London: March 6th, 2005
There was a sigh as a red head adjusted the strap of her bag on her shoulder, her other hand holding a mobile to her ear as she continued on her way home.
"I know that you said that I needed to be there, but Alistair needed me to look into something for him, and you know how he gets when he's on the phone," she stated into the device, her tone sounded both exasperated and tired as she walked.
"Yes, I do," another feminine voice retorted on the other end, "And don't take that tone with me, Aries. If you had listened to me and come round for lunch, I wouldn't be calling you right now." The line went quite for a moment before there was a heavy exhale. "I worry, Aries. I know what you're like when you're researching and... I know that these last few years haven't been easy on you. It's getting closer to Jam-"
"Sarah," Aries cut the woman off, her tone thick with warning, but Sarah wasn't hearing any of it.
"No! I haven't seen you in almost a fortnight. And don't take me for a fool. I know what you're like."
Despite Sarah's words, the red head picked up an undertone of concern that had her frowning.
"You can't keep doing this, Aries. It's not healthy and I'm going to be talking to Alistair about giving your research a break."
Aries let out a loud exhale, though otherwise made no notion of replying. As much as she wanted to deny Sarah's sometimes overbearing nature, she also found that she missed the brunette. And spending a few hours talking about mundane things did sound rather distracting right now.
"I'm going to call Alistair and tell him that you need a week," Sarah stated after a moment, "And I expect you to show up for lunch tomorrow... otherwise I'm putting in a missing person's report."
"You wouldn't," the red head replied, her lip curling upwards into a small smile. She didn't even need to see Sarah to know that the brunette was smirking.
"Oh, I would. If you're not here by twelve, I'll be making a few calls. I may not know exactly where your lab is, but I'll find someone who does and drag you away from your work if need be – research be damned."
Aries shook her head as she listened, a genuine smile appearing on her lips. Even after knowing Sarah Jane for almost a decade, it continuously baffled and surprised the witch at how the brunette never backed down from Aries, even when the red head sometimes wanted nothing to do with anyone. Even resorting to blackmail...
"Okay, okay," she finally relented, "I'll be around tomorrow. And Sarah..."
"Hmm?"
"Thank you," Aries said quietly.
"There's no need," the brunette replied, her voice warm; needing no explanation for the other's words, "I'll be waiting for you tomorrow."
It was until she ended the call and pocketed the device did Aries let out a sigh, her shoulders dropping slightly as she continued on her way. Her friendship with Sarah Jane was not once she had seen coming, but the red head found that she welcomed it none the less. It was nice to know that despite what she did, there was someone that wasn't going to turn away from her; that someone actually cared. And if that meant that she had to put up with Sarah continuously badgering her about withering away to nothing when she got buried into her research, Aries found that she didn't mind.
It had been her one-track, and high-driven mind that had started Sarah's instance in inviting her around for lunch. At first it had been once a fortnight, just to make sure that Aries' wasn't starving herself, but slowly over the years, it became something they did twice a week and dinner over the weekend. And the witch did feel guilty for causing Sarah to worry this last week, not having intended to, but it just felt that she was waiting for the other shoe to drop. It had resulted in her trying to push Sarah away, although the brunette had no intentions of letting Aries do that.
Sarah had become almost like a motherly figure to Aries – despite the significant age gap – and was not averse to telling Aries to not overwork herself.
Not that the witch thought she could.
Aside from her usual duties with UNIT in helping train the new recruits and working out where they would best fit within the organisation, Aries also assisted Alistair with the occasional side project that kept him and a few other higher up personnel informed of Torchwood's activities. And when the rare opportunity arose, the witch also travelled around the world, assisting whenever her intel was needed.
But the case she had been working on over the last week had been more serious. The Brigadier had been tipped off about a Jathaa sunglider that had been shot down over the Shetland Islands back in '97, though it had, possibly much to Torchwood's relief, vanished. She had searched everywhere and anywhere for any information that would lead to the ship's current whereabouts, but any evidence records or even log reports had also suspiciously disappeared. The red head had almost exhausted every source she had trying to figure out where it had gone, only for one of her contacts to come back with an untraceable email that contained two words.
