A/N: I'm just going to put this here mostly to get it out of the way and because I promised my sister I would :/ I mentioned this on my tumblr that I've made a page on a website called ko-fi. It's a quaint little site where fans or supporters of a person to show their support by 'buying a cup of coffee' for a person if they want to. It's not really an actual cup of coffee (which is nice since I'm a tea-girl lol ;)), but a small contribution that's about the price of a cup of coffee, or 3 dollars. It feels a lot like a 'let's talk about your work over a coffee' to me, which is something I'm always saying I'd do if I met a reader in real life, want to buy them a cup of tea and talk (after I've returned from turning into a koala and clinging to them in a bear hug lol). My sister was getting on my case about how I 'write all these stories for nothing' and would not let it go even after I explained that I don't write for profit, but for fun and because I love it, I love the characters, and I love my readers. But to get her to lay off, I looked into a few sites and promised to make one and let people know about it. This one seemed very simple and nice, there's no obligation or commitment or requirement at all. I'm not about to withhold updating or hold a story hostage, I love writing and all of you too much. It's completely up to the supporter if they feel they might want to contribute one 'cup of coffee' or ten in one go or one when a new story comes out or anything or nothing at all. But even my mom was encouraging me to actually make the page since it seemed like a nice, small way to show love (though I think it's more her focusing on my leaving my job lol), but still, doesn't hurt to try. The link is on my tumblr's 'Links' page and also the URL is on my FF profile if anyone is interested. If anything comes of it, at least it got my sister off my case lol ;) Now onto the story! :D
~8~
The Vampires of Venice (Part Two)
The Ambassador headed towards a well in the middle of the courtyard she'd seen when she'd first walked through the doors of the school. According to Guido's maps, there was a path under the school that led to the bottom of that well which would be where the Doctor would be heading. She set her lamp down and quickly unlocked the grate covering the well. She glanced around again, picking up the lamp once more and turned, hearing a noise behind her to see Carlo.
She kept her surprise contained, merely giving the man a nod, "Carlo, as part of my investigation I must assess the safety and security of the school. If you would be so kind as to lead me to the green room?"
Carlo looked startled at the request.
"I'm sure I can find it myself," she continued, "But what might I stumble across in the process of looking?"
Carlo swallowed hard at that, caught between a rock and a hard place before he sighed and turned to lead her down the halls.
~8~
The Doctor walked quickly down a narrow passage, his torch held aloft for more light, trying to explain to Rory what had happened with Amy without pausing to think on how Amy's touch had burned him. It hadn't been a pleasant sensation to experience once, let alone have to remember it again.
"She was frightened, I was frightened, but we survived, and the relief of it...and so she tried to kiss me."
"And you kissed her back?" Rory asked.
"I pushed her away, Rory," the Doctor told him, "Quite forcefully."
"Really?"
The Doctor sighed and turned back to him, "Rory...she tried to kiss me because I was there. It would have been you, it SHOULD have been you. And that's why I brought you here."
"And if you hadn't?" Rory had to know, what would have happened if the Doctor hadn't come to get him?
"It is never going to happen, Rory," he reassured, "I don't…I can't…Amy isn't the one for me."
"You promise?"
"I do," the Doctor swore, crossing his hearts, "Amy is yours."
He had just turned to lead the way again, when Rory called out, "And the Ambassador?"
He paused, "What about her?"
"Is she yours?"
The Doctor glanced down, he was sure it would make Rory feel better to hear that the Ambassador WAS his, that if he was taken then Amy would be safe no matter what. But he couldn't say it, because he didn't know and he honestly had no idea how it would go.
"We need to go and see the vampires now," was all he said.
~8~
The Ambassador hardly blinked when she saw the Signora, her son, and a handful of girls already in the chamber she'd asked Carlo to lead her to. If Carlo, a human as far as she was aware, knew she was sneaking around the school at night, she had no doubt the Signora would be aware as well. Carlo struck her as the sort of person who didn't do much unless he was instructed to do so, the Signora would have had to send him after her for him to be there.
"Signora," the Ambassador greeted.
"Agent Sadie," the woman returned, "If that IS your name. Psychic paper," she scoffed, "Did you really think that would work on me?"
"It was actually a test," the Ambassador explained, "Whether you'd see something, what you'd see, what you'd do."
"And did I pass?"
"Well that depends," she began.
"On what?"
"On whether you tell me what it is you do to the human girls in this room."
The Signora merely grinned, "I was so hoping you'd ask that."
The Ambassador looked up as the room became bathed in a green light, just as Isabella described.
~8~
The Doctor grunted as he pushed the grate open and away from the top of the well, climbing out with the help of Rory. He turned quickly, about to reach down and pull Rory out when he hesitated.
He was going to have to touch Rory, grab his hand, to pull him up.
"Doctor?" Rory called up.
"Um…just a moment," he quickly looked around, trying to find something to help and began to pat his pockets, "Come on, come on," he muttered to himself, before grabbing the hem of his coat, "Yes!"
He quickly pulled his coat off and leaned over the edge of the well, using the coat for Rory to grab and help pull him up and over the edge.
