Just to start off before the chapter- I am extremely sorry for the humungous wait between chapters, especially considering the cliffhanger on the last chapter. I realize it has been over half a year, and for that I am extremely apologetic(if you couldn't tell beforehand.) I originally planned to get back to this story after Hell Month at my school(Soo many different things all trying to occupy the same space at the same time,) yet, as you can tell, that didn't happen. Hell Month turned into Hell Semester and a Half and all of a sudden it's summer and I'm away for two months. School just started and I decided I must finish this.
If you didn't have the patience to read that apology- my views on this chapter- I am not too happy with this, I had two strong stories(at least, in my opinion), but about nine chapters in I realized I had completely forgotten the second one, but it is essential to the story and now it awkwardly pops up again. If you don't notice- Huzzah! If you do… ah well.
Anyways- I apologize for the extremely long gap between chapters, and hope that you still enjoy this story.
And, also- to all those who reviewed during my absence, I normally try to reply, yet was unable to. So, as of now- Thank you very much for your reviews, I really appreciate them, and I feel extremely bad for not having given a continuation of the story until now, and I hope you are still interested in and enjoying this story.
Chapter 10
Movement
Tosh moaned loudly. She was tied down, in complete darkness, but that could just be her eyes, there had been a burst of color and light before she had passed out, and something heavy was trapping her right leg. Not just heavy- sharp. As she struggled against the bindings, she realized they weren't rope as she had originally suspected, but a thick plant material which was not in fact tied around her arms, just pinning them awkwardly to her sides.
"Owen! Tosh! Ianto!" Jack's voice sounded oddly muffled until Tosh moved her head to try and catch sight of the immortal. All was black. And green. So it wasn't her eyes then. Unless blind people naturally saw green, which she highly doubted. Something tickled her nose and she blew at it quickly, only to have it come right back into her cheek. It was smooth and roundish from what she could tell, the nerves in her cheek not accurate enough to pick up that sort of detail. But there was enough information to figure it out.
They were leaves.
"What?" Tosh muttered through the pain.
"I've got Ianto!" Martha.
There was a dull scraping sound accompanied by the sound of tearing plant material.
"Yeah. Yeah. I'm fine," Ianto.
"Owen?" Jack. His voice had moved over to around where Ianto's had come from.
A dull bang, as though someone had knocked over a chair onto a padded floor.
"I'm 'ere, watch it!" Owen "There's a bloody plant in my face."
"There are 'bloody plants' everywhere, Owen," Ianto again, with the tone of voice he used to point out the obvious to the callous doctor.
"Careful with him, Martha," Jack warned, "Try and keep him away from the thorns."
The rustle of leaves, slight grunts, and then a tearing sound.
"And there goes my jacket," Owen again, "Fucking thorns. Try and avoid 'em and they come back stronger."
"Where's Tosh?" Ianto once more.
"I'm here," Tosh managed to gasp out, trying to keep her chest above the floor, with what little movement her arms could accomplish, which seemed to be covered in vines- the position put less strain on her leg.
"Hold on," Jack's voice came from a few feet to her left. After a few seconds, Tosh heard the sound of vines tearing and felt a slight breeze as a clump of leaves was moved out from in front of her face.
"Here," Martha's hand gripped Tosh's arm, obviously about to help pull her out.
"Wait! My leg, it's stuck," Tosh shouted, not wanting to cause anymore pain to her calf, which was at this moment, being tenderized by some sort of coffee shop furnishing.
"Got it. Owen." Ianto's voice came from behind her and soon the pressure was lifted slightly, "That should do it, it's one of the booths."
Tosh was quickly pulled out of the vines. As she stood, the dull thud of the booth hitting the floor accompanied the sounds of Ianto, and Owen trying to make their way back to them.
The room was barely lit- the windows seemed to be blocked by-
"Are those plants?" Tosh asked, as Martha checked her leg quickly.
"Yeah, everything's covered," Jack said.
"Not just that, they all look like they've been here for years," Owen said, "From what I can tell, these vines are almost half a foot thick, and a type I've never seen before on Earth, or in the hothouse for that matter."
"It was Trails," Ianto said, helping Owen through a particularly dense clump of vines, "She threw something at us and these sprouted up."
"There was a flash of light, what-" Tosh started to ask, but Martha answered before she had finished.