Torchwood One.
As far as Aries knew, the current base for Torchwood One had been built in nineteen eighty-seven at One Canada Square in the Canary Wharf Business Complex. And in being in such a location, it made access to confirm whether or not the email had been correct in having anything to do with the ship's disappearance. It was also that report that had her heading home, knowing that Alistair was waiting on any information she had.
It wasn't much, but it would have to do.
Aries shook her head as she came to a stop at a crossing, checking that both ways were clear before she quickly crossed, thinking that both Alistair and Sarah Jane were probably her closest friends. They both cared for her in their own ways, and although Sarah seemed to have taken up the mantle of a mother figure for Aries, Alistair was more inclined – and quite happy – to keep their relationship professional.
The red head had found that she trusted them, and they alone were the only two people that knew about her past.
And her magic.
As she continued down the street, her thoughts trailed to what had originally been bothering her this last few weeks, only to stop in her tracks when she felt a light buzzing in the back of her mind; almost like something had tried to brush up against her mental shields. Her eyes scanned the area around her and a frown appeared on the witch's face when she realised that the presence was familiar.
Not seeing anything conspicuous, the red head shrugged and continued on her way, although she was far more alert; her shoulders tense as her gaze continued to look around. She passed an alleyway and froze once again, quickly backtracking and peered down it.
Sitting in the alley was a startling familiar, blue 1950's Police Call Box.
"It couldn't be..." Aries breathed as she slowly approached the box; glancing over her shoulder in case the Doctor were to appear. When she looked back to the box, the buzzing in the back of her mind grew in an almost reassuring way. It had a frown tugging at her lips.
Eighteen years...
Almost eighteen years had passed since she had last seen the ship. Seventeen and a half years since those two whirlwind days that had her travelling – very briefly – with the Doctor. Her frown only deepened as the same feelings she had felt back then came with those memories. The feeling that she had forgotten something. Something important, but as always, tantalisingly out of reach.
Almost as if they're forbidden.
Aries took a deep breath through her nose as she stepped up to the box, letting it out slowly through her mouth. So much had happened in those eighteen years, and if she were to be perfectly honest, the witch didn't think she was ready to see the Time Lord again.
Noise behind her had the red head jumping and turning, silently cursing herself for her nerves as she quickly made sure it wasn't the Doctor. As she watched a small group of friends stroll passed, she felt her heartrate return to something that resembled normal as a relieved breath escaped her. Turning back to the TARDIS, she couldn't stop the smile form appearing on her face as she looked at the ship, however.
Nor could she stop herself from resting a hand against its unnaturally warm wood panelling.
"Hello," she murmured, feeling the ship heat up further under her palm as the buzzing flared in her mind, almost as if the TARDIS was saying hello back. "It has been a while, hasn't it," she continued, "Though I do hope there's not another me in there. Really don't want a repeat of what happened the last time I saw you."
Aries' smile grew slightly as the buzzing in her mind grew, feeling warm and reassuring.
"Well, that's good," she remarked, her shoulders relaxing slightly, "How... how is the Doctor? Keeping out of trouble?" The ship cooled quickly under her touch, almost causing Aries to jerk her hand away at the sudden change in temperature as her eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "What happened?" she asked.
The ship didn't respond and the witch was about to pull her hand away as her confusion turned to concern at the answering silence. But before she could do anything, the buzzing in her mind turned into a roar and she gasped as images flashed across her eyes.
There was a beautiful city enclosed in what looked to be a glass dome. The sky above was a breath-taking burnt orange, while the mountains in the distance were covered in snow. Plains of orange sand stretched for miles around the city.
The image changed to show her trees with silver leaves, and when the suns light hit them, it looked as though the forest was on fire as the leaves shined a brilliant orange; creating the perfect mirage of a forest on fire.
