A/N: Hey all! Once again (I seem to be doing this every chapter lately!) I'm sorry for not updating for a while...my university tutors seem to think that Christmas time is the best time to start handing out assignments. FOOLS! Anyway, thanks for the 'get well' messages...I am indeed back up to full health and I come bearing a new chapter and it's pretty mammoth!
As ever, thanks for reviewing the last chapter: MayFairy, padmay97, alyssa love, D0ctor and Olive Russell (x2)!
The Oncoming Storm
"No, not yet." The Doctor whined, attempting to stroke the hand that was shaking him awake. "Fred, stop it. We were all comfy. Come back to bed."
"No, thanks." A voice growled. The Doctor's eyes shot open to see Napier grinning at him. "Come on, lover boy. We need to start making tracks if we're gonna get to Arrow's Head by midday."
Napier threw him his shirt, braces, bow tie and jacket which had been draped over the chair in the corner and left, leaving the Doctor alone in the room. He had no idea where Fred had gone. They had slept in the same bed numerous times before but she had never woken earlier than him before. He supposed that everything had changed since she had become a soldier.
"Good, everyone's here." Fred said loudly, getting everyone's attention. The Doctor settled against the wall next to Amy who looked as equally out of place as he was. "We'll be setting off in a moment but I just wanted to wish you all luck before we leave. This won't be easy; Arrow's Head is swarming with Malums but General Garnett assures me that help is already en-route so we won't be fighting alone."
"Who? Not the Army lot?" Rudi asked, already groaning at the thought of Army presence.
"No, not the Army. Garnett said that Elite One are on their way from a mission in the south and will be at Arrow's Head by nightfall."
There was a murmur of discontent among the Elite 2 soldiers.
"Fat lot of use that'll be. We'll be done by nightfall." Deimos said confidently, fondling the gun in his hands and staring blankly ahead with an eerie determination.
"Right, well. That's all I suppose. I expect everyone to spend ten minutes checking everything; I don't want to be halfway to Arrow's Head to find we haven't got enough ammo."
They all began bustling around at her words, attaching ammo packs to their armoured suits and checking their helmets for any weaknesses. Fred began to make her way over to the Doctor, Amy and Rory but Napier's hand on her arm stopped her. He glanced over his shoulder at her friends before muttering something in her ear. She nodded in agreement and Napier released her, opened a crate behind him and presented the Doctor and Amy with two jackets and two helmets. They just stared at him.
"Take the damn things!" He demanded roughly as Fred joined him, and gave them a nod of encouragement. Amy took hers slowly but the Doctor refused. Napier gave him a fierce glare.
"Oh, Doctor just take them!" Fred exclaimed. She thought after they had straightened everything out yesterday he might actually realise that he needed to listen to other people's advice for a change but apparently not.
"No. No, no, no, I'm not wearing military uniform. I'm not becoming a sol – "
"No one's trying to make you a soldier! This is just protective gear, nothing military. Jesus, I'm not trying to give a sodding rocket launcher or anything."
"Do we have rocket launchers?" Deimos piped up behind them, sounding very keen.
"Shut it, Deimos!" Napier barked.
The Doctor grumbled but took them, realising he had little choice in the matter.
"Besides," Fred continued. "You're going to need those helmets for communication more than anything. When we get close to the base, we can't use radios; they'll be too easily picked up so we'll be talking through the system built into the helmets."
Amy nodded, understanding and pulled on her protective jacket; she would gratefully accept anything that would help everyone get through alive. She didn't have a stupid sense of pride like the Doctor did. Fred seized the Doctor's hand as he fiddled with the helmet.
"Doctor. For once, can you please just do as you're told? If you don't listen to us, you'll wind up dead."
"How did you find us?" Fred's voice made Amy jump; she'd thought she was a few metres back, protecting the group from behind as they journeyed across the sea of red dust to Arrow's Head base. Rory had been assigned a place in the middle of the group and Amy's eyes hardly left his back, constantly checking he was safe. The Doctor was only slightly in front of Amy – quiet for once – and she could tell he was listening.
"We guessed you'd be on Acadess, we just didn't know what year. So we got some help from one of the Doctor's old friends. Jack Harkness...he's head of some alien defence thing on Earth. He had a vortex manipulator so we tracked you down and got here as soon as we could."
"Ah." Was all Fred said. They carried on walking in silence for a few moments more before Amy asked, "Fred, Doctor? What the hell's going on?"
Fred gave a slight bemused laugh while the Doctor remained silent, as though he hadn't heard their conversation at all. "What do you mean?"
"I mean...I get that we're going to this base but...what's all this for? Why are we even here? Why is this so relevant that the Parters had to send us back here and alter history just to get us to this point? And if it was so important, why didn't they just put us all down here at once? What was the point in splitting us up?"