"There we are!" he whispered with a smile, sliding his jacket back on, and looking around. His smile slowly faded when he didn't see someone waiting for them, "Ambassador?" he turned in a circle looking for her, "Where is she? I can't see a thing."
Rory quickly pulled a small pen torch out of his pocket, "Just as well I brought this, then."
But the Doctor had already grabbed a larger ultraviolet torch from his coat pocket, "Ultraviolet. Portable sunlight."
Rory stared at it a moment, "Yours is bigger than mine."
"Let's not go there."
~8~
The Ambassador glanced up at the light, "Green is not my color."
The Signora took a step towards her, "Who are you?" the Ambassador returned her focus to the woman as the Signora moved to circle the Time Lady and eye her up and down, "Where are you from? Did you fall through the chasm?"
"Mother this is pointless," the Signora's son remarked, "Let's just start the process."
"On me?" the Ambassador scoffed, "Sorry, if you're converting humans, best to avoid using me as a test subject."
"So you're not human," the Signora caught on, "What are you really doing in a world of savages with psychic paper. If you are not a Time Agent, why have you come to my school?"
"Why don't we start by talking about what your school is doing to these humans," the Ambassador countered, looking over at a large wooden chair with wrist straps that was resting in between two of the students before the girls turned to leave them alone. It rested below a hook in the ceiling that had an IV bag hanging from it. "I've seen the skeletons," she warned the woman, "I've spoken with your students, so you either tell me the truth…or there shall be consequences.
The Signora merely bared her fangs at the threat.
~8~
The Doctor did his best to drown out Rory's mumbling about the wedding while he soniced around the area. There was a chance that the Ambassador had merely wandered off to look around more, but he was starting to worry.
"If we cancel now, we lose the deposit on the village hall, the salsa band..." Rory continued, pausing only when he saw the Doctor open a nearby chest and stare at something inside it. He hopped off the well to look and see what it was, grimacing at the remains of a skeleton stuffed within, "What happened to them?"
The Doctor looked at the sonic's results, his hearts pounding in his chest at the readings, "They've had all the moisture taken out of them."
Rory frowned, "That's what vampires do, right? They drink your blood and replace it with their own."
"Yeah," the Doctor rubbed his forehead which had a deep crease in it from thought, "Except they haven't just had their blood taken, but all the water in their bodies."
"Why did they die?" Rory looked down at the body, "Why aren't they like the girls in the school?"
"Maybe not everyone survives the process."
Rory's jaw tightened at that thought, his mind flashing to what could have happened had Amy actually gone into the school and…feeling a bit concerned for the Ambassador as well. The woman as in there somewhere, because she wasn't going to let Amy go in alone, and now she could be in danger of all this. AMY could have been killed had she gone inside and he wouldn't have known.
"Thank god Amy didn't go," Rory muttered.
"I'm more surprised she didn't sneak in behind our backs," the Doctor examined the sonic for its readings.
Rory scoffed at that, his anger flaring because he knew it was something Amy would have certainly done had he not watched her like a hawk, "You know what's dangerous about you? It's not that you make people take risks. It's that you make them want to impress you. You make it so they don't want to let you down. You have no idea how dangerous you make people to themselves when you're around."
He spun around, about to lay into the Doctor once more, because even now, he was realizing that he didn't even know what else Amy had gotten into before they'd picked him up again. What other dangerous situations had she flown into because of the Doctor? He was about to demand the man tell him what other adventures they'd hand…when his words died on his tongue at the sight of the girls from the earlier procession slowly entering the courtyard.
"Who are you?" they spoke in unison.
The Doctor immediately lifted his ultraviolet light high to keep them back, "We should run," he reached out to push Rory onwards, "Run!"
~8~
The Ambassador lifted an eyebrow, unamused by the Signora's intimidation tactic, "Is that supposed to scare me?" she asked, "I've stared down the eyestalk of a Dalek, pointy teeth are nothing."
The Signora glared at her.
"Now, if we can get down to business," the Ambassador continued, "The more you tell me and the quicker you tell me what you are doing to these humans, the more willing I might be to help you find a way to live peacefully with the humans of this time. Now talk."
The Signora nearly growled, but let out a huff instead, "First, we drink them until they're dry. Then...we fill them with our blood. It rages through them like a fire, changing them, until one morning they awake and their humanity is a dream...now faded."
"Let me guess, some of the girls die?" the Ambassador dropped her arms, "You have no process at all in how you select the girls, do you? No way to judge which are compatible to your process? That is gross negligence on your part and not helping your standing at all that you're so careless with human life."
"More survive than perish," the Signora insisted.
"What do you do with the humans when they do survive?"
"If they survive, there are 10,000 husbands waiting for them in the water."
The Ambassador frowned at that, "You're converting the girls for breeding? What species are you?"
Before the Signora could even speak, there was the sound of running footsteps above them. The Signora turned quickly and rushed out with her son and Carlo after her to deal with the intruders to her home.
The Ambassador looked skyward and took a very deep breath, just knowing that it was the Doctor causing such a ruckus. He was supposed to enter the school undetected! Just because she wasn't there didn't mean he couldn't sneak about quietly.
…though this was the Doctor, she doubted he knew how to do anything quietly.