Her awe, surprise, and amazement soon turned to horror as the images changed. Aries was quick to register that she had seen these images before. They had continued to plague her nightmares, and had her baffled as to why every morning that came after.
But something, almost like another piece of the puzzle as to where those nightmares had originated from slid effortlessly into place in her mind. It didn't quite complete the puzzle – not that she really knew what the puzzle was for – but holding some answers as to why she dreamed them, knowing that they had started after she had spent the night in the TARDIS that night almost two decades ago.
The once burnt orange sky was gone, claimed by the darkness that the night brought with it, and what Aries would have guessed to have been a wonderful view of constellations she knew she would never see on Earth was instead interrupted by the flashes of lasers that lit up the night sky; accompanied by piercing, nerve-grating cries of "Exterminate!" filled her ears.
These were quickly joined by the cries, screams, and pleading begs of "Mercy", before they were abruptly cut short by the Daleks.
Armed personnel – soldiers by the way they held themselves – tried to protect the unarmed and vulnerable before being shot down by the lasers that came from the large, pepper-pot looking aliens, and it caused a shiver to run down Aries' spine.
The landscape that she had once thought to be beautiful lay in ruins; the ground littered with the remains of destroyed building and people as hundreds of Daleks soared overhead as they shot their targets down from the air, or glided closer to the ground to make certain they missed no one.
Amongst the chaos, there was a sudden outcry from the Daleks.
"The Doctor has been located!"
Near a wall that was remarkably still standing, and one that the witch recognised immediately, was the same man she had seen in the echoes of her nightmares. But as she found herself once more following his gaze, she was surprised to see something very different etched into the stone.
NO MORE
The last thing that the red head saw as everything was suddenly engulfed in a blinding light was the older man's weary face; haggard and dishevelled. But it was still his piercing brown eyes that held her gaze before everything faded to white.
Aries' eyes snapped open as she stumbled away from the TARDIS, her mind reeling as she tried to process what she had just been shown. She knew that the Doctor was the last of his kind, and that there was a history between the Daleks and Time Lords. But the witch found that she had never imagined that those nightmares she had been having since '87 were of a war that had actually happened.
She had originally chalked up the nightmares as her own experience with a Dalek, along with her own past blending together. But now Aries was coming to the unsettling realisation that somehow – however possible it should have been – the TARDIS had managed to not only somehow form some kind of mental bond with her, but was also able to project images and memories that were not her own via that unknown bond. It was the only was the witch could understand how she had been dreaming what she had, along with feeling the ship's presence in her mind whenever she was nearby.
But why the ship had first formed that bond with her... Aries was still scratching her head over that question.
A tear rolled unbidden down her cheek, and the red head was quick to brush it away – along with images of the children and their families that had been cut down by the Daleks that seemed burned into her mind as she tried to regain control of her emotions. Her thoughts were in disarray and Aries closed her eyes, taking a deep breath as she tried to focus on calming herself; using the mental techniques she hadn't had to use since losing Jam-
No! she thought, jerking herself away from that train of thought, immersing herself in the lake in her mind and let the water flow over her. It was a place where things could be cast out and lost; forgotten in the depths with the feelings that were associated with them in the darkest reaches of her mind, praying that she would lose them somewhere amongst her grey-matter.
Ever so slowly, Aries begun to feel herself calm. Her heart slowed down as her breathing evened out, and when she took another deep breath, she opened her eyes to look at the ship in front of her. A small frown tugged at her lip as she tried to figure out why she had been shown such images, though she jumped – startled – when she heard a quiet voice whisper in her mind and the witch took a step away from the TARDIS; her silver-grey eyes wide.
It needed to be done. I am sorry, but you will understand in time.
"Wha-?"
