So who wants a super quick update? You do? WELL HERE YOU GO! :D Beta'd of course by the wonderful SchmEthan, who has now buggered off on a camping trip, so no updates 'till Tuesday unless I ask Kiarra-Chan really nicely :3 ALSO: When I said chapter ten in the last notes yesterday I of course meant chpater twelve. Do excuse me. D:
Anywho, here it is! Enjoy! :D
Truth be told, the truth be told, I worry about the future holds, the future holds...
The Hoosiers - Worried About Ray
5th of March, 2010. Westminster, England.
'The train for Westminster to Canterbury has been delayed due to an anomaly on the tracks. We apologise for the inconvenience, and hope to resume normal services as soon as possible.'
Lucy Stillman didn't wait for the speaker to click off to let out a groan of dismay. She'd be late. England's best Abstergo agents would be waiting in a meeting room and she'd be late…
'Shit,' she summarised perfectly, and reached down by her feet for her laptop bag. She pulled out the computer, sat it on her lap and lifted the 'd best send an email off to Vidic before she was blamed. They couldn't do much to her if she was, she knew – she was far too valuable, but still, the consequences would be severe.
Jesus. How long would she have to keep up this Abstergo act? Any information with any value had been relayed back to the Assassins months ago. There was nothing new to find. Surely she was done?
Any communication she got back from the Assassins was all the same. Stay where you are. Keep investigating. Your position is vital to our blah blah blah.
Grimacing in frustration, the screen flickered into life, and the Abstergo logo came into view briefly before she opened up her email. She tapped the touchpad impatiently as the little hourglass obediently flipped itself over and over. Lucy let her eyes wander.
She seemed to be the only one on the platform. It was absolutely silent. It was chilly down there too – Lucy wrapped her coat around herself and huffed. Still, the peace was nice.
The laptop beeped.
ERROR: No connection.
'Great. Exactly what I need.' Lucy said, and flicked the screen in growing frustration as she attempted to search for networks. 'Come on!'
ERROR: No networks found.
'Wonderful,' Lucy hissed at it. 'Come on, you piece of crap. You can do it, you just don't feel like it.'
ERROR: No networks found.
Lucy swore. Brilliant. Fucking brilliant.
'Christ, I hate technology,' she muttered, and went to slam down the lid.
'Now that's not fair.'
Lucy started violently, and looked up sharply – there was a man standing in front of her who wasn't there before. Lucy's suspicions immediately went up on the rise, and her thoughts immediately went to the pepper spray in her pocket. You'd get suspicious as soon as you looked at him. It wasn't that expectant look he had on his face, but it was the way he was dressed. Seriously – converses and a suit? And where'd he get that coat from – Inspector Gadget? And that hair? It looked like he'd stuck a finger in a socket and stood there for a while.
'Excuse me?' She challenged.
'S'not fair to blame your laptop,' the strange man said. 'S'only doing its best.'
Lucy's brain struggled to understand what the hell he was talking about.
'Right,' she managed, and smiled thinly, her eyes sliding over to the stairs. If she ran, would she make it? The laptop could go screw itself for all she cared. Her thoughts went to the pepper spray again.
'I can fix it!'
Lucy looked back to him in surprise – he looked quite eager now, and when he put his hands in his suit pockets and his strange coat went behind his wrists, Lucy couldn't help but notice just how slim he was. And now she thought of it, he really was quite good looking too. She warmed to him.
Slightly.
In a response, she arched an eyebrow. 'Really?'
''Course! I can fix loads of things, me. 'Specially laptops, they're my favourite.' He grinned at her, and Lucy became slightly less wary.
'Its nothing major – it just won't connect.' She explained.
'Nah, that won't be a problem – I can fix that in a jiffy. Sorry about the delay, by the way, s'kinda my fault. I left my spaceship on the track. It's you lot and your GPS; I had to turn that annoying voice off after we nearly hit the moon...' The man winced slightly as he tugged on his earlobe.
Lucy blinked at him. 'Your spaceship?'
'Hmm?' The man looked at her as though she misheard what she'd said. She must have heard him wrong. Spaceship? The moon? Surely not.
'Never mind,' she said, shaking her head, and held out the laptop. 'I really appreciate this…'
'Nah, not at all.' The man grinned at her, took the laptop and sat down on the bench beside her. 'Now, what've we got here…' He murmured, and fished a pair of glasses out of his pocket. Lucy watched him as he sat it on his lap and started clicking. 'I'm the Doctor, by the way.'
Lucy frowned. Odd name… She thought. And what on earth is he doing?
The Doctor had shut the lid of the laptop and lifted the whole thing above him, frowning at all the numbers on the base.
'Uhm. The connection probably doesn't go there…' She started as he fished in his pockets again, but stopped as he pulled out a weird silver looking thing with what looked like a blue light on the end. He pointed it at the base, and it buzzed at such an intensity that Lucy started.
She knew what that thing was.
'That's a sonic device.' She murmured.
The Doctor looked at her. 'And how do you know that?' he asked.
He seemed like the kind of guy who couldn't focus on anything for about a minute. Did he have some kind of disorder? Seemed like it. But Lucy knew she had his absolute full attention now – it was the way he was staring at her intently. She squirmed uncomfortably. There was no way in hell that she'd tell him that they were trained to use them at Abstergo.
'Studied science at college,' she lied.