"The plants hit the lights before the power source, so the bulbs exploded. And, from what we can tell, there was some major friction from these plants growing so fast and close together. It was pretty hot in here for a bit, but it's cooled down, obviously," Martha said as Tosh shivered and tried to stand to inspect the plants, "Better not do that. I don't have the equipment with me, obviously, for an in-depth scan, but I can tell you're going to get major bruising from the booth and you shouldn't put a lot of pressure on it, I'm not sure how long the thing was on your leg, but the pressure could have weakened your bone if it had dropped on top of it. Owen, keep an eye on her," Martha took on the persona of the doctor as she directed Owen to make sure Tosh didn't stand as she checked Ianto, and secondly Tosh, for any major cuts or bruises caused by the abnormal plant growth.
"Right, Ianto, check to see if there's anyone else in here," Jack said as soon as it was clear the Welshman was physically all right, "Owen see if you can find any sort of familiar plants-" Martha started to protest, but he continued nevertheless, "Tosh, stay sitting and see if you can get any signal on your scanner, and see if you can find a way to communicate with anyone outside. Martha, you and I can help Ianto."
Gwen was huddled in a corner.
She did not know which corner.
It was a corner.
It was a corner in a dark room.
It was a corner in a dark room which had once held two people.
It was a corner in a dark room which had once held two people, yet now only held one.
One.
Alone.
A deep, shaky breath.
"Calm down Gwen."
Gwen brought her head up to connect with the wall. The stars became the only form of light in the silent, black room.
She did it once more, groaning. There was a sinking sensation deep within herself.
Terror. Depression. .
"Gwen. Stop. It. It wasn't your fault. He was just-"
She froze.
"Who's there?"
There was something across the room. She had seen movement.
Somehow.
"Talk. Now."
No answer.
"I mean it. I have a gun. I'm a good shot."
Only silence.
She whimpered.
The Doctor pulled himself up into a sitting position, noting almost immediately the ache in his left elbow, most likely from hard contact with the pavement where he was now lying. Glancing down quickly, he ascertained that he was not injured- just slightly ruffled.
"Right," He said sharply, standing, "Care to explain?" He gestured towards once had recently been a café, but now resembled an overgrown exhibit of a tropical habitat. If he had not been standing in that very building moments before, he would have believed the plant growth had been there for years.
Alice Trails jumped up, moving over to gently help Michael into a standing position, "Look, we need to get out of here-"
"Not until you explain why you have alien florae," The Doctor stated firmly- torn between worry for his friends and their colleagues, and the possibility of discovering what was going on. He walked up to Trails while adding, "And while you're explaining the alien florae, how about this boy?"
"I will explain, but not here," Alice glanced frantically at the café, "Is your ship nearby?"
"Right, there's another very good question I have for you- You know who I am. How?" The Doctor said stubbornly, once more he had decide whether to be gentle, as he would normally like, or firm- which this case seemed to call for. The woman standing before him might hold an extremely advanced, rare- and not to mention, banned- torture device. It could be anyone, to be honest, but the odds weren't in her favor of it not.
"Please- Doctor, you're in danger," Alice said, trying to grab his wrist.
"From them… or you?" The Doctor stepped out of her range.
Her eyes widened in panic, "Th-"
"I thought we weren't supposed to plant the seeds."
Both the Doctor and Alice jumped slightly, they had both forgotten about the young boy standing between them, the recent developments putting them both on edge. He was watching the slower of the vines finish their growth, winding in and out of the windows of the café, every now and then a vibrantly colored flower blooming and setting a splash of color against the dark green that had overtaken almost half the street by now.
"Michael," Alice grimaced slightly, then she gasped, kneeling next to him, "Michael!"
The Doctor- not one to ignore when someone might be in danger, or hurt for that matter- knelt down next to her. They both sighed shortly when they noted what Alice had first thought to be a large gash in the boys forehead was just a large scrape which yielded much blood, but was not very deep.
What the Doctor also noticed was that underneath the blood-matted bangs, he could now see a small- barely visible blue mark.
"You're AnteNoctes," The Doctor stood as Alice quickly wiped Michael's forehead she pulled out of her purse after a short minute of rummaging, "This planet is an AntePerCaelum- you're not allowed to be here."