She looked up at the IV bag hanging from the hook in the ceiling and quickly made her way over to the chair below it, stepping up onto it to try and get the bag off. If the TARDIS or the Doctor's sonic could examine the blood inside it, they could find out which species it was…
~8~
The Doctor led Rory through the winding halls of the Calvierri school, down a set of stairs and into the tunnels below, his sonic in one hand, the light in the other, scanning frantically for the Ambassador's signature only to stop short when the Signora and two other men appeared before them.
"Cab for the Ambassador?" he called, the Signora and the younger man just hissed at him, baring their fangs.
~8~
"You're ok!" a voice gasped and the Ambassador looked over to see Isabella in the doorway, "I heard the girls whispering about an intruder and the room…"
The Ambassador finally managed to get the bag off the hook, pocketing it as she jumped off the chair, "I'm fine, you, on the other hand," she observed Isabella, the girl looking absolutely wretched, "We need to get you fixed up. Come on."
She turned the girl and half pushed her out of the room and into the hallway, turning down one when she heard the Doctor shouting down it.
"This plan, not exactly watertight, is it?" the Signora appeared to be talking to him.
The Doctor's laughter echoed down the hall as they reached the intersecting corridor to see him holding a large ultraviolet light behind him to keep a swarm of the other students away.
"Rory?" was the Ambassador's first reaction at seeing the man there. Of all the things to do, the Doctor dragged a human into this?
"Hello," Rory mumbled, clearly not as happy with the situation as the Doctor was.
Isabella reached out to grab the Ambassador's arm, tugging it, "Quickly, through here," she turned to lead the way down a nearby tunnel.
"Seal the house!" they could hear the Signora shouting behind them as the small group ran on, the other students rushing after them.
"So how'd your meeting go?" the Doctor called ahead to the Ambassador, a bit of a smug tone in his voice, as though he knew it would end up this way, with them needing a daring escape.
"Well they're confirmed aliens, not vampires," she responded, following Isabella closely.
He chuckled at that, "Classic."
"Is that really GOOD news?!" Rory scoffed, "What is wrong with you people?!"
"Come on, move!" the Doctor urged Rory ahead of him, hearing the girls catching up and using his torch to keep them back, "Keep moving! Come on, guys."
"Here!" Isabella half threw herself at a door, shoving it open to let them out into the daylight of Venice, "Quickly. Get out. Quick!" she moved to follow them, spotting her father at the bottom of a set of stairs that led to the canal, but hissed, stepping back as the sunlight began to burn her skin.
"Isabella!" the Ambassador turned at the sound of her cry of pain and rushed back to try and help. Isabella hadn't told her it was THIS bad, she'd said that the sun hurt like candle wax, but not that it was so bad that it was actually burning so much she couldn't go into the light at all.
Before she and the Doctor, who had also rushed back with her, could reach the girl, she was dragged back into the school, the door slammed shut in their faces. The Doctor reached out to yank it open, only to be electrocuted by some sort of current, falling to the ground.
"Doctor!" the Ambassador moved to his side, to catch him before he could hit his head on the stone, Amy jumping out of the gondola to run up with Rory and check on him.
"Is he dead?" Amy gasped.
Rory quickly examined him, "No, he's breathing."
The Ambassador looked back at the shut door, her hearts clenching painfully at the thought of what the Signora would do to Isabella…
~8~
"I am telling you," the Ambassador was speaking quietly to the Doctor as they stood in the throne room of the Calvierri school, having snuck back in to speak to the Signora, "This can still be salvaged…"
"She killed those girls," the Doctor argued.
"Are you always this quick to pass judgement?" the Ambassador shook her head, "They are an alien species trying to use their tech in a world where it doesn't fit. It says something about them that they are at least aware that they need to hide it. We don't have all the facts…"
"We know the Signora is a Sister of the Water."
"Why is she here?" the Ambassador asked, giving him a pointed look when he couldn't answer, "We need all the facts. We can talk to them, arrange something. Give them some way to select girls that are compatible, but only on the condition that they are made aware of what they would be signing up for, if they can fully and knowingly consent."
She was starting to get frustrated with his insistence that the 'alien' threat had to be stopped, not negotiated with. She was also starting to understand why his mind had turned to this. He clearly didn't think the Sister should be given a choice in the matter, exactly the same way he didn't think the humans should be given a choice in not becoming Sisters themselves. It was NOT his right to decide for the humans what they wanted. She wasn't trying to decide for the Sister what she wanted to do, but more try to give her a way to work towards what she wanted without harming others. For all they knew, some of those girls might have actually known or figured out what was happening and wanted it, they couldn't KNOW. But the Doctor was taking the choice from them by refusing to even hear about a plan to inform them and let them decide themselves. She would not take the choice away from the Sister with her plans on how to help them set up a system, there was room to discuss and work together, but peace also had to be kept. The moment the woman became a true threat to the humans, unwilling to care, that was when negotiations ceased and action had to be taken to STOP her. They were not at that point, not yet, and she had hope that they could still work this out. The role of an Ambassador was to foster new ties, create betterment, work towards improvement, and help...not to end life or a species just because she didn't like them. She had had no dealings with Sisters of the Water that told her they were truly hostile and without hope, not like Daleks, not like Cybermen or the few species she KNEW would only be satisfied with destruction. There was still hope.
