a harsh red glow of the backup systems filled the corridor. She shakily pushed up off of the floor and started into a full blown run across the merchant ship. She had to find Darius and leave. If the pirates found either of them they were definitely dead, and while the Odyssey was a good ship, and a great home, it wasn't worth her life.
An explosion shook through the frame of the ship, knocking her off balance. They had blown the airlock doors. They were inside her ship. Anthea's breath picked up and her hands began to tremble. Footsteps sounded on the metal behind her. She looked around her, frantically looking for a way to hide from the intruders. There! A small storage room to her right. She knew it was full of what looked like junk. She could hide in there.
She ducked into the storage room and looked around for a suitable hiding place. The footsteps were getting louder, so she made for the first place she saw - an old dresser she and Darius had picked up on Giovis Two. The rest of the room was scattered with various other things they were planning to sell at the next stop. Advantages of running a traveling thrift shop, she guessed. Good hiding places. She peeked out from behind the dresser and pulled on a jacket from a pile near her. It was too big, but it would cover her back enough so that she could pass as a human. It might just save her life if she didn't mess anything up. She just couldn't use her abilities.
She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and pulled her knees up under her into a crouch, readying herself to move again if need be. She looked around her and wondered where Darius was. She prayed he was okay. She frowned and wished she could risk using her ability to find him, but that would put herself at risk. She just wanted to find her brother. Her hands continued to shake, so she balled them into fists in a meager attempt to stop it. The ship was in auxiliary power and she could almost feel the darkness laughing at her. It would be hard for the pirates to find their way around, but the long shadows and red lights did little to quell her pounding heart, despite the reassurance that the shadows gave her.
She heard the slide of the door opening behind her, and a clang of boots on the ground - whispered voices in the hall floating in. Footsteps sounded on the metal floor and she braced herself to run. The steps got louder – the pirate was getting closer. Anthea slowed her breath and waited for whoever it was to leave. She could hear them walking around at a quick pace. The man was talking to someone over the radio in a language she couldn't understand, and the words were rushed and loud, at a near scream, the muffled voice on the other end barely getting a chance to speak at all. Whoever this guy was - he was livid. If he found her there she didn't stand a chance. Hot tears built up in her eyes and she choked back a sob. She didn't want to die.
The footsteps approached her and she sucked in a breath. "What a load a junk." It seems he spoke English too, but she could barely hear the muttering over her own pounding heartbeat. "What are we supposed to do with this shit?"
Crack.
She jumped as a piece of broken wood flew past her hiding spot and hit the wall. She barely held back a gasp and froze where she was. She didn't want to die. She felt the tears spill onto her cheeks and the sting in her eyes brought her to a shrieking halt back into reality – back to her self-appointed mission. She needed to find Darius and get to the escape pod before they got hurt by the pirates. Easy enough. Totally. She could do this.
She took a deep breath and worked her way around the corner of the dresser opposite to the pirate. It seemed there was only one in the room with her, and the door wasn't too far away. She could make it if she stayed behind the supplies.
She creeped along the floor on her knees, trying to stay as quiet as possible. Her legs wobbled underneath her, but she used her arm to catch herself before she could make too much noise in her fall. She would just have to crawl.
She reached the pile closest to the door and peeked around it to see that the pirate seemed to be destroying her things looking for valuables. She couldn't help her cringe when she saw him smash open a three hundred year old vase from Raxacoricofallapatorius. That thing was worth 5000 credits!
She shook her head and forced herself to ignore the sound of money going down the drain and positioned herself to run. His back was turned to the door. She could make it. Take a deep breath, focus on your destination and GO. She shot up off the floor and into the hall, faintly noticing a shout she heard from behind her. He must've heard the door closing behind her. She took as many turns as she could, keeping track of where she was. This was her ship, and she could outmaneuver anyone on this beast. She could make it to the control room and radio the police, she just had to keep running. She still heard the thudding of the pirate's steps behind her, despite her twists. She looked behind her to see that he was still following her. He was only ten meters back. The hell?! Damn it all, he had a blaster on his hip! It looked like it was even the hard light kind. Oh, that would hurt! Those were military grade, damn pirates stealing shit. She turned back to run with renewed motivation. She did not want to get shot with that.
She had been running for what felt like forever, but that asshole was still following her. She was tiring down despite her stamina. Her heart beat hard in her ears – her entire body shouting at her to stop, you need air, but she couldn't afford to stop. If he got to her, she might get discovered. If she got discovered she would definitely get killed. Her legs burned and she wanted desperately to rest, but if she stopped she died.
Black spots started to encroach on her vision, blurring the edges of her sight and forcing her to the ground. She landed hard, slamming her shoulder onto the floor and hitting her head. Damn these pirates for attacking before she could eat breakfast. She stumbled back up and forced herself onward, having leaning against the wall, breath coming in gasps, and she desperately hoped that the turns she took had thrown him off by now– but it hadn't.
but suddenly she felt a horrible burning in her right calf. A scream forced it's way out of her throat and she fell to the ground, sliding a few feet across the hard metal and into the wall. She coughed and then looked up. Above her was the pirate – and Anthea had just been shot. Her fall had given him time to take out his gun.