"No, we aren't supposed to be here," Alice corrected him, "I understand… timelines…" She added distractedly as she helped Michael walked slowly, but steadily away from the café and into a nearby alley, motioning for the Doctor to follow.
Keeping close for two reasons- worry for Michael, and the need to understand what was going on- the Doctor took the tissue from her and pulled out his sonic screwdriver.
Muttering-"Let's hope she left the cauterization setting on here," the Doctor ran the glowing green tip lightly across the boy's forehead motioning for him to sit. As soon as the bleeding lessened, he turned to the Headmistress, then paused- "Amy!"
The Scottish red head started, as did her husband, both of whom were staring at the now-plant-covered café. They had both frozen in their path to the café as they took in the sight of their destination being overtaken by colorful alien vines.
"Doctor! What happened?"
"Exactly what I was asking here," The Doctor looked at Alice, who now was glancing nervously at his two companions. "You'd better have a good explanation as to why two AnteNoctes are here with illegal florae on an AntePerCaelum planet, specifically Port 1."
"Ante-whats?" Amy asked, entering the alleyway with Rory following close behind.
"AnteNoctes- that's what they are," The Doctor said, deciding to cut his normally rambling explanation short so as to get to the answers fastest, "Generally historians- archaeologists- pre-flight psychologists, that sort of thing. Except, they knew- as that twisted form of time-travellers they are- to stay away from human-inhabited planets. Especially this one. All AntePerCaelum planets."
"So they're aliens," Rory said.
"Not quite," The Doctor said, "They are humans- just a couple thousand years in the future- or their grandparents were- judging by his mark. As the humans expanded throughout your galaxy, the Milky Way as you know it, they started to make attempts at all time travel. It always failed, as they had not yet come into contact with my people enough to try and base their machines on our ships. Until a TARDIS broke through the barriers set up around the Great Time War. It crashed, and these future humans- AnteNoctes- "before the Night" as they are known, were colonizing the planet on which the TARDIS crashed. It caused a break in the Time Vortex, sucking the whole colony through. The TARDIS grown during that time were not built to be sturdy, just fast and strong- more dangerous. Anyways, the colonizing humans were taken back to nearly two hundreds before this current time, the twenty-first century. In the future, years later, they were able to send messages, but not recover the lost humans. Since then, the humans used their scavenged technology to spread across the galaxy, collecting information about the past to send to the future, a first hand account. Yet, they are not allowed on Earth, until the first colonizing vessel is sent out of the atmosphere- PerCaelum. They would only observe, never touching down. Until now. And now, it is time for you to explain."
"Fine," Alice Trails said, glancing across the road to the café. "If you already know about the device, then I might as well tell you we need to move. Please, can we move to a safer place. Besides, we're outside its reach, it will follow us. Michael won't handle this well. "
Almost as if to accentuate her point, Michael slumped over in her arms, the semi-dried blood from the scrape on his head smearing over her blouse.
"Alright. Fine," the Doctor amended, "Rory. Help her. Amy, get them into the TARDIS. Keep her in front of you. I'll get the others."
"No!" Alice shouted as he turned to leave, "They think it's you! They're going to capture you! They aren't police! They will capture you and kill you! They are Torchwood."
"Two out of five," The Doctor noted, "They are my friends. They'll know by now that I'm me… the Doctor," He frowned slightly, "Besides, Torchwood is different now. They won't-" He stopped short, "Well, I won't say that yet. You had better have a good explanation for having brought a Relaiin torture device to Earth. A very good one."
With that, the Doctor spun about and ran off, leaving his two companions to help Alice and Michael to the TARDIS.
Gwen tightened her grip around her knees, not caring that her legs were cramping ferociously.
She felt safe.
Not safe enough to open her eyes.
Safer than before.
Well, not exactly.
Still. It gave her comfort.
A noise.
Now… that on the other hand.
Taking a deep breath, Gwen slowly opened her eyes, trying to stay completely still.
At first, she thought it must be the pressure from keeping her eyes shut so tightly.
No.
It was light.
"How?"
She jumped up.
Fell.
"Fuck."
Grabbing the wall, she hoisted herself up, leaning heavily against the vertical surface, staring out the now open door.
She moved towards it.
Froze.
Slowly turned around.
The room was empty.
No Round Ball of Doom.
No Michael.
