Molly knew she was gaping like an idiot, but she couldn't seem to arrange her expression into anything other than fangirl-ish shock and glee. One of her favorite authors of all time was standing in front of her, alive after hundreds of years of being dead. Maybe someone else would think the amazing planets and fantastic times she had seen would be more impressive. But this felt more special. Donna and the Doctor had planned this for her, because they knew how much she loved his work. Somehow, that really got to her.

Victor Hugo, author of Les Miserables, was regarding the time travelers with a suspicious glance. "Awk, who are these people?" He glanced pointedly at the Avian's true form. Clearly, he didn't trust the travelers with the knowledge of who Awk really was.

"Hugo, it's fine," the Avian assured him. "They're friends. Their leader is an alien, like me." Hugo still didn't look convinced. "They helped me hide from the Judoon."

The Doctor stepped towards him, grinning widely. "Victor Hugo himself. It's an honor, really."

The writer looked critically at him. "Do I know you, sir?"

"No," Molly replied for him. "But we know you!" She finally seemed to have broken out of the shocked stupor, and had been reduced to fangirl glee. The companion got quickly to her feet, stepping towards the author. "Molly Hooper, Monsieur Hugo. It's an honor. Les Miserables is my absolute favorite book. I've always wanted to meet you."

Victor Hugo looked a bit surprised at her declaration. "Well, I can't say I hear that a lot. And you're all very oddly dressed, aren't you?"

"We're travelers, like he said," the Doctor explained hastily. "So, what about you, Monsieur Hugo? What are you doing here?"

Hugo glanced at Awk as he explained, "I came to make sure Awk was alright. Those rhinoceros creatures have been searching every house. They've been looking for you. They've gone to every door, the entire island knows about them by now. I'm afraid that even if those creatures don't find you, your secret won't be kept much longer my friend."

Fear flashed in Awk's eyes, but after a moment he shook his head. "Let's worry about that if it becomes a problem. For now, focus on the Judoon."

"Is that what those creatures are called?" Hugo shook his head, his suspicion fading away, leaving him looking old and worried. "All they said is that they were trying to find a fugitive."

"Yeah, about that," the Doctor interrupted, "Why exactly are you a fugitive?"

Awk glanced at the Time Lord, then sighed, passing a clawed hand over his face. "It's a long story," he said quietly. He sank back down into the couch, Hugo sitting beside him, a hand on the Avian's shoulder in silent support. "It was so long ago. I didn't think it would come up again, after all this time." Molly sat down again as well, feeling a twinge of anticipation.

After a few moments, Awk began his tale. "My planet, Iree, isn't as large as yours. It's closer to the size of your moon. There are only two continents, and only four countries. I come from Kyteria, one of the larger countries on the Eastern continent. When I was a kid, we weren't that well off. Life wasn't always perfect, but it was better than what happened later."

"There was another country, Dyrion. They were smaller than us, and they were being attacked from off-planet invaders. We had better technology, better weapons, a better army. Everyone agreed we had to help Dyrion. Practically everyone was for it. Our government made an agreement with Dyrion, and then marched into action. It didn't take long to chase off the invaders. They were powerful, but they couldn't match all of our numbers."

"After that, the government decided we needed to stay in Dyrion and help it rebuild. The country had been pretty badly shaken. Their government was pretty much in shambles, half their army was dead, and the civilians looked to us for help. So we helped." Awk sighed. "But then we never left."

"Years after the war with the invaders, and we were still occupying Dyrion. People were starting to realize that the situation in Dyrion was getting worse, not better. They were even more dependent on us then they had been after the war ended. The rights of the civilians there were restricted. Their government was all but gone."

"People started protesting, saying we weren't really helping Dyrion so we should pull out and let them stand on their own. The media in particular started to protest. At first, the government let them. But after a while, they started restricting what the media could broadcast. The government's power was pretty much solely in the hands of the army at this point, and they didn't want anyone speaking against them."