"And then what?" the Doctor continued, "Aliens running around Venice? You said she wanted to breed the girls, match them up with husbands in the water, that's never a good thing."
"Yes, but are they plotting a takeover or just trying to repopulate their species and then leave? We don't know."
The Doctor glanced back, hearing a door open, "Then let's find out," he murmured as the Signora entered slowly. He turned to face her, "Long way from Saturnyne, aren't you...Sister of the Water?"
The woman eyed the Doctor a moment, her gaze flickering between her and the Ambassador, assuming he was an alien like the not-Time Agent was, "I take it you're a refugee, like me?"
The Doctor glanced at the Ambassador as she flinched at the term, knowing it was hitting far closer to home for her than him, "I'll make you a deal. An answer for an answer. You're using a perception filter…" it was fairly obvious, because the sonic told him the blood in the bag the Ambassador had nicked was that of a Sister of the Water, and the woman before them did NOT look at all like an insect-fish hybrid, "It doesn't change your features, but manipulates the brainwaves of the person looking at you. But seeing one of you for the first time in, say, a mirror, the brain doesn't know what to fill the gap with, so leaves it blank...hence no reflection."
"Your question?"
"Why can we see your big teeth?"
The Ambassador sighed beside him, of all the questions to ask…he started with the teeth.
The Signora just laughed, "Self-preservation over-rides the mirage. The subconscious perceives the threat and tries to alert the conscious brain."
"Where's Isabella?" the Ambassador cut into the next question, not wanting to risk the Doctor asking about something like 'why do all the girls wear their nightgowns all the time?'
"My turn," the Signora tsked, "Where are you from?"
"Gallifrey," the Doctor answered.
The woman's eyes widened at that, "You should be in a museum. Or in a mausoleum."
"Why are you here?" the Doctor seemed to take it as his turn to ask, actually trying to keep back on topic.
"We ran from the silence. Why are you here?"
"Wedding present. The silence?"
"There were cracks…" the woman began, eyeing the Ambassador when she tensed at the mention, "Some were tiny...some were as big as the sky. Through some we saw worlds and people and through others we saw silence...and the end of all things. We fled to an ocean like ours and the crack snapped shut behind us...and Saturnyne was lost."
"So Earth is to become Saturnyne Mark II?"
"With your help," the Signora stepped closer to them, "That IS what you were offering," she looked at the Ambassador for that, "We can build a new society here, as others have. What do you say?"
"There would be conditions," the Ambassador warned, "Rules, regulations, testing, monitoring, full disclosure, consequences and punishments for breaking the agreement, and you would have to leave the planet by the end of it."
"Conditions such as?"
"Our turn," the Ambassador shot back, "Where's Isabella?"
"Isabella?"
"The girl who helped us escape," the Doctor replied.
"Oh, deserters must be executed," the woman brushed it off far too easily, "Any general will tell you that. I need an answer, what would your conditions be."
The Doctor gave the Ambassador a pointed look for that remark, knowing that a large part of her choice to help the Sister of the Water would hinge on how much respect the woman had for human life, a way to judge how likely she would be to follow the conditions. Which had just been proven to be none at all.
The Ambassador sighed and gestured him to speak in her stead as this had been what he'd been claiming would happen all along. That this was an alien threat that needed to be stopped, not a cry for help to assist. He had listened to her plan, to all the reasons why she thought they should help, all the different failsafes and conditions they could implement. And it was sound, he could admit that, she clearly had ample experience with drafting up programs and trying to offer both sides a way to get what they wanted, to understand the cultures and their views.
It could have worked.
She would have suggested helping them set up tech that would scan girls for their compatibility to the program, a way to explain to the girls what was going on and what would happen to them, so they would be aware of the change and could decide if they wanted to continue. She had even had thoughts on how to set up memory devices that could erase the memories of the girls if they refused so they wouldn't be aware that there were aliens among them. Some girls were orphans, some poor, others needing a way to escape their families, there were things the Calvierri school could have offered them but they needed to be aware of the situation before they could agree to take part in it. There would be stipulations that the tech remain hidden, that the Signora and her swarm would not be allowed to interfere with history, with the TARDIS carefully monitoring them. And, once they had converted enough girls or reached numbers safe for their species, they would be required to leave Earth and go to another planet that could better sustain them. Or, if that was unacceptable, an alternative would be to take her and her sons to another, empty planet. The last option probably wouldn't have been acceptable as an empty planet wouldn't help their population if it was the Signora and her sons.
But it WAS a viable solution, one that kept the unaware humans safe but also offered the Signora a way to keep her family alive.
It hinged on whether the Signora would care enough about the humans to follow those parameters. Sadly, she'd showed that she wouldn't.
"Nothing you would agree to," the Doctor told her, "And nothing we would be willing to compromise on. The safety of the humans comes first."
That was something the Ambassador couldn't argue either. When it came to home turf, as the humans would say, it was the home planet's species that was being 'invaded' as it were, their safety would be the main concern.