"Where-?"
She should stay.
She should attempt to figure it out.
She should-
She needed to get out.
"The door might close again." She reasoned.
She walked out, quickly switched to running.
She needed to find Jack.
She headed out of the school.
To the town.
"Shit Tosh, that looks nasty," Owen stated as he gently brushed the torn material which had once been her trousers(A/N- Is this correct? I'm trying to keep it as 'authentically Torchwoodish as possible).
"Right, thanks Owen, I feel a lot better now." Tosh muttered sarcastically, clenching her jaw in reaction to the pain. A minor injury such as this would normally not effect her as strongly as the current one did, but the added pressure of stress, the rapidly changing temperatures, and an always lurking sense of-
"Owen?" Tosh looked up at the doctor so quickly, he jumped back.
"Did I hurt you?" He asked in an uncharacteristically caring voice.
"No. Just… Do you feel like something's been watching us? Or, that something bad is going to happen. Or-"
"Where's Gwen?" Jack's voice cut through her questioning. "Did any of you see her?"
"She was with us," Tosh said, before freezing and bursting out, "Shit! I left her. I forgot about her. She could be in danger. She could-"
"Tosh!" Owen's hand shot out, covering her mouth, "Tosh," He repeated, more gently this time, "Calm down. What's wrong with you?" The way he asked the question made it obvious he was worried about her, not acting his normal, callous self. "If anyone should feel the blame for having lost Gwen it should be-"
"Oh God. Me." Martha gasped, sitting down on one of the less-ripped bar stools.
"Shit," Jack breathed, moving over to Martha slowly, "I thought he said it didn't extend this far out."
"What doesn't?" Tosh grabbed Jack's arm as he passed by her.
"There's this… device." Jack tried to find a way to describe it gently to the over-scared women, "It causes nightmares… waking nightmares. They're so vivid you can't even tell they're not real, even if it's something you know to be impossible. Like-"
"Like Lisa." Ianto cut in quietly.
"Lisa?" Tosh asked, momentarily confused, until it dawned on her, "Oh. Ianto, I'm sorry-"
"So that's who you saw." Jack glanced at Ianto, "It felt real, didn't it?"
Ianto nodded silently, his face deceptively calm.
"Ianto, I'm sorry, but we need to figure this out now. You saw her in the entrance hall, right?" Jack asked, continuing as Ianto nodded once more, "Our phones having been sketchy throughout the grounds, the Doctor seemed to think the radius of the device didn't extend past the hotel, which is closer to the school than the town."
"It's getting closer." Tosh whimpered.
Martha slid to the floor, wrapping her arms around her knees, "And we're stuck here."
Ianto fiddled with his cuffs, "How're we going to get out of this Jack?"
Owen frowned, "Hold on. I know you three well enough," he pointed to Jack, Tosh, and Ianto, "To know, Tosh and Ianto aren't normally like this. Neither are you from what I've seen" he nodded to Martha, "So why aren't we panicking?" He directed the question to Jack.
"I'm a more… refined form of human. It takes a little longer for it to affect me," Jack explained, "At least, the one I've seen before. You… well, my best guess is, since it is similar to a reverse telepath, since you have no living brain activity, it can't implant images or emotions. Just a guess."
"Well then, for now, I guess it's just you and me," Owen looked over at Martha, head buried in her arms, "Talk to Ianto, he mentioned something a while ago about the new secretary being familiar, I'll stay with these two," Owen motioned to Martha and Tosh.
Jack agreed and went over to Ianto.
"Jack?" Ianto asked.
"What?"
"If we're beyond the original radius…" Ianto paused, "What if it's moved?"
"Last time I checked, Ianto," Jack replied, "These psychological torture devices don't have legs."
"But what if it has Gwen?"
I hope you enjoyed that chapter(I'm not too happy with it.) I realize it's not much more than the last one. But I will do my best to get the next one posted as soon as possible. And I don't mean nine months again(As much as I wish I were David Tennant, I will just settle for imitating him-I'm so so sorry.) Hopefully I will have a new chapter by the weekend. At most, the end of the month- but I will NOT sit around for 29 days and then panic and put out a crappy chapter after I remember my promise. Anyways, thank you for reading, I'm sorry I haven't replied to any new comments(I will start replying again now) and I hope you still enjoy the story.