Aries continued to stare at the ship, unsure if she had heard the voice or just imagined it, but the sound of an explosion had the red head jumping once more and she forgot the voice as she rushed back onto the street to see what had happened. Looking in the direction the explosion had come from, Aries' eyes widened when she saw that the top floors of the Hendricks building was engulfed in flames.
She glanced back to the TARDIS and raised an eyebrow. "Do I even want to know why?" she asked the ship, shaking her head at the amused buzz that grew in the back of her mind. Looking at the ship one last time, the red head took off towards the burning building as she pulled a ring from a hidden pocket in her coat and slipped it on, all the while wondering if taking a week off wasn't such a bad idea after all.
As the ring slid onto her finger, Aries felt her magic wash over her; changing her features. Her blood red hair lightened until it turned blonde, while her pale complexion darkened slightly; almost like an instant tan. The features of her face changed just enough for her not to be recognised as Aries, but as Eris, and her normally silver-grey eyes dimmed until they were a dark brown though still flecked with red, even though she had tried everything to get them to disappear.
The ring was one that she had worked on and perfected over the years after becoming more involved within UNIT. She had charmed it with a long-lasting glamour, allowing her to focus on the situation at hand and not on wondering if her glamour would fail. It was also – thanks to Alistair – used with the Alias she worked under as a UNIT Commander, giving her the freedom of secrecy while out and about without the fear that someone may recognise her.
By the time Aries had reached the burning building, she could already hear sirens approaching in the distance. Rolling her eyes, she pulled out a familiar green wallet from her coat as she started to order the nosey bystanders to back away from the building. She knew that if there was a chance that the Doctor was involved, she needed to get this situation under UNIT's control as soon as possible before the normal services, or – gods forbid – Torchwood showed up.
The witch didn't need another case like the mortar attack at Downing Street during '91.
Pulling out her mobile, Aries was quick to hold down the '5' before placing it to her ear. She listened to it ring a few times before there was a click and a voice came through.
"Eris, what do you need?" a males voice questioned, not wasting any time with incessant questions.
"Noah, I need a UNIT team down at the Hendricks building. There's been an explosion on the upper floors and need it to be contained immediately," she quickly informed the man as she looked up at the burning building, hoping that if he was involved, that the Doctor had managed to get out in time. "I also have knowledge that this could possibly be a Code Blue."
She could faintly hear the sound of typing on a keyboard before Noah spoke, "Sent out the nearest UNIT team to your location, Eris. Harrison should be there within ten minutes."
A relieved sigh left the witch's lips at his words and she nodded habitually before stopping, realising that Noah couldn't see it. "Thank you, Noah. I'll let you get back to your work," she said before hanging up. She was rather glad that she wouldn't be dealing with the local PC's on her own for too long, though she couldn't help but be curious as to what the Time Lord was up to.
She had learnt over the years, and the many conversations with both Sarah Jane and Alistair, that the Doctor never did anything without reason. Though she was having a hard time trying to figure out why he'd want to go and blow up the top floors of a clothing store and why.
Movement in the corner of her eye caught Aries' attention and she almost sighed in relief again when she spotted a familiar figure in a black leather jacket 'sneaking' out of what looked to be an emergency exit of the shop. Keeping up with her persona as Eris, the witch took a step in his direction as she shouted, "Oi, you there! I said to stay back!"
The man spun on his heel with a look of surprise, though it was gone when he spotted Aries. She raised an eyebrow at him and he tugged in his ear, looking rather sheepish as he approached her.
"Er, yes. Sorry, Miss...?"
"Eris."
"Like the Goddess of Discord, right?" the Doctor asked as he looked her up and down. A frown appeared on his face when he noticed that she didn't look like a PC. "I don't mean to be rude, but you don't look like a cop."
"That's because I'm not," the disguised red head retorted with a roll of her eyes, ignoring the flicker of confusion that came over his face. She pulled out another wallet from her coat, switching it with the psychic paper as she did so, all the while wondering why people seemed to think that she couldn't be a police officer unless she was wearing the uniform. Not that she wanted to, that was.
