A/N: Thank you for all the follow and favourites. I hope you like this chapter. It's more introductory than anything- to give you a glimpse of Aurelia's life before all the crazy begins. I was going to post this last night, but I was exhausted when I got home from Prac. Six year olds be crazy. Please let me know what you think!
Disclaimer: Anything you recognise, and maybe a few things you don't, isn't mine.
*DAUGHTER OF TIME*
Aurelia Smith was not a violent person. An energetic, impossibly intelligent, brilliant sixteen year old genius, who sometimes came off as rude because she was too I'm patient to wait for people to catch up with her thinking? Absolutely. She was her father's daughter and proud of it. However, a violent or malicious person? It just wasn't in her DNA. Yes, she had been trained to properly wield every weapon, and execute every form of self defence in known existence, but that was a requirement for the job that her family did. Even then, no one even thought about giving her the standard issue gun that the other agents carried with them while in the field, despite the special permission they had received for her to do so. They all knew she wouldn't touch the thing, let alone take it anywhere with her. Words win wars. That was what her father had taught her for as long as she could remember, and it was something she believed in completely. They had gotten out of too many dangerous or difficult- often it was both- situations using that tactic for her not to.
However, despite her aversion to violence, she was willing to make the exception for one particular self-absorbed, power deluded, arrogant little bug. Though, according to his paycheck, he just went by Clive Manson. He was the new government suited monkey, whom the Governor General herself had attempted to tack on the team. The fact that she did this while Aurelia's parents were on a two week mission in Norway, where communication was all but non existent and so they couldn't object to the new hire, did not help the attempt. In fact, it made it worse. Even more so, was the fact that the little bug (no human being could be this irritating) had somehow got it into his head that he was in charge of the place while her parents were absent. Something about being a government official who had been personally selected by the head of the country's security. She, along with the rest of the team, would usually stop paying the little attention they were to him, and continue with working as if he wasn't there, when he went on one of his rants. Which did not work for his fragile, self inflated (she assumed) ego, which always seemed to result in him butting into her work. He'd insist that she didn't have a clue what she was doing, and that a sixteen year old shouldn't be left with such important work.
The man wouldn't know what was important work from what was junk if she through it at his head. Which she may or may not have done. A couple of times. Only when he had made it obvious that she was going to have to work over time and not make it to her ballet class. And when the jobs he assigned her were a waste of her talents and time. It may have been more than a couple of times. That she got from her grandmother.
"I called Madame Erica, she says that she'll open the studio earlier for you on Saturday to make up the last few classes. Again." Aurelia looked up from the paper work she was doing (Translations that she had to actually hide from Clive), to see one of her closest friends at the Hub, standing in the door way and holding a couple mugs.
"Thanks Ianto, I completely spaced on doing that," She said, waving him in. "Honestly, as soon as the bug mentioned talking to the Silurians, I just went into damage control."
"I thought Manson went home looking rather proud of himself, considering no one would let him near their projects," Ianto said, taking the seat across from her desk and setting down one of the mugs in front of her. "I made you tea. Figured you'd need it, if something made you miss class so close to the show case." Aurelia grabbed the mug gratefully, letting the scent of vanilla and cinnamon relax her. It was her favourite, though she tried to save it for extremely stressful situations. The man really did know her too well. Which now seemed to include her other-than-work activities.
"My grandma told you I was a lead, didn't she?" She guessed.
"It may have come up in recent conversations," Was the reply she got. She sighed, knowing that it was normal for a grandparent to be proud of their grandchildren. Jackie Tyler was no exception to the rule, she had the motivational posters to prove that.
"She thinks I'm destined to make it a career or something," She said. "Completely forgetting that my...assets are a bit of a problem." Ianto just laughed.
"Most people wouldn't see it that way."
"Most people don't have to wear two sports bra over their regular one four times a week."
"She's your grandmother, it's her birth right to be proud of you when you achieve something and then create unrealistic goals about it."
"Smooth," Aurelia commented on his conversation diversion. "Speaking of my grandma, what time is it? I'd promised I would be home in time for tea," She said, looking for her pocket watch. When did she inherit this much paper work anyhow?
"Six thirty three and counting," Ianto said, looking at his own.
"Great, I have less than twenty seven minutes to get to the palace." She shoved all the paper into a filing cabinet (it was the last place anyone would look for them, funnily enough) and packed all her stuff into her bag. "Come on, coffee man, you can give me a ride home."
"You have the sweetest way of asking for favours," Ianto commented, but followed her out none the less. It was easier just to follow the girl.