The man above her had been quick to tie her hands behind her back and drag her through her own damn ship to the dining room, where the pirates had seemed to set up shop. She got tied down to a chair with some rusty old chains, but she was sure she wouldn't be able to get out even if she hadn't been – she was close to passing out from her pain, and all anyone had done for her wound was put an old rag over it. Even if she did make it out of this, she might just bleed to death afterwards. She had been crying the entire time, sobs racking through her body only making it worse.
A fierce-looking blue woman stepped forward and pointed her blaster at Anthea. It was big. Big and likely military like the other one. She had sharp features and a disconcerting smile. Her eyes were the worst part though -a bright, glowing yellow that cast light onto her features. In the dark lighting of the ship, it was eerie and made Anthea want to get as far away from this woman as possible. She spoke with as harsh voice. "Tell us where you keep your credits and big-ticket cargo. If you do that we might just consider letting you live."
Anthea just sobbed in pain and almost doubled over, but her head just ended up rolling forward, unable to move from the chains. When she answers her voice was shaky and barely audible. "O-okay. Please just… don't hurt my brother. I need to know he's safe before I tell you anything." They would find out about her family sooner or later, and she had to get them to leave before that happened.
The woman's eyebrows furrowed but her smile stayed put, her eyes flashing brighter. Anthea had to look away from the light. The woman moved the blaster down, tracing the tip along Anthea's collarbone, and pressed the barrel against her chest. "I wouldn't be worrying about him right now, sweetheart, I really think you should consider my generous offer." She leaned in close and pressed her lips to Anthea's ear, whispering to her almost sensuously. "Because if you don't I'll throw you out of the airlock myself."
Shit! Anthea's eyes frantically searched around the room. There had to be something - anything to get her out of this. The table is bolted to the floor so she couldn't use that, and she couldn't break her chair because it was metal. The best option in her ability seemed to be untying the chain, but they would definitely notice that. She couldn't use her ability either, that would just get her killed… But her mind froze as she saw something in the air vent – or rather someone. It was Darius, her brother. He held a single finger up to his mouth, telling her to stay quiet. His hair was quite a bit messier than normal and he may have a bruise forming on his cheek, but he was alive and that was what mattered. Darius was okay. It took all of her willpower to hold back a sigh of relief, but the blaster at her chest was well enough a reminder.
She squeezed her eyes shut and looked down and pretended to sob - with a little real sobbing - she knew if she didn't she would look at Darius too much and the pirate's would wonder what she was looking at. She had to take a deep breath to pull herself together enough to speak, but when she did it was barely a whisper. "Go down the corridor on my right side. Go past three more intersections and then turn to left. It'll be the first door on your right." After a moment, she felt the pressure on her chest lift, and she opened her eyes to see the blaster was no longer pointed at her.
A couple of the pirates grinned at each other before sauntering off, talking in that language she didn't understand again. After that only three pirates were left in the room. The blue woman rolled her eyes at them and didn't look as thrilled as the others, despite the fact she was still smiling down at Anthea. "Now, about that brother you menti-"
"Th-the code to the door is echo three zeta acorn fives, I forgot to mention that." Anthea whispered the interruption, but she knew the off-putting smiling pirate had heard her words when her grin lowered slightly. Anthea was pleased, even if she was terrified still, that she had bothered that creepy woman even a little. Despite that, yellow eyes still nodded at the one sitting atop of the table playing with his knife, who then frowned and walked off, muttering something about "dumbass merchants forgetting things." Two pirates were left.
"You're not funny, girlie." She frowned now, her voice growling and her eyes now nearly lighting up the entire room. The woman slammed her blaster onto the table with and audible thud and pulled out a hunting knife. She kneeled down in front of Anthea and pulled harshly on pink hair, forcing the merchant to look her in the eye. She drew her knife gently over Anthea's jaw, down to her neck, but not hard enough to draw blood. Anthea shrunk back as much as she could, sheer terror sweeping through her. Yellow-eyes began to grin again. "You know what? When we find your brother," The blue woman leaned over Anthea menacingly, obscuring everything else from view. She nicked Anthea's ear and smiled wider as the blood trickled down her neck. "Oops." She laughed and walked back to the table to lean against it. The pirate cocked her head to the side and bit her lip. "I'm gonna skin him alive in front of you," Her eyes were dark and bright, and hollow, and full of glee. Anthea knew for a fact that she wasn't lying. She stepped forward again with her knife, speaking with each footfall. "And then, I'm going to cut you into pretty, little, screaming, pieces."