The Signora glared at them for that, for getting her hopes up and then refusing to help her and her people, "Carlo!" she snapped and the man rushed into the room, "You're right. We're nothing alike. I will bend the heavens to save my race, while YOU philosophize."
The Ambassador stiffened at her choice of words, "What do you mean by bend the heavens?"
"Carlo!" the woman spun to the man, "See them out."
"This ends today," the Doctor warned, "I'll tear down the House of Calvierri, stone by stone," Carlo stepped up, pushing the Doctor back with a hand on his chest, "Take your hands off me, Carlo," the Doctor jerked back at that, his gaze refocusing on the Signora, "And you know why? You didn't know Isabella's name."
With that he turned and stormed out of the room, the Ambassador following him, grim and disappointed.
~8~
The Doctor paced back and forth in Guido's home, the Ambassador, Amy, Rory, and Guido himself sitting at a table, watching.
"There's something else going on here," he muttered to himself, "Come on brain, think, think. Think! Think!"
"If they're fish people like you said, it explains why they hate the sun," Amy tried to offer.
The Doctor just shook his head, curling his hands into fists. He was so tempted to reach out and cover her mouth so he could think uninterrupted, but he…he wasn't about to touch her like that, not when he needed to keep focused on the topic and not how his hand would undoubtedly feel like it had been dunked in a bucket of ice water.
"It's the school thing I don't understand," Rory muttered.
"It does make some sense," the Ambassador offered, "It's a way to lure girls in with the promise of a finishing school that can boost their status."
"I say we take the fight to them!" Guido called, banging his fist on the table and getting up.
The Ambassador sighed and rubbed her head, "It's the heavens comment I don't understand," she admitted, "It's important, I know it is, I just don't know why."
The Doctor snapped his fingers and pointed at her in agreement, he'd gotten that same feeling, "Let's recount, her planet dies, so they flee through a crack in space and time, and end up here, then she closes off the city and, one by one, changes people into creatures like her to start a new gene pool. Got it. Then what? They come from the sea, they can't survive forever on land…"
"The husbands are in the water," the Ambassador continued, "And it's not like the girls can just disappear, people have seen them walking on land, and if they suddenly started having round stomachs, they'd get suspicious since it's a school just for girls. The husbands are probably too young to survive on the land long enough to even procreate, too."
"Unless she's going to do something to the environment to make the city itself habitable for them?" the Doctor turned to her, "Bend the heavens, bend the...the heavens..." his eyes widened, "She's going to sink Venice."
"She's...she's going to sink Venice?" Guido did not look like he believed that at all.
"And repopulate it with the girls she's transformed."
"Only the male offspring survived the journey here. She's got 10,000 children swimming in the canals, waiting for Mum to make them some compatible girlfriends," he grimaced, "Ew. I mean, I've been around a bit, but, really, that's...that's...ew."
"I've actually seen worse," the Ambassador grimaced just at the memory of it. There was another species she'd had to go look into once, the Time Lords had wanted an account of them to update their information on the species. They were…well, rather like the human story of 'Frankenstein' in how they created their perfect mates…by literally creating their perfect mates out of…others of their species…dead members of their species. It was one of her more difficult missions to keep unbiased during.
They looked up suddenly when there was a sound of a thump from above them.
"The people upstairs are very noisy," the Doctor remarked.
Guido tensed, "There aren't any people upstairs."
"I knew you were going to say that," he huffed, looking around, "Did anyone else know he was going to say that?"
Rory frowned as the thumping became more pronounced, sounding like someone walking across the top floor, "Is it the vampires?"
"Sisters of the Water," the Ambassador corrected. That was a lesson learned very early, never insult another species by getting their species wrong.
They all slowly stood, ready to run, when glass shattered behind them, the students of the school already there, trying to break in through the window while others swarmed down the stairs. The Doctor pulled out his ultraviolet light and held it before them, urging everyone else behind him.
"Aren't we on the second floor?" Rory looked at the girls in the window, stunned that they were there, either having climbed up each other to reach them or were actually flying to the window.
The Doctor turned to the girls in the window, flashing them with the light, using the sonic to scan them, which showed them all the true fish-hybrid-vampire selves they had hidden within.
"What's happened to them?" Guido gasped.
"There's nothing left of them. They've been fully converted. Blimey, fish from space have never been so...buxom," the Doctor shook his head, "Ok," he quickly turned off the sonic and nodded towards the door behind them, "Move! Come on!"
"Go!" the Ambassador urged, half shoving Amy and Rory through the door, Guido close behind as she followed after them, the Doctor bringing up the rear. She hurried after the humans as they ran out of Guido's house, through his yard, scaring his poor chickens, and spun around, "Doctor!" she called when he failed to follow.
A moment later he was out the door as well…only for it to slam shut behind him, "Guido!" the Doctor banged on the door, but it was latched shut.
"Stay away from the door, Doctor!" Guido shouted through it.
"No! Guido! What are you doing?!"
The Ambassador ran forward and grabbed his arm, dragging him back moments before the house exploded, sending them both flying to the ground. They scrambled to their feet, the Ambassador panting, a hand on her stomach from the wind that had been knocked out of her. She closed her eyes tightly, trying to breathe through the trembling she was feeling. It was so much like the bombs the Daleks would drop during the war, the explosions going off everywhere in the heat of battle.