Flipping the second wallet open, showing the Doctor her UNIT ID, her lip tugged upwards slightly at his surprised and alarmed expression as she did so. "Commander Eris Black of the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce," she introduced herself.
His expression was as gone as quick as they appeared however, and he nodded as his eyes flickered between Aries' face and her ID, noticing the ring on her finger when the sunlight caught it. "Never heard of them before," he told her before tugging on his ear once more, his gaze curious as he watched her.
"Not many people have," the witch replied as she pocketed her ID, internally rolling her eyes at his obvious lie. "I hope I don't have to tell you the consequences that you could receive if I see you snooping around here again," she continued as if he hadn't just lied to her and giving him a way out at the same time. The last thing she wanted to do was for UNIT to show up with him still hanging around.
That was paperwork she didn't need after her warning from Sarah Jane.
The Doctor looked confused for a moment before he quickly nodded. "Ah, yeah. Couldn't help myself, really," he said with a shrug, "Not every day a shop blows up in the middle of London."
"No, they don't." Aries raised an eyebrow at him, "You wouldn't know anything about what happened, would you?" she enquired, looking him up and down, "You don't look like a nosey parker."
He quirked an eyebrow when he realised that she had used his own words back at him and a grin appeared on his face. "Oh, well, looks can be quite deceiving," he said before glancing in the direction of the sirens that were getting ever closer.
"Indeed," the witch drawled, unable to stop the small upwards turn of her lips. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to clear the area," she shot him a pointed look, "Which means I don't want to see you around here again."
Whether the Time Lord understood her double meaning, he didn't show it. With a quick nod, the Doctor turned and started walking away, only glancing back once to glance at Aries with a curious expression on his face.
She watched him go as he disappeared around the corner, just as the police arrived. Taking a deep breath, Aries let it out slowly. That was rather... interesting, she thought to herself as she walked over to the police officers as they started to get out of their cars.
"Commander Eris Black," she said as she pulled out her ID card again to show them, "I need this place blocked off and the civilians kept clear. My colleagues will be here shortly and after the fire's out, me and my colleagues will be investigating the cause behind the explosion. I will also need the media contained. We don't need this getting out on the news and causing panic before we know exactly what's happened."
The officers gave her ID card a look before nodding and started to block off the area; thankfully moving the civilians further back. Though the witch wasn't taking any notice; a frown on her face as she looked in the direction she knew where the TARDIS was, hearing a faint whirring sound of the ship's engines before shaking her head and getting back to her job.
She barely registered a warm buzz in her mind as the ship said its goodbye.
It was two hours and twenty minutes later when Hendricks was deemed suitable for entry by the fire department, having found that most of the damage had occurred on the roof of the building and the uppermost floor.
Aries had waited as patiently as she could while they had dealt with the fire and making certain that the building was stable enough for her and her team to start investigating, and she really couldn't wait to get started. They had already been informed that there was a body found, and though the identity of the man was unknown, he had been found not to have been a victim of the explosion, nor the fire that resulted in the aftermath.
The news – thankfully – had been dealt with rather easily, informing them that they assume by the destruction that it looked to be a possible gas leak ignited by a faulty wire in the lighting system; one person falling victim to the 'freak accident'.
As she made her way through the building and up the stairs that led to the point of detonation, Aries was still trying to put together what had brought the Doctor here, and why he thought that blowing up the upper floors seemed to be such a good idea when the victim had been found in the basement. She hadn't informed her colleagues that she had seen the Time Lord exit the building, though she had informed Alistair of his sighting via an encrypted text.
"Commander!" a voice called, breaking the disguised red head from her thoughts as she entered a room on the top floor. "Think we've found something!"
Aries carefully and cautiously made her way over to one of her colleagues, her nose wrinkling at the smell of charred wood and other various things that had been burned in the fire. Her discomfort of the smell was pushed to the wayside as she noticed that Reynolds was looking at some bits of twisted metal that looked to have slight traces of wire melted to it. Glancing around, the witch took in the surrounding room and could easily see that they had definitely found the starting point of the explosion.