"Once the media was silenced, things went pretty downhill from there. Kyteria decided it needed to run the entire planet. It took over the other two countries by force, then it strengthened restrictions on the people under it's power. People from the conquered countries, our "colonies," were practically treated like a second class of Avian, and native Kyterians weren't treated much better, especially those who had spoken up before. Punishments for those who spoke against the government grew stricter and stricter. Eventually, they just started killing off anyone who disagreed with them."

"About thirteen years ago, I was a young Avian living in the slums with a lot of anger. But I knew if I spoke up, I'd just get 'taken care of.' So I decided to try something else instead. I started gathering Avians who agreed with me. We met in secret. Talked about what was happening, what we could do to change it, if anything could change it. Somehow, word started to spread to supporters. Our meetings grew larger in number. Smaller groups branched out from ours, but somehow, they all declared me their leader. Eventually, we made contact with Avians in the colonies. They had already been gathering for months, and they were glad to add us to their forces. I was now one of many leaders, and now, we had enough followers to do something really big."

"That's when we decided that speaking up and trying to reform the government peacefully wasn't going to work. We were going to have to go full-out revolution."

"It didn't take long to organize ourselves. We were ready to strike in a few months. Since we couldn't match the Kyterian army in numbers, we focused our followers where they would do some good, destroying key military points, cutting off supplies, whatever we could to lessen their power."

Awk shook his head, grief flashing in his eyes. "For a while, it worked. We managed to hold our own. But two years into the fight some people got scared and turned informer. The army overwhelmed us. We didn't stand a chance. By the end, they had rounded up most of the leaders, and there were only a few rebels left alive. I took the ones I could save, stole a ship, and we fled the planet together."

This was news to Molly. Her brow furrowed as she asked, "Wait, then where are the others you escaped with?"

"We decided to split up," Awk explained. "Our chances of being found would decrease if we were scattered all over space. We stopped off on a planet with a lot of ports. Some of them snuck onto ships, some of them stole transport. I took the ship we'd taken from Iree and pointed it toward the most remote patch of sky I could find. The ship was basically falling apart by the time I reached Earth. I only had enough fuel to point myself away from land before I crashed into the ocean. I landed at night, luckily, so no one saw me. I managed to climb out of the ship before it sank underwater, and I swam to shore. I hid by the cliffs that night. I had no idea where I'd landed, or whether there was intelligent life to be found, whether they'd be friendly."

"The next day, I decided to explore a little. I came out to the beaches, which is when I found the town. I figured there had to be some sort of intelligent species. But I didn't know if they would be willing to shelter me from the Avians. I figured I would try to watch them first before approaching them. But Hugo found me first."

"I'd never seen anything like an Avian before," Hugo cut in. "Once Awk explained himself, however, I realized that it wouldn't be safe for people to see what he was. He wanted to hide, but I convinced him to set himself up with a human life. I got the cloak, the gloves, and the veil for him, I set him up with a job and a bit of money, we found somewhere for him to live."

"People were a bit weirded out by the outfit for a while, but eventually they got used to not being able to see my face," Awk continued. "I just told them I didn't like to be seen because of something that had happened. I think they assumed I have some sort of scars or burns that I don't want people to see. There's still a few people who think I'm odd, but mostly I've been accepted into the community."

The Avian gestured to the blue neck-tie he wore. "I wired a translator onto this while I was dropping the rest of the rebels off. It's why I was able to understand Hugo when we met. I've learned both English and French since then though. I work at a shipyard, I help carry crates. I'm slightly stronger than humans, so people come to me whenever they need help with something. I've been doing this for nine years. I've made my home on Earth. I don't want to lose it all now."

Everyone was silent after Awk's story was done. The Doctor was standing behind Molly's chair, leaning his forearms against it and listening intently. All the others were still seated. Molly was lost in her own thoughts, and the memories that Awk's story had brought back.

The Doctor was the first to break the silence. His expression was somber and thoughtful, his voice quiet as he asked, "The only thing I don't get is, why would the Judoon come for you now? I mean, it's been nine years since your revolution failed. If they were gonna come after you, it would've been then. Why now?"