A sudden thunk sounded from behind the yellow-eyes, who whipped her head around in shock. Confused, Anthea leaned over to see behind the alien. The other pirate in the room with them was nowhere to be seen. Instead, Darius stood there, his expression murderous. "Don't you fucking dare hurt my sister." The woman just laughed at him as his expression grew darker.
Anthea couldn't see the yellow-eyes' expression from where she was sitting, but she heard her make a pleased sound. "Oh, I would, hotshot." She whipped her blaster from the table, finger on the trigger, but by the time her shot hit the wall Darius had vanished.
Anthea frowned at that. He wouldn't…
He appeared again right behind the woman, and grabbed a fistfull of her hair, yanking her down and sending her into a fall.
She was gone before she could hit the floor - into thin air. The dining room was empty apart from the two siblings. Anthea was relieved, but despite that she gave him a harsh glare. "What are you thinking? You could kill yourself teleporting like that! You can't jump even three meters and now you pull this stunt!" She couldn't believe he would use his power like that - so recklessly.
"I did it to save ya, shorty." He shot her an exasperated look and kneeled down behind her, starting to untie the chain wrapped around her.
"Yeah, I know that but you could have died, dumbass. Your body can't handle the stress of teleportation, Dari, you could have killed yourself."
Instead of reacting to her anger he put his hand over her mouth and froze in place. Anthea took her cue and did the same, listening carefully to the groaning of the ship. She could barely hear the pounding of footsteps. They were far off, but they were getting louder by the second. Darius walked back around to her front and put his hands on her shoulders. "The others are coming back. Probably figured out there aren't any valuables."
"Then finish untying me and we can go." Anthea looked up at him, confused.
His gold eyes met hers and she became even more confused. He looked almost as sad as he had when their father died – but he also had that look he had when he was proud of her, like she was the best thing in the world. It was confusing her. He spoke, and by the sound of his voice she knew he was going to do something stupid. He began to look around the room and grab any weapons they had left behind, including the blue woman's blaster. "No, Anthea. If we're in a pod they'll just shoot us down."
"If we stay we're dead anyway. We need to run." She whispered at him frantically, her eyes wide and pleading. She was starting to panic. The footsteps were getting louder. They were losing time! "Darius, please we need to go! What are you doing?"
He walked back over and ruffled her hair. Just as the pirates ran into the room she realized what Darius was planning to do. "Love you, short stack."
He was going to send her away.
And he was going to stay behind.
"Dari, Don't you da-"
But she was gone and she felt like she was being torn apart at the seams, screaming out only for no sound to leave her mouth. She was floating and falling and being pushed torn pulled shredded prodded poked ripped apart and like her body was on fire and oh my god she couldn't breathe help someone please.
And then she landed on hard concrete. She was on her side and felt like she had gotten trampled on by a horse. Her entire body trembled; she was alone on some planet she didn't know, without her brother. He was still on the ship, and had probably passed out from exhaustion from moving her this far. And she was on a random planet, being a useless sobbing mess on the ground. He had saved her. She just told him she would never be able to forgive herself but he went and did it anyway.
She lay there a while, just crying. But after a time, she found that she couldn't cry anymore. It was as if reality had fogged over and she wasn't quite all there. Either way, it was a welcome relief from the pain. She was able to take in a couple of breaths, just trying to keep herself in the calm haze. She... would be okay. She would go to the police and then they would find him. It would be fine, and they would be able to run their shitty family thrift shop again. They had to.
But when she looked up at the sky, it was strange. It was night-time on this planet, and the stars looked like what they should if she was on Earth but they were wrong. After all her star mapping she couldn't have gotten this wrong. She knew her way around this sector like the back of her hand. She was definitely on Earth... But the stars - they were… shifted back by three thousand years? How does that work out...
Her eyes widened in shock, and any remnants of her haze vanished. The stars couldn't have all moved at once, so that left… her. She had gone backwards. Despite herself she curled up into a ball and began to cry again. He wasn't supposed to do that he wasn't supposed to shift time last time he had it put him into cardiac arrest oh god no.
Her brother's power wasn't just over space – it was over time as well.
She didn't know what to do… What could she do to save him oh no oh god no no no. Her breathing picked up; she tried to get more air into her lungs but she felt like it just wasn't enough. Her hands started shaking again - worse this time. Oh god her brother was dead shifting her that far back would have killed him for sure oh god holy shit no no no no. She couldn't see anything, her vision was all blurry and oh my god she couldn't catch her breath she's gonna pass out any moment now oh god no.
She suddenly felt a hand on her arm and she screamed, jumping up with a start but falling back down again just as quickly as pain shot up her leg. She looked down at it, cringing. It was bleeding worse than it had been before, and just looking at the wound made her feel ten times as dizzy as she already was. She stared at the person who had touched her, probably seeming like a cornered animal. The woman seemed awfully surprised at her, and was staring at the wound on her leg thoughtfully before she made her way up to meet Anthea's frantic gaze.
"Hi, hey - it's alright. My name's Martha. There's no need to worry; I'm a doctor. Are you alright?"