The Doctor stared for a moment longer. 'Hmm,' was all he uttered, and then turned back to the laptop. Lucy sighed a little in relief, before she noticed just what he was doing to her laptop. 'Hey!' she shouted as the Doctor began to prise open the plastic – and he managed it with a surprising amount of strength. 'What the hell are you doing?'
'Oh look at that!' The Doctor said gleefully as mounds of wires spilled out of the laptop. How had he known those were in there? The guys at Abstergo made sure that the laptops seemed as average as possible -
'Look at all this!' He exclaimed, setting the laptop down on his lap again, and began pulling out the wires. 'What've we got here...infrared scanning…super-duper spy ware…audio equipment and the webcam! Cor, it can go round 360 degees! This stuff is immense!' Lucy stared, stunned that he could tell that much from looking at a bunch of coloured wires. 'Humans aren't meant to have technology pulled together like this for another twenty years – so the question is, what're you doing with it, Lucy Stillman?'
'I – how do you know my name?' Lucy breathed.
'A bit of detective work. You work at Abstergo industries, which is actually a front for a Templar operation, but you're actually an Assassin infiltrating from the inside, which is quite admirable, doing that all by yourself with no back up team. But you're frustrated that you've been kicking around there so long with no new information and no new leads. You were almost silenced by the company a few months ago when you nearly spoke out about the Animus Project but a man called Warren Vidic saved you. And I need you to do something for me, Lucy Stillman.'
Lucy just stared at him.
'I've had trouble with Vidic before. He started playing around with technology he didn't understand, and if he'd had carried on with it, the Shadow Proclamation would've hit Earth hard for galactic treason. I had to stop him, but there'll be a time in the future where we'll meet again, and next time it won't be so easy. I need to do this now.'
Lucy struggled to get a response out. He knew everything. And how could he know that they were going to meet again in the future? What was he, psychic? How the hell did she know whether he was telling the truth or not? But it seemed so utterly unlikely that it could be true. And if there was a chance to help defeat the Templars, then surely the Creed demanded she take the opportunity…
Jesus.
'O.K.' she managed.
The Doctor's look narrowed. 'Are you sure?'
Lucy nodded.
'Alright. Give me a pen.'
Lucy stirred herself into action, and rummaged in the pockets of her coats for a brio. It wasn't anything special – just slightly cracked at the top from where she'd chewed it. The Doctor took it, and then put it in his pocket.
Lucy looked expectant. The Doctor looked puzzled.
'That's it.' He said.
'What?'
'I needed your pen.'
'You're kidding.'
'Nope.'
'A big speech about my life and the future and all you wanted was my pen?'
'Yup.' The Doctor popped the "p", grinned, but frowned when all he got in return was a glare. 'What?' He looked around him, and then he realised. 'Oh, your laptop! Gimme' a sec – ' He pulled it back onto his lap, and with a flurry of fingers, had all the wires back inside of it. Placing the piece of plastic he'd pried off between his teeth, he held the laptop with one hand and fished for his sonic device again, and upon pulling it out, he took the piece of plastic, rammed it onto the laptop, ran the device around it and handed the whole thing back to Lucy.
'There you go. Good as new.' He grinned, taking off the glasses and putting the device back in his pocket. Lucy took the laptop.
'…Thanks.' She said finally.
'No problem. OH!' Lucy started as he reached over, took her firmly by the shoulders, and stared right into her eyes.
She couldn't look away.
'9. 6. 7. 4. 2.' The Doctor said. 'Remember those numbers.'
He stood up abruptly and walked away, his coat billowing out behind him as he made his way up the stairs and out of the train station.
Lucy sat back against the bench, ever so slightly stunned. She stayed like that until ten minutes later, when her train pulled up at the platform and a strange noise echoed down the tracks – as though something otherworldly were leaving.
Time is Relative
The Doctor stared into space as the memory slammed into him. All the memories from his previous persona had just been…forgotten. He'd known Vidic and Abstergo to be a fact – but all these details had just melted into nothing with all the regeneration energy.
He knew he'd meet Vidic again. He'd known he needed Lucy.
But why?
'Are we having a trip down memory lane, Doctor?' Vidic's voice said. The Doctor laced his hands together and raised them to his mouth. His eyes flickered upwards.
'You don't know what game you're playing, Vidic.'
'Oh I do. And here're the rules. If you're not at TORCHWOOD 6.2 in the next hour, then we silence Lucy Stillman. For good. Your move, Doctor.'
There was a click, and all that could be heard was the dial tone ringing out in the TARDIS.
Like the sound on a monitor when a heart stops.
12th of April, 2012. Scotland.
'Well done Lucy!' Vidic congratulated the woman in the glass box as he clicked off from the call from his ear piece. He approached the prison again just as Lucy hung up her phone. 'You keep that, we'll be needing it again. Don't think you can call anyone on it though, I'll have our people turn off the signal in this room.'
Lucy didn't look up. 'Just let Desmond out. Please.'
'We'll think about it. Ciao for now,' Vidic said pleasantly, and motioned for his group to follow him out. As the guard shut the door behind them, McDonald caught up with Vidic.
'Uhm. Sir?'
'What?'
'Are we really going to let Miles out?'
'Do you take me as stupid, McDonald?'
'No. Sir.'
Well, I just love where this is going. I've just finished chapter fourteen and I must say, this has to be the thing I've enjoyed writing the most since The Science of Magic (For my new readers, my Who/Potter crossover and my first ever fic) Can't wait to finish the whole thing and get it all up here! :D Hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it, and please review! :D *LESS THAN THREE*