"You got me." Fred shook her head.
"Maybe it was to change us." The Doctor chipped in suddenly, a bitter edge to his voice that left no one wondering who it was aimed at.
"Or make us realise who we really are." Fred countered and the Doctor's body tensed a little.
Amy looked at Fred and immediately wished that she wasn't wearing a helmet; it was impossible to read her expression through the darkened visor. Instead of questioning Fred's words aloud, Amy just pushed on and thought about them, her eyes still not leaving Rory's back. She had lost him once. Not again.
"Fred...about Rory and this – "
"I'll look after him, Amy. While I've been Commander, we've yet to lose a team member and I don't intend to start now."
Amy paused before saying, sincerely, "Thank you."
It was over two hours later when Rory was told to get on all fours and crawl his way up the hill that overlooked Arrow's Head base. It wasn't the most elegant of tasks but he was used to such orders by now. He wasn't a natural fighter; the team knew that so he was mostly assigned observation jobs when he wasn't tending to the team's fragile health. Occasionally, Rory thought that perhaps he should be embarrassed to settle for a less taxing role than the others but in truth he wasn't. Someone needed to do it and fighting and killing...well, it just didn't come naturally to him. Fred assured him that that was nothing to be ashamed of.
And so Private Rory Williams finally felt useful, like he was doing something that mattered rather than just tagging along with his wife and his alien friend on adventures across the universe. Here, in this war, he wasn't just a shadow in the background. Here, he was the only medic in the history of Elite teams. And he was proud of that.
However, all thoughts of pride disappeared from his mind as he lay in the dirt and peered down at Arrow's Head base. There were at least two hundred Malums in that base and all he could think about was how afraid he was. Not really for himself (Rory felt like he had died and come back to life so many times that death must be allergic to him) but for his team mates and for Amy and the Doctor of course. Oddly, he had a feeling they would be fine though; Rory had an inexplicable feeling of certainty about that. It wouldn't stop him worrying but it would at least appease him a little. It was his team he feared for the most.
"Williams?" Napier's voice called him sharply and Rory winced at how loud the in-helmet communications were. "What's it looking like from up there?"
"Not so good, sir. There are over two hundred Malums inside and surrounding the base."
Napier cursed but said, "Alright, Williams. Commander said she wants you stationed up there and we're sending your friends up too. There's no way we can protect them in a fire fight."
"Understood, sir."
Moments later, Rory felt Amy's hand on his shoulder as she crouched down beside him and the Doctor did the same on the other side. He seemed very tense and had barely spoken the whole way here. The Doctor took his helmet off then and Rory saw his expression and his heart ached with sympathy for the Doctor. Rory would recognise that expression anywhere; thin lips, a furrowed brow and fear in his eyes. Rory wore that expression every time Amy was in the slightest danger. It was in that moment that Rory realised how much the Doctor cared for Fred and it was also at that moment when Elite 2 began their advance into the occupied base.
Fred glanced behind her at her team, and forced herself to let the Commander mind-set clamp down over her eyes. She needed to forget the Doctor and Amy and Rory on the hillside and just act like this was an ordinary battle that she had taken part in for the past year and a half. "Rudi, get to the top floor and snipe down. Napier, take the outside areas with Phin. Deimos, we'll take the middle centre. Let's give them a surprise."
Deimos' mad laugh echoed in her ears as they advanced inside the steel building. Fred shook off her earlier conversations with the Doctor and Amy and told herself to focus. The door hissed open and there was the squawk of a surprised Malum before the sound of gunfire rang in her ears along with Deimos' cackle as he fired over and over again into the crowd. Fred raised her own pistol and shot three rounds into a large Malum at the opposite end of the room. It clattered to the floor and Fred twirled to fire on the stream of small Malums running wildly towards her and Deimos. Fred pulled the larger gun from her back and held the trigger down, firing hundreds of bullets into the oncoming forces. In mere moments, the floor was littered with slumped bodies, bright blood and useless weapons.
Fred surveyed the scene, surprised at how quickly they had taken them all down. There would be more in the adjoining rooms, probably arming themselves now after hearing the gunshots from this room.
Deimos wandered past her, reloading his rifle and kicking the dead Malums as he walked. "You sorted them quick, Ma'am. Angry?" He joked.
She snorted and reloaded her own weapon, making her way over to the next door. "You don't know the half, Dei."
Rudi swung the large sniper's rifle in the Malum's face, knocking it to the floor in a pool of blood. He did a quick scan of the area to check there were no more surrounding him. Satisfied he was alone, he straightened up and paced into the last room to his left, finding it blissfully empty. He shook off his rucksack, took the bullets out and reloaded his rifle. He took aim at one of the Malums in a large group three levels down. He eased his finger onto the trigger and pressed.