She opened her eyes, feeling a hand on her elbow to see the Doctor looking at her with concern. She almost asked him how he was alright, how he wasn't startled himself, how he was calm…but the knowledge that the war had been over for him for decades flitted through her mind. She swallowed hard and nodded at him that she was alright.
He squeezed her elbow ones more before he looked back at the house, the girls were gone, but so was Guido.
A moment later the earth around them shook, the sky darkening as screams began to sound on the streets.
"Rosanna's initiating the final phase," the Doctor realized.
"We need to stop her!" Amy determined, turning, about to rush off, "Come on!"
"No, no," the Doctor cut in, halting Amy with just his words, "Get back to the TARDIS."
"You can't stop her on your own."
"We don't discuss this!" the Doctor half snapped, really not in the mood for this, both the Ambassador and Rory's words echoing in his head about how he handled his companions, "I have the Ambassador to help me so if I tell you to do something, Amy, and you do it. Huh?"
Amy gave him a deadly glare before she turned to storm off. Rory spared him a single glance and quick, "Thank you," before he rushed off after her.
The Doctor took a deep breath and looked over at the Ambassador, the woman had been rather quiet during that little dispute. She was looking up at the sky with a distant gaze, "You alright?" he had to ask.
Venice might be sinking around him, but here was a Time Lady clearly struggling, and, call him selfish, but after everything he'd lost, the Time Lady's wellbeing would come first.
She was silent, still just looking up, her arms wrapped around her, the pendant of her necklace clenched tightly in her one hand.
"Sadie?"
She shook her head at that, seeming to snap herself out of her thoughts, "I'm sorry," she murmured, "It's just…the sky…it reminds me of…"
"When they were putting in the sky trenches?" he guessed, his mind had gone there as well for a brief moment, seeing how quickly the storm had begun to rage, how fast the sky had darkened.
"Yes."
He nodded, wanting so badly to reach out and comfort her at how her voice had broken, but knowing his touch would be unwelcome. It broke his hearts to know that he couldn't comfort someone in distress, it sort of went with the job description of being a 'doctor' to want to make people feel better, and he knew there was nothing he could do or say that would work here.
Even worse…when she found out exactly WHY the war ended the way it did…
He swallowed hard, "This isn't them," he tried instead, "This is Earth, and that's a storm."
"I know," the Ambassador whispered, taking a deep breath and quickly wiping beneath her eye as she turned to him, "A storm we need to stop."
"Well then," he gave her a gentle smile, "Geronimo."
~8~
The Ambassador couldn't help but frown as she followed the Doctor into the throne room of the Calvierri school. She had so hoped that this would work out better than it had, that something could have been worked out, that the peace could have been kept. But now the Signora had activated a device that could end up altering history if she did in fact sink Venice at that point in time. And now it was beyond negotiating, now it had to be stopped. It didn't help to think that at least they would be saving the humans, because all she could feel was that she'd failed to prevent it. She'd tried to help, gotten involved, and now the humans were suffering for it.
The Doctor flashed the room, the sonic picking up a signal coming from the Signora's throne, so he made his way over to it, scanning it deeper to try and figure out how to turn it off, "Help me?" he glanced at the Ambassador who moved closer to pry the back of the chair off while he examined the circuitry within.
"You're too late," the Signora called out as she entered the room, not seeming at all perturbed by the screams echoing up from the streets outside the school, "Such determination...just to save one city. Hard to believe it's the same man that let an entire race turn to cinders and ash."
The Ambassador looked over at the Doctor for that, not understanding what the woman was talking about. Oh she had heard numerous rumors of the Doctor's adventures, it was quite a 'hot topic' on Gallifrey exactly what the mad Time Lord was getting into. But she couldn't recall one where he turned an entire race to ash…
"Now you can watch as my people take their new kingdom."
"The girls have gone, Rosanna," the Doctor told her.
The woman stiffened at that, "You're lying."
"Shouldn't we be dead?"
"Signora," the Ambassador called out as the woman turned to stomp away, seeming to realize exactly what their presence there meant, "Please," she nearly begged, needing to offer her one more chance to stop this, to help, "Help us. Stop this. You're endangering 200,000 people…"
The woman just sent her a sneer, "So save them."
The Time Lords exchanged a look at that as the woman left, before the Ambassador crouched down near the Doctor to help examine the circuitry. The Doctor ran a hand through his hair, frustrated, and rushed to the window, looking out and around, trying to follow another signal the sonic had picked up. He looked up, half leaning out of the window to see a bell tower above the building. He huffed and moved back into the room just as Amy and Rory came running in.
"I thought he told you to go to the TARDIS," the Ambassador called, standing up when she spotted them too.
"Get out," the Doctor agreed, "We need to stabilize the storm."
"We're not leaving you," Rory stated, puffing out his chest a little.
"Right," the Doctor scoffed, striding over to them, "So one minute it's, 'you make people a danger to themselves,' the next it's, 'We're not leaving you!' But if one of you gets squashed or blown up or eaten, who gets..."