"Explosives," she muttered, her eyebrows furrowing as she tried to work out why the Doctor would have used such a thing. She turned to her colleague, "Keep looking for anything else that will be of any use and bag it, Private Reynolds," she ordered, "I'm going to head back down to the lower levels where the body was located and see if these two cases are related."
The Private nodded as he produced an evidence bag from his case while his partner begun to take pictures of the twisted metal. Reynolds glanced to Aries as he carefully picked up the remains of the explosives and bagged them. "Do you really think he was involved with this?" he asked curiously, and when Aries' just raised an eyebrow, he added, "I heard the mention of a Code Blue over the radio."
The witch's expression turned disapproving, "What I think and what you're told are two vastly different things, Private," she stated rather sternly, "And I hope that you will refrain from asking any more questions about an officer of UNIT that holds a rank higher than all of us... otherwise you may find that your employment with this organisation may be cut short."
Reynolds looked contrite by the time Aries was finished as was quick to apologise, "Of course, Commander. My apologies."
"Apology accepted, Private Reynolds," she nodded and she took a more relaxed stance as she continued, "Just try to remember that some things should not be questioned, especially in the open. Whether or not someone is involved in any case is up to my C.O. to disclose, and since he has not done so, it gives you reason as to why I have not voiced my own thoughts. I will never withhold information from you that pertains to any case if it is deemed necessary, but as I am also your Commanding Officer, it is also my decision on what I will disclose. The information that I do not is not because of my rank, but instead because of the possibly of that information getting leaked or ending up in the wrong hands – which could mean people's lives. I don't hold this information because I can; I hold it from you because I must." She raised an eyebrow at Reynolds, "I hope you understand?"
The man nodded slowly, still digesting what Aries had just told him. He had worked for UNIT for just over a year now, but had only started working under the blonde for a few weeks. She was a well-respected member of UNIT and he had heard that she had earned the title of Commander quite quickly. He had found that she was strict, but kind in her own way. She never once used her authority against anyone who worked under her and treated everyone fairly, and he could also see that she did have a point.
"I understand, Commander Black," he stated.
"I'll leave you to continue up here, Private. If you need me, I'll be in the lower floors," Aries said before turning and leaving the room, heading to where the body had been found in the basement.
The line between Aries' eyebrows grew deeper and deeper the closer she got to the basement, finding that she had to manoeuvre around a fair few mannequins that were littering the stairwell between the first floor and her goal. And as she stepped into the basement, her eyes narrowed as she looked around, noting that there were even more mannequins strewn about the floor before she headed towards the room where the body had been found.
Her thoughts became even more confused as she paused in front of the lift, noticing that the keypad that was used to call the lift down to this level was broken and scorched. Shaking her head, the witch continued on her way as she stepped over even more mannequins, noticing that one was missing an arm.
"Just what were you doing here?" she murmured, trying to work out what the Doctor had been doing as she reached the room where the body had been located and nudged the door open with her foot before stepping inside. The unsettling feeling that Aries had been getting since stepping onto the floor grew at the sight of another mannequin inside the destroyed room, seeing the clear signs that the man hadn't gone down without a fight.
Something wasn't adding up to the witch and as she pulled out her phone, she couldn't draw her gaze away from the mannequin in the room. If the Doctor had been here to deal with something – which was generally anytime he showed up from what Aries had learned – her gut was telling her that it had to be alien related. And if that was the case, she needed to speak with Alistair.
She held down the '1' on the keypad of her mobile before holding it up to her ear. It didn't take long for Alistair to answer.
"Aries, is everything okay? I got your message about our friend and his box," the man said.
"Yes, everything is fine, Alistair," Aries replied, even though she was still staring at the mannequin, "I was just curious to know more about that story you told me about those Autons."
