DISCLAIMER: I own nothing. Davies owns us all
Notes: Well…this was supposed to be a one time thing, but after you guys told me it had to continue that pesky little Muse would not let go. I have no Idea where this is going, so you'll have to bear with me!
Companion
For a moment it's hard to breathe. And as one crushing weight is lifted from his heart, another settles firmly on his shoulders, heavy enough to bring him to his knees.
Find Rose, save the universe. Nothing could be easier. No task could be more impossible.
"I can help you." Her voice slithers through the air like a snake, like a cool hand caressing his skin. She kneels on the edge of the rock now, arms stretched outward, beckoning him closer. "I can help you find a way…" Her voice is nothing more than a whisper, but it carries far in the damp air of the cavern. Her sapphire eyes are fixed on his face and for a moment, Jack can see something like desperation in their depths.
"How?" he asks, his voice hard. But she shakes her head, watching him while he moves closer so very slowly.
"Take me with you." It's the one thing he did not see coming.
He
stops in his tracks, a harsh, bitter laugh erupting from his lips.
"I'm not the doctor, I travel alone."
She purses her lips, her dark brows knitting together in dismay. She nods, her ink-black hair sliding over her shoulders. "Ah, yes. Captain Jack Harkness. Tell me, how does it feel, knowing you are all alone in the universe…with only one being still remembering your name, your history…your pain."
"You know nothing about my pain." He spits the words out like they have a bad taste, ready to turn on his heel and march out of this god forsaken place, now that he has the answer that he came for. But he doesn't, because for the first time this dainty, scary girl clothed in dirty rags does something he did not expect. She looks at him, a bitter, jittery laugh fit to match his own escaping her throat. She pushes her hair back over her shoulders, revealing for the first time a delicate, heart-shaped face that has its own heartbreaking beauty underneath all that dirt. And suddenly her voice is neither husky, nor sultry, nor caressing. It is just a voice.
"I
understand pain. An ocean of pain, just as vast and deep and dark as
yours. Don't you dare…don't you dare doubt that. I was not
always this …" She makes an impatient gesture that embraces
everything; the cave, the rags, the dirt, her matted, tangled hair…
"Long
ago I was just a girl who knew nothing about the future or the past
or destiny and stars. I was just a girl. A little girl that could see
images in a waterglass or a puddle. Strange images she did not
understand. I had a mother and a sister, I do not remember their
names or where I come from, but long ago I was just a girl. Until
they came to take me from my home, until they chained me to this
rock, trapped me in this cave and bade me talk of destinies that
where not my own… I know pain."
Her anger is like heat, singing and raging around her. And suddenly something shifts. Jack isn't sure if it's his perception of her or the universe adjusting to her anger ….but suddenly she seems to be more of a person in his eyes. Suddenly there seems to be more of her …not just this half-mad, half-naked girl who speaks riddles in the voice of a temptress.
"Who are you?" he asks, his voice tired now.
She laughs, throwing her head back. Her voice takes on those hoarse, eerie tones again.
"I'am the oracle of Delphi, I'am Cassandra, I'am Morgan le Fay, I'am Galadriel's mirror. I am every girl that ever saw with more than just her eyes and paid the price… my name is legion. I am the maiden. I have no name. It does not matter."
For a while they just stare at each other. A part of Jack is weary, worried and suspicious of her …this feral, gift-cursed girl. Whatever she had once been, she is not human anymore …but then neither is he. So who is he to judge? His ship is big enough for two…and maybe, just maybe he needs all the help he could get. That is his logical reasoning or so he tells himself. And maybe, just maybe he is just as lonely as she said.
"Can
you really help me?" he asks, his voice stern and hard.
She
lifts one brow, leaning forward as far as she can without falling
from her perch high upon the rock.
"I
can help you find his Rose. That much I
promise…"
He looks into those glittering eyes from up close, finding some of the madness and fear that drives him in their depths. He nods to himself and slowly holds out his hand.
She cocks her head again, watching him with amused delight. Jack almost laughs about himself.
Captain Jack Harkness, trying act the gentleman for a dirty seer in a damp cave at the end of the galaxy. Priceless.
She jumps down from her perch on the rock, landing next to him on her feet…like some giant cat. From up close she is even smaller and daintier than he thought, so thin and skinny that she seems to be about to starve.
They walk out of the cave in silence, while he wonders if he made a mistake. There is no one to stop them, he realizes. Whoever brought her here, whoever kept her in that cave is gone. On one of her skinny ankles a rusty manacle rattles with every step she takes. The chain that kept her on that rock long since rusted and broken.
When
she sees his ship, there is a childlike wonder in her face. She takes
a shuddering breath, her eyes so very bright when she looks at him. "I
thought I would never leave this place …"
She hasn't cried
in millenia. She will not cry now. She might look like a young girl,
but she really isn't. It's all there in her face, she does not
say it. Still he knows, because it's all there in her eyes. He can
see it, because it is what he sees every time he looks in a mirror.
"Where do we go?"
"Earth…" her voice is barely above a whisper and the word makes his heart skip a fearful beat. He nods to his new companion. Taking her all in; the ink-black tangled hair, the dirt, the rags. She needs a bath, he decides. The ship's access ramp comes down with a hiss.
"We need to get rid of those … I have some clothes in the ship"
She looks at him for a moment, then shrugs and rips the rags right off her body. Her skin is ghostly pale. Being naked does not seem to bother her at all as she walks by him and up the ramp with a feline grace. The thought actually makes Jack smirk.
"Welcome aboard …" he chuckles to himself.