The four of them fell to the ground as the floor began to shake. The Ambassador rolled onto her back and gasped, rolling even more to avoid a piece of the ceiling that had started to fall down from the tremors.
"What was that?" Rory shouted, hurrying to help Amy up.
"An earthquake," the Ambassador told them, pushing herself up.
"An earthquake?" Amy frowned, catching her breath.
The Ambassador looked over at her, partially stunned, partially exasperated, "Do they teach you nothing in your schools on this planet? If you manipulate the elements, it will trigger earthquakes, which then trigger tidal waves. We DID say she wanted to sink Venice, yes?" she looked at the Doctor for that.
He nodded and clapped his hands together, "Right, Rosanna's throne is the control hub but she's locked the program, so tear out every single wire and circuit in the throne. Go crazy. Hit it with a stick, anything. Now, I'm going to see about the secondary hub!"
"Doctor!" the Ambassador called as he turned to head for the windows, before sighing and leading the humans over to the back of the throne. "We need to shut this down," she told them, "We do that it'll reroute power to the hub the Doctor mentioned. We shut this down and hopefully he can shut that one down."
She watched carefully as Amy and Rory began to tear out wire after wire, keeping a close eye on the wires in particular so that they wouldn't tear out anything that could electrocute them like the door had the Doctor nor anything that might cause the throne to explode and injure them.
"Ok, ok, enough!" she told them when the lights that had illuminated the circuitry flickered off, "It's done."
Amy beamed as she jumped up, "Come on, we need to help the Doctor!" and ran out of the room with Rory rushing after her.
The Ambassador sighed and groaned internally as the humans ran right out into the storm without a thought.
"There he is!" Rory pointed up as the Ambassador joined them.
And then she really did groan out loud when she caught sight of the Doctor clinging to the side of the bell tower's top and fiddling with something. So it wasn't just the humans, the Doctor also had a habit of rushing into anything without any thought.
"Come on!" Rory encouraged, Amy joining him, "Come on!"
She watched intently as the Doctor seemed to find something, because a moment later the rain cleared away and the sky turned blue again, birds even began to chirp once more. Amy and Rory let out whooping cheers and hugged each other, laughing in joy for a success. The Ambassador just kept her eye on the Doctor, watching as he began to climb down the side of the bell tower with surprising caution.
Unfortunately, she knew it wasn't over yet.
~8~
The Ambassador slowly approached the Signora as the woman stood at the end of a dock above the canal, stripped down to her chemise and staring down at the water as it bubbled unnaturally. The Doctor had offered to speak to the Signora, but she had turned down the offer, SHE needed to do this. She felt responsible for the turn of events, she needed to be able to say she really had done everything she could. Maybe, it was a small chance, but maybe the Signora would still consider her sons in the water, their family, and accept the offer to take everyone and go somewhere else. They couldn't promise it would be a place where she could convert more people, she'd displayed a lack of care for anything but her own people, but they could at least give her a place where they could be themselves.
"You don't have to do this," the Ambassador called gently as the woman walked along a plank, closer to the water. It was clear what she intended to do.
"One city to save an entire species," the woman murmured, "Was that so much to ask?"
"You can't have the entire city, it doesn't work like that, the humans were here first," the Ambassador tried to explain, "We could have worked with you, helped you work out a way to do it, but it never would have been as fast as you wanted it to be. You didn't show any compassion or understanding, any willingness to compromise, especially when you set off that device. Now…" she took a breath, "Now the only thing to do is mourn and try to find a way to live."
The Signora turned partly to look at the Time Lady over her shoulder, "Tell me, Ambassador, is that what you did?"
The Ambassador swallowed hard, "It's what I'm trying to do."
It was still too soon, too raw, but there was nothing else to do. Even with a TARDIS, she couldn't go back and change the past, not like that. The only direction to go was forward and the only thing to do was to try and mourn.
The Signora just gave her a smirk, "When you think of your people, think of us too," and opened her arms, letting herself fall backwards into the water.
The Ambassador flinched and closed her eyes, slowly turning away and covering her ears so she wouldn't have to hear the bubbling increase or stop.
~8~
The Ambassador walked beside the Doctor, Rory, and Amy, through the streets of Venice as the townspeople made work of cleaning up the streets. She had her arms crossed, looking down more so than where she was going, just lost in thought about the situation that had happened.
"Now, then, what about you two, eh?" the Doctor was talking to Amy and Rory, "Next stop Leadworth Register Office? Maybe I can give you away."
"It's fine," Rory shook his head, "Drop me back where you found me. I'll..."
"No," the Ambassador spoke up, looking over at Rory who appeared a little startled, "You're the only other person here with any sense."
Rory smiled a bit at that.
"Yeah," Amy agreed, both sounding like she was pipping up a little too quickly but also sounding somewhat reluctant at the same time, like she knew she HAD to say something but didn't really want to, "Stay with us. Please. Just for a bit. I want you to stay."
"Fine with me," the Doctor offered. The more Rory was there, the less Amy would try to touch HIM, at least he hoped.
"Yeah?" Rory looked around, "Yes, I would like that."
"Nice one," Amy smiled and kissed Rory on the cheek, "I will pop the kettle on," she remarked, unlocking the TARDIS, "Hey," she smiled at them, "Look at this. Got my spaceship, got my boys. My work here is done."