"Autons?" Alistair questioned in surprise before he immediately went into work mode, "You think they're involved?"
Giving the mannequin one last glance, Aries stepped out of the room. She glanced up and down the corridor, making sure that she wasn't being watched before she cast a muffliato charm around her to make sure she wasn't going to be overheard. There was a faint red shimmer in the air around her before it faded.
"In all honesty, Alistair. I haven't got a clue," she told the Brigadier, "His TARDIS was here and I spotted the man in question just after the explosion happened. There had to be a reason as to why he was here, and as I stand here in the basement, I find myself surrounded by a large number of mannequins."
"Well, Hendricks is a department store that sold clothing. I guess that they kept the mannequins in the basement when they weren't needed," Alistair stated.
"I concede that you have a point, Alistair," Aries sighed as she looked at the mannequins littering the corridor, "But the fact that they are all over the place and halfway up the stairwell to the first floor tells me something happened. Even the lift keypad has been destroyed, but the explosion happened on the top floor. I do not know why the Doctor would have been in the basement to begin with, but I have a feeling that he may have come into contact with some Autons. The only thing I can't seem to figure out was if he knew they were here, or if it was just a coincidence."
There was a pause on the other end of the phone before an exhale was heard, "You know what I say about coincidences, Aries. And the Doctor being there could be for a number of reasons. That man seems to be a walking trouble magnet." Alistair took another moment before continuing, "But, if the mannequins were Autons, it would explain the explosion," he admitted.
"How so?" Aries questioned with a frown.
"From what I recall, Autons are controlled by something called a Nestene Consciousness. The second time I saw Autons, the Doctor managed to figure out that they were being controlled by the Consciousness via the use of radio signals. It could explain why he blew up the top floors of the shop, for if there was a relay device on the roof and he destroyed it, it would have caused the Autons to deactivate," he explained.
Aries' eyebrows knitted together as she slowly worked through the information Alistair had shared. "So," she begun, "If these mannequins are Autons, the Doctor knew about them and came here to stop them," she muttered before her eyebrows flew upwards in alarm, "But that also means that the Autons were getting a signal from somewhere else. Which means that there could be more of these things out there," she breathed, her mind already flying through the possibilities of what that would mean.
"Correct," Alistair confirmed, "And if the Doctor is here, it means he will be looking for the Consciousness."
The witch let out a huff of air as she walked towards the stairway, the air around her taking on a red hue as her charm followed.
"I know what you want to do," Alistair spoke up with a sigh, "And I won't try and stop you, Aries. Just be careful, okay. It may seem like you're indestructible, but you're not."
She shook her head, "I know that, Alistair. And I promised Sarah I would be at hers tomorrow if nothing came up."
"Well, I'm ordering you to go. I shouldn't have made you look into the sunglider if I knew Sarah was expecting you," Alistair replied.
Aries rolled her eyes, "Okay, okay. I'll go, no matter what. Merlin, anyone would think that you and Sarah are my parents with the way you two seem to hover over me," she replied with a chuckle.
"Well, someone has to. For someone who's over a hundred years old, you do a terrible job of looking after yourself," the man shot back, but there was a warmth and humour in his tone.
"That just may be true, Alistair," the witch agreed with a small smile, "I'll talk with you later. I think I'm done here for now. I'll send through the paperwork tomorrow so you can see what is needed to go on the report."
"Very well, Aries. I'll let you know what I think tomorrow," Alistair replied before adding, "After you've had lunch with Sarah."
"Goodbye, Alistair," Aries said with another eye roll.
"Goodbye, Aries," he replied before hanging up.
Aries shook her head again as she dispelled the muffliato charm and made her way up the stairs. She really did think highly of both Sarah and Alistair, and it was comforting to know that they genuinely seemed to look out for her as well. But the witch also knew that she needed to get this investigation over with so she could get home.
If she was seeing Sarah tomorrow, she needed to get a good night's rest.