Aurelia's nickname for the Tyler home, wasn't all that much of an exaggeration. It was one of the largest homes in Britain, and she swore it was a slightly smaller replica of the old Buckingham palace that the Royal family used to live in. Though not exactly to her taste- she preferred simpler decorations and furniture, she had always found the size of it's interior oddly comforting. Her mother blamed that on her father, like with most of her traits. However, even she had to admit it was a bit excessive for a family of four. The family being her grandparents and two uncles, Tony and Mickey. The place had about twenty bedrooms, most of them with their own ensuite. But that could just be chalked up to Jackie. She loved extravagant things, particularly parties, and figured the extra room gave her all the more reason. Her reasoning being that the guests could stay the night and drive home safely in the morning. One of the few times no one could argue against her logic, which was usually ridiculous.
The house in question was unusually quiet, considering Jackie's penchant for trying to yell things across the house. It set Aurelia's nerves off, making her alert as she headed to the dining room. She had called out a couple of times since letting herself in, but had received no response. Normally, her grandmother would have descend down the stairs, talking about what ever gossip she had discovered that day, while her grandfather would hug her and ask about work- and how he wish he had the authority to fire Clive. Tonight, there was barely any of the lights on in the hallway. Carefully, she opened the dining room door.
"Did you miss us?"
"Mum! Dad!" Aurelia ran up to her parents and threw herself into a hug, which they returned with just as much enthusiasm.
"I thought you weren't coming back for another two days!" She said once they pulled away. "Not that I'm complaining. There's a new bug at the Hub, who think he runs the place, completely ignoring the fact that we ignore him. Oh, and he almost cost us the peace treaty with the Silurians, don't worry, I talked them out of blowing the human race off the face of the Earth. For now. Which should mean that we have a couple of centuries before we have to negotiate then, but that won't be our problem. Oh, I started on those transcripts Ianto intercepted. It's just Khaayns talking to each other about inhabiting Jupiter- though it doesn't look like that's going to happen. One of the gases won't agree with them or something. Anyway, how was your trip? Did you find what you needed?"
"Alright sweet heart, give them a chance to rest, they only got home fifteen minutes before you did," Jackie said, before they could reply. "Come on, let's have some tea, we can catch up while we eat."
Aurelia laughed as Mickey told his story about what one of his friends did to a substitute teacher. He was in his last year of high school, and from what she could tell, her uncle was more interested in how much trouble and pranks he could shove into that year, than studying to get into a good university. Listening to these stories made her glad that she had to be home schooled (there had been an 'incident' during her first-and only- week at kindergarten. It had involved an old computer, fairy lights, a watch and a very bored Aurelia), knowing that she would have been frustrated with the speed at which everything was being taught. Or she would just learn everything at home anyway, and spend her time during school annoying the teachers because she would know more about the subject they were trying to teach.
So something good did come out of that hovercraft twelve years ago. Besides, she had her family and ballet to keep her relatively normal. Well, she had ballet and her friends there anyway.
Just as Mickey was getting to the part that had involved a pin on a chair, the house began to shake. Without thinking about it, Aurelia ran out onto the balcony, her parents not far behind her, looking for a possible cause for the earthquake. Sure enough, there was a large comet-like shape streaking across the sky. They watched as it landed somewhere not too far from where they were.
"Well, looks like there's no rest for the wicked," Rose said, giving her daughter and husband a wide grin, which they both returned. It had been a while since anyhting had crashed, and even longer still that it had been interesting.
"Right then, Allonsy!" John said as they ran out of the house, with Jackie telling them to be careful.
"I'm sorry miss, authorised personel only." Aurelia raised an eyebrow at the soldier blocking her entry to the site. She had gone back to the car to get the equipment, and they must have changed shiftsGods, they had put a newbie on the scene.
"Good thing I am authorised personel then isn't it," She said' pulling out her ID. She didn't have to do this since her first crash site a year ago. "See? Torchwood agent. And if I'm not mistaken, it says my clearance is higher than yours." Maybe she shouldn't have sung that last part. The soldier studied the ID card and kept looking at her skeptically. She groaned in annoyance
"It's because I'm sixteen isn't it?" She folded her arms and glared. "That is just so typical of your lot. What, because I'm sixteen and a girl I can't do anything important?"
"Oi, Newbie, just let the girl through, would you? I need her to translate her dad's ramblings," Owen Harper said, slapping the soldier on the shoulder as he guided Aurelia through the security to the crash site. "Your mum wondered where you got to. She's having a fun time dealing with the bug. Your dad just did what the rest of us have been doing and ignored him."
"Yeah, I told them about him over dinner," She said. "I have a feeling he won't be in tomorrow. Mum wasn't impressed with the reports he tried to send the dear old Governor General. Which she never received of course. Our mailing department really needs to up their game."
"Or actually exist. Did he really buy that?" Owen laughed.
"Well he didn't trust email with most of us being expert hackers and all. Now, what are we dealing with? Please say it's something interesting."