Awk shook his head. "I have no idea," he admitted. "It doesn't make any sense to me either."

Lestrade's brow furrowed. "Something must have changed to make them come after you after all this time."

"Or maybe it just took those rhino things this long to find him," Donna suggested.

The Doctor shook his head. "Nah, the Judoon are thick, but they're better trackers than that. It wouldn't take them nine years to find one little Avian."

"Right, they were able to track that plasmavore to that hospital on Earth," Molly remembered. "They didn't know which person she was, but that's a pretty specific area to find."

The Time Lord frowned thoughtfully. "Tell you what," he said slowly, "I bet the Judoon would know." He straightened fully, giving a sudden grin. "I think I fancy a stroll outside."

Hugo looked at the Time Lord like he was nuts. "But those things will capture you! You're an alien as well, aren't you?"

"Yeah, I am. But they don't know that, do they? They're looking for an Avian, not a human-like alien. They won't suspect a thing."

The writer started to stand. "Then we should go with you."

The Doctor shook his head. "They'll get suspicious if they see too many people walking around. Just sit around for a bit, I'll be right back. Don't get caught, and don't wander off." With that, he turned and trotted up the stairs, the floorboards sliding shut behind him with a hiss.

SCENEBREAK

The Doctor made sure the floorboards were shut securely behiind him before he exited the house. He glanced around anxiously as he shut the door behind him. Hopefully the Judoon hadn't seen him walking out of a house they thought was empty.

There weren't any aliens out on the street as far as he could see. Stars overhead were the only source of light. The lights in every house were off, and even the street lamps were doused. The Doctor recalled Hugo saying that the Judoon had visited every house. People were probably scared now and trying to hide. He wished he could help, but for now, he had to focus on finding the Judoon and getting some answers.

The Time Lord stuffed his hands into his pockets and began strolling casually down the street, keeping any eye out for any rhino heads. They had to be out here somewhere.

There were several things about this situation that sat wrong with him. First off, the timing. Awk's revolution was nine years ago. Why were the Judoon after him now all of a sudden? And why were they searching here on Earth? They didn't have any jurisdiction on a Level Five planet. That was why they had used the H2O scoop to transport the hospital to the moon; it was neutral territory. They had to know they were out of their jurisdiction, so what were they up to? This didn't feel like a normal criminal investigation to him. Something was up.

He searched every corner of town, but the Judoon didn't seem to be anywhere. That was alright, though. The Time Lord had a feeling he knew where they might be. The Judoon had great big ships. He had seen them when they'd landed on the moon. They must have used one to get here; that was probably where the Judoon were now. And he had a feeling he knew where they might be hiding it.

He made his way away from the town, towards some of the more cliffy areas. There had been some places large enough there to hide a spaceship from view from the town. Sure enough, as he came to the top of a ledge, down below was one of the sleek, black Judoon ships.

The Doctor grinned to himself. "Gotcha."

The word had barely left his mouth when he heard the cock of guns behind him. He turned to see that other than the ledge behind him, he was entirely surrounded by armed Judoon, all of them with weapons raised and pointed directly at his chest.

In a low, gruff tone, one of the Judoon asked, "What are you doing here?"


Sorry about the shortness of this chapter, and the amount of talking versus actual action. I'm afraid there's going to be a lot of that this episode. There's a lot that needs to be said.

I decided to draw Awk the Avian. If you want to see the picture, search my username on DE VI AN TA RT. It's the same username as the one I have here. Then search Awk in my gallery.

Also, there will probably be six chapters in this one, if I'm calculating correctly.

Also, I'm done with my first year of college! *throws confetti * So yeah, finals are done, classes are done, I'm moved out of my dorm and I'm officially back home. So hopefully, posting should be more regular now.

BloodLily (first message): I hoped that would amuse people. XD
BloodLily (second message ): Pretty much.
Black Night: Not quite, although that would have been an interesting adventure.