There was a loud bang and the Malum fell. The others scattered, squawking and panicking. Rudi grinned and took aim again, relishing the isolation and the odd peace he found in his job.
"Behind you!" Phin's voice bellowed suddenly in his ear and Lieutenant Napier turned just in time to bury his knife into the Malum's throat. It gurgled, its eyes wide, and slid to the floor. Napier jerked his knife out of the beast and watched Phin kill the last one, admiring her skill. She reattached her gun to her hip and looked at him. Although he couldn't see her expression, he could tell she was grinning.
"What would you do without me? Sir?" She added the 'sir' as an afterthought and he growled.
"Don't give me that 'sir' bullshit. I don't like it...not from you."
She stilled as though he had surprised her before she slapped him on the back. "Come on. Commander said she wants us all to meet in the main room."
The sun had set over Arrow Head's base a while ago but the attack was still ongoing. Fred watched Napier and Phin file in from outside, the stars blinking outside in the dark sky. Rudi buzzed in over the helmets, preferring to join in the meeting from his position on the top floor.
"Right, everyone, this is going well. Good job so far. I know we're all feeling the pain a little but we're nearly done. There are just two more rooms to go before this base is ours again."
They all nodded and winced, each of the feeling their injuries now they had stopped for breath. Fred was trying to ignore the large cut down her left shin, Deimos was nursing a sprained ankle, Napier had a gash on his right hand and Phin rolled her shoulder and it clicked ominously.
"Alright. Let's go. You good to go Rudi?"
"Yes, ma'am. No problem. Got visual on a group two rooms left of your current position. The other's six to your right on the level above."
"Thanks Rudi. Lieutenant and Phin, take the room on this level. Deimos, you and I will take the one on the next level. "
"Yes, ma'am. I always knew I was your favourite."
"This is so not the time, Deimos."
Fred and Deimos cleared the room easily; there were only a few Malums inside. Deimos strode over to her, ready to pat her on the back but the helmet communication crackled and Phin's voice said, "We could really do with some help down here!"
"On our way!"
They raced down the stairs guns at the ready, and burst through the double doors into the huge room where Phin and Napier were desperately trying to push back the Malums and struggling. This room was evidently the one the Malums had chosen to use as their main base.
"Need help, Elite 2?" A smooth voice said in their helmets.
"Elite One's here! Let's get this wrapped up before Shaw and his lot arrive." Deimos said, not wanting Shaw to get any credit for this mission. They all began pushing forward faster, firing faster, killing faster. They were nearly done; they had managed to push them outside into the cold, clear night. There were only five Malums left on the ground. One fell, then another, then another until there were only two left. Fred barely winced as a bullet streaked past her; she was so focused on shooting the last two down. Deimos took one down. Only one left...
"NO!"
Napier barged past her, and Fred was immediately distracted. She turned to see what Napier was rushing towards and heard Deimos take the last one down with one clean shot. But she wasn't focussed on that; all she could see, all she could think about was Phin's body on the floor, still and lifeless with a bullet in her neck. Napier clutched her to his chest, his hands shaking. There was another shot and Rudi's voice said,
"Malum ship above, ma'am!"
Fred glanced above her and saw a huge, blue Malum ship hovering over, it's guns trained on them.
"Get inside! Inside!" She cried.
Deimos insisted on her going in before him, and Napier carried Phin inside. He knelt down and lowered her to the floor. She didn't move.
"She's gone." Rory confirmed quietly, brushing the blood off Phin's cold face. "She's gone."
Amy looked around at the room; the team looked so much smaller now Phin was gone. Deimos was sat on the step of the door outside, his eyes on the sky in case the Malum ship returned. Rudi had come down from his place and was stood by the wall, quiet as usual. Napier was stood over Phin's body with his helmet still on. They were all quiet expect Fred who was stood by the other door, her helmet under her arm, calling down the corridor,
"What time do you call this? We've already finished!" She sounded pleased.
Amy's mind couldn't match Fred's relaxed tone with Phin's dead body in a heap on the floor and it seemed the Doctor couldn't either. His jaw was tense and his eyes burned with anger. But – thankfully – he didn't say anything. When Amy looked back at Fred, she had stepped aside and a group of soldiers dressed like Fred's team had entered, their weapons strapped to their backs. The man at the front with the stripes of silver on his suit removed his helmet to reveal a handsome, manly face with piercing blue eyes and slick brown hair.
He wandered over to Napier who still hadn't moved.
"I'm sorry for your loss, Lieutenant. Phin was a damn good soldier." He placed a hand on Napier's shoulder who finally cracked. He shook the hand off his armoured shoulder and grabbed the man by the front of his armour.