"An unknown metal alloy containment unit that refuses to open and has a warning label Baskeetch," John called out, as he read the scanning, scanning the object in question.
"Promising. What does the label say?" She asked, joining him.
"Warning; do not touch or open when high temperatures present. Sometimes, I really miss my sonic screwdriver." Aurelia laughed and patted her father sympathetically on the shoulder. He said that a lot. He had also tried to make himself a new one, with little success.
"I guess we'll just have to wait for it to cool down and take it back to the Hub. Did anything else fall? Or were there any casualties?" She looked over to Owen, who shook his head.
"A very startled night jogger received a mild concussion from the blowback of the crash, but it seemed to mercifully miss people this time," He said. "Does this mean I can go home? I've got the sixth season of the Game of Thrones on my DVR."
"What is it with you and old TV shows?" Aurelia asked him.
"They're better than the new ones," He said simply. "So yay or nay with the going home?"
"Go home, it's the boring part anyway," John said. "Though it's strange. It has Baskeetch writing on it, but it's nothing like they've created. They're way off from being this advanced."
"Think someone is trying to frame them, or has introduced this to them?" Aurelia asked, waving Owen and a few others to go home.
"Not sure. Will have to check the satellites when we get back to the Hub to see the trajectory of it's landing. Might give us a clue what is inside."
"Well, what ever it is, it'll have to wait until morning," Rose said. "It'll take the tests that long to collect all the data we need to see if it's safe to open."
"Wouldn't take this long if I had my screw driver," John muttered.
"Or the TARDIS," Both Rose and Aurelia finished for him.
"I know, I miss them too, but we work with what we've got, yeah?" Rose kissed his cheek affectionately as he continued to grumble. He was in the Doctor Blues, as she called it. "Now, I have very much missed my bed. Let's get this thing back to the Hub, so I can be reunited with it."
"Aurelia! Come and look at this!" Aurelia made her way down to the Hub's lab, where her father was running around the table, looking at something she didn't recognise.
"Was that in the container?" She guessed, taking a closer look. It was a three dimentional diamond shaped thing, with the appearance that it should glow, or do something.
"Surrounded in some sort of organic fluid. Owen's running tests on the stuff now," John said. "It's some sort of teleport device. Though I can't figure out the trigger, or even where it's supposed to take someone."
"Well did you find out where it could've come from?"
"No where. Literally no where. Your mother and I thought that the temperal shift detected in Norway didn't do anything, but it turns out that this had come out of it. Of course by the time we got there, this was already orbiting the planet, waiting for gravity to pull it back down. So we can rule out this being Baskeetch. Well, the Baskeetch from this universe anyway."
"You think another rift has opened?" Aurelia asked. "Like the one you two came through?"
"Possibly, or even a different universe to that one, though unlikely. Connection isn't strong enough with any other universes for that to happen."
"But I thought the rift had healed. The Doctor-"
"Isn't always right sweetheart. It's rare, but he is capable of being wrong. I'm capable of being wrong."
"Well, does it have any energy source?" Aurelia asked, inspecting the device herself. She could sense a small amount of energy coming from it, but not much. It's main power source must be external.
"A small amount of power in it's core, just enough for it to kickstart and join with it's main power," John said, essentially echoing her thoughts. He picked it up to have a closer look. "But I can't tell what that would be. There are no grooves or sockets for anything for something to be attatched to it." He passed it to Aurelia.
"My guess is that we're looking for a some one rather than a something," Owen said as he walked down the stairs. "Ran the fluids from the container. Turn out, it contains someone's DNA. Maybe it can only be used by that person. I'm running it through the data base now."
"I don't think you need to," Aurelia said, looking down at the device, which had started glowing. "Dad, I can't let go of it." John tried to take it off her, but was zapped by it.
"DNA lock," He said. "Won't let anyone else touch it but you. Also seems to be pre-programmed to take you somewhere." Aurelia looked up at him, never being more scared in her life.
"Where?" She asked, but was drowned out by a loud wooshing and sort of screeching sound that she had never heard before. Yet it also sounded extremely familiar. Her father recognised it anyhow.
"I need you to listen to me very carefully, okay?" He asked, looking her straight in the eye. She nodded. "We are going to find a way to bring you back, I promise, your mother and I won't give up until you're back home. But in the mean time, remember everything I've taught you and the stories we told you. Understand?" Before she could answer, the noise got louder, and she started to feel dizzy. The last thing she could hear was her father telling her how much he loved her, and her mother calling something out before everything turned into black.
*DAUGHTER OF TIME*
AN2: I hadn't originally planned to leave this here, but I was pushing six pages (3 thousand words). Next chapter is where it really begins (I hope- I plan these things and they don't quite work out that way). Again, please let me know what you think! I hope you have a nice day (or night)!