Rory scoffed as Amy disappeared within the box, "We are not her boys."
"I'M not," the Doctor grinned, patting Rory on the shoulder and gesturing for him to head into the TARDIS. He shut the door after Rory and looked over at the Ambassador, "You sure you're alright?"
She gave him a small smile, "From this trip or in general?"
"Either one?"
"No," she could admit, "No I don't think I'll be alright for quite a while."
"Understandable," he nodded, "Um…if…if you ever need to talk or…or you have questions…I'm here."
He had probably just dug his own grave with that promise, if she asked him how the war ended…but he didn't want to lie. If she wanted to know, he'd tell her, he'd make himself tell her the truth. But…if there was even a chance that she might not ask just yet, he did want her to know he was there to talk about anything else.
"Thank you."
He smiled a bit, about to say something else when he noticed something odd, "Do you hear that?"
She looked around, glancing at the people working, all of them…very quiet, and frowned. Despite the sounds they were making, it was far TOO quiet, "It's gone silent…"
The Doctor glanced at the others too, "Through some we saw silence…" he murmured, repeating the Signora's words.
The Time Lords looked at each other a moment at that, before looking around at the area once more, the sound resuming, and turned to get back into the TARDIS.
A/N: I feel like, after the War, not much would scare the Ambassador let alone a set of fangs ;) And Rory! I feel like it's almost impossible to hate Rory, though a particular upcoming TL OC might be more neutral to his presence in the story, but gotta love Rory :) I couldn't see Sadie just letting him go since he had so many of the same reactions as she did, he's like the only sane one there besides her lol :) She'd need him around so she doesn't get out voted by Amy and the Doctor ;)
I can say that, when it comes to exactly what connection she has with the Doctor, we'll find out much more about it in The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood ;)
And finally, thank you all so much for your amazing reviews and welcome backs :') I really am so happy to be back and updating again and I'm so happy that it made you all happy as well, I really can't wait to see where Sadie goes and I hope you'll all enjoy what's coming ;)
Some notes on reviews...
It kills me to have Sadie pull away from the Doctor too, he's always SO sad when she does :'( But I just remind myself that, to her, what she's doing isn't cruel...it's sort of a small mercy, but we won't find out why that is for a few more chapters ;) I agree though, it was refreshing to see the Doctor let her take charge this time. I think he's so used to be the only one who has a better idea of what's going on and how to handle things that now he's got someone else around, he can finally breathe. He can step back and, if something goes wrong, for once it's not on HIM. Even though he would, of course, do everything to help make the situation go right, but he's not alone in having to lead the way any more :)
I'm so glad you liked the twist of the Ambassador going in instead :D I've actually got another Time Lady OC planned who is unbaised like Sadie but in a different way. Where Sadie is 'everyone who isn't of Gallifrey is an alien to me, they're all equal, so I'll try to help both sides' the other OC is more 'everyone who isn't of Gallifrey is an alien to me, and I don't really care about either side, so move aside and let me work' sort of thing. The Doctor is quite biased and in favor of the humans, even when, sometimes, they are the ones that started it against the aliens :( I think he does need someone around who isn't as enamored with humans as he is and really does see them as aliens too :)
Thank you! It means so much to me to know you're enjoying the stories so much :') I loved the little tweaks to the Merlin stories too, there was just SO MUCH potential to do things differently than the legend and I wanted to explore more of that :) For this story, if you think the connection and it's stigma is bad now...it gets even sadder when you find out exactly what the connection is and examine the way the Doctor reacts to it :'( It broke my heart to get into his head during those moments when all is revealed :'( But we'll have to wait and find out what it is }:)
I really enjoyed writing an OC who really is a complete stranger to the Doctor but has at least heard a little about him, but who also had a love of her own with someone else. Like Evy, Proffy, Mac, and the Judge, they all knew him, they all loved him at one point (Mac needed quite a bit of time to remember that though). Angel was a stranger to him, but she had time to mourn the loss of Gallifrey, she had her intuition to help her accept what he'd done, and she saw him as an amazing person. Mac was close to opposing him in the sense that she was so furious with him over what he did, not knowing about Rassilon's final plans. But with Sadie, she was married, she loved her husband, she JUST came from the war with no time to mourn or process what happened, and the Doctor is a stranger to her. She has to mourn the loss of her husband before even being able to look at him that way, and then there's what he did at the end of the war...and their connection which just sort of makes it all worse and more difficult. Sadie's refreshing in that she's really got so much stacked against the Doctor in the present (unlike Mac in the past), that it'll be an interesting journey to watch her fall in love and try to find ways around this connection ;)
Oh there will be quite a bit of emotional struggle to come };) Sadie's sort of been trained and learned how to adapt and remain calm. Things come up during negotiations and investigations that could be alarming or dangerous, especially if negotiations turn hostile, so she needs to know how to keep her head level and remain calm, how to take it in quickly and process it later. For her, I think a tiny part is being in at least something of a familiar place, like a TARDIS, with at least one of her people around, but there will be things coming up...very soon actually...that will turn everything upside down and we'll really see her struggling with what happened }:)