"DON'T TOUCH ME, SHAW! THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!"
"My fault?" Shaw growled, his handsome face contorting in confusion.
"IF YOU'D ARRIVED EARLIER SHE WOULDN'T BE DEAD!"
"Stop it!" Fred seized Napier by the arm and dragged him off Shaw. "Tom, calm down! This isn't any of our faults. This is them."
It seemed Fred was the only one who could calm Napier because calm he did. His breathing was still quick and loud but he stalked off into a dark corner of the room, hiding in the shadows.
"Come on." Fred said to all of them, intentionally avoiding the Doctor's eyes. "Let's get into the base's quarters."
"We're not leaving her here!" Napier scooped Phin up into his arms again. "She's coming with us."
"I know." She said softly.
Amy followed them, and wondered why Napier was so calm about Fred's relaxed attitude. It was riling her and she assumed it was riling the Doctor and they had only met Phin yesterday. But she pushed it out of her mind as Rory slipped an arm around her waist and gave her a sad smile. He looked at the Doctor behind them who was staring at the floor, his hands clenched by his sides.
"I wouldn't want to be Fred right now." Amy said quietly.
Rory took another glance at the Time Lord and said rather cryptically, "I'm not so sure that's what he's angry about."
The living quarters were comfortable enough but certainly not luxurious. Fred sat alone on her bunk, facing the screen on the wall in a plain black vest and black shorts, holding a piece of cloth to her bloodied leg.
"Well done, Knight. It's good to have Arrow's Head Base back on our map. And please send my condolences to your team; Seraphina was a fantastic soldier and she will be missed by all I'm sure." General Garnett said sincerely.
"Thank you, sir. I will." The door hissed open behind her and she saw Napier's large reflection in the glass of the screen.
Garnett noticed him come in and simply said, "Lieutenant."
"Sir."
"That will be all Commander Knight. I trust you will brief Commander Shaw and his team in the morning?"
"I will, sir."
"Good, good. I will be leaving at first light to join you all there. Some military forces have been assigned permanent positions there. We lost Arrow's Head once and I don't intend to lose it again. Goodbye Commander. Get some rest."
"Yes, sir."
The screen fell black and Fred was faced with her own reflection. She stared at herself, and tried to come to terms with what happened today. It was all too much...she had never lost a member of the team before – not while she was Commander at least.
"I'm taking a shower."
Napier sounded hoarse and raw. She heard him close the door of the shower room and let her mask slide off. There was only one reason Napier wasn't angry with her; he knew her too well. He knew that she was just being strong because this was her team and she couldn't let them see that she was shaken. She needed to be a pillar of strength. Breaking down in front of them was just something she felt she couldn't do. On her own however...on her own she could do what she liked.
And so she let herself weep. The tears came slowly at first; her eyes were fires of rage and sadness before a fat, hot tear rolled down her cheek. And then she couldn't stop. Her breath burst from her in gasps and her fingers clawed at her scalp. She felt so helpless, so weak. She was sobbing so loudly, she didn't hear the door open again.
The Doctor's arm dropped around her shoulders and he pulled her into his torso, holding her as the sobs died down and her cheeks dried.
"It's alright." His voice was soothing and familiar as he stroked her hair.
"I –I –I thought you were a – angry with me." Fred choked, wiping her eyes.
"No. I'm not angry with you. This war is just so...brutal." He took her hand and squeezed it. "I'm not angry with you at all. You're my girl, remember?"
She laughed weakly through her tears and he kissed the top of her head. They stayed like that for a while, until the shower room door opened and Napier entered the room again. Fred slid away from the Doctor, watching Napier. The Doctor stood and made to leave, saying,
"I'll see you in the morning. Rest."
Fred nodded and he disappeared from sight. She fixed her eyes on Napier again, not sure of how he dealt with grief.
"Tom? Are you alright?" She only used his first name in times like these, times when the subject matter was personal. She knew he didn't really like it but it usually got him to open up a little more.
"I'm fine." Fred watched in confusion as he pulled on his armoured suit again and heaved his huge gun onto his back. "I'm going to sort this. I'm going to put this right. Tonight."
He turned to face her and she was surprised to see he hadn't cried, not even in the shower where no one could see. Tom Napier never cried. He just avenged.
I hope that was alright to follow; I know there was a lot going at once but I wanted to portray the battle as quick paced and frantic.
Anywoodle, thanks for reading and I hoped you enjoyed it!
P.S: I'm currently planning a fluffy 11/Fred one shot for Christmas that will be posted to 'Four Minds' soon (probably Christmas Eve) but I hope to get another one shot up in there before that one which will mostly contain an awful lot of the Doctor being baffled by romance and a healthy dose of 11/Rory bromance...because who doesn't love it?
