Aranea clung to the ceiling with her forcefield, camouflaging herself to match the ceiling's slate grey colour; below her a dozen TIME Agents hurried down the corridor. Only when they were out of sight did she continue, floating along the ceiling, silent and almost invisible.
She reached the Main Hall and was dismayed – though not surprised – to find the doors locked, barred and guarded. Noiselessly, Aranea floated upwards and tucked herself above one of the large chandeliers. The huge bulbs were at least three or four metres across and more than adequately kept her out of sight.
General Valance, Head of the TIME Agency embassy, was striding in with his entourage of staff.
"Damn that girl!" he swore, "Are the wrist computers picking her up?"
"Yes, sir, but-" one of the agents replied, and hesitated.
"Spit it out, man! But what?"
"They're picking up several sources, sir," he stammered, "from many different locations within the embassy. In face, there's a signal right in the middle of the hall."
Aranea smiled; she had scattered her butterflies through the ventilation ducts once she knew they were tracking her.
"Fix it, damn it!" Valance barked, "Could it be the signal jammers causing interference?"
"Could be, sir," another agent piped up.
Valance sighed, looking tired. He ran a hand through his grey-streaked hair.
"Well, we can't do anything about that. Clytie's got an armada parked outside, and if that little chit manages to contact her, we're all in the soup!"
Aranea, crouching above, scowled. The bloody old man had patronized her the entire evening, treating her like a five-year-old. He seemed to assume that because she looked about twenty, she was a young woman intellectually as well.
The worst thing was that he had boasted to her about his agents locating the entrance to the Citadel. They had tried to hurt the Citadel and now she had disappeared.
The general was gone, and only a handful of agents patrolled the hall now. With infinite care, Aranea slipped away from the chandelier and floated along another passageway. There had to be a communications device somewhere in the embassy that she could adapt and use.
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Jack shoved Simkin against the wall with an audible thump. The captain was livid.
"What do you mean, we're in the year 10 billion?" he growled.
Peter Simkin, TIME Agent, had a very enviable job. He was in charge of the weapons stores of the Agency storage facility 10 DR. There were eleven such storage facilities, and individual departments within each facility was ranked according to the type of stock and level of clearance required to requisition stock from them. Simkin worked in the 10th facility, and weapons storage had the highest ranking of "D" (although it was rumoured that there was an "E" ranking for portable time travel devices) and it was Restricted Access – hence, "10 DR".
Simkin had met Jack during one of his nights out. Jack had literally saved his life that night. Being old camp mates and all, Simkin felt obliged to discharge the favour owed. He invited Jack – and more reluctantly, his two friends – to the store, so that Jack could recharge some of his weapons and perhaps pick a couple more that Simkin could spare.
And then the unthinkable happened. An emergency alert sent the storage facility whirling through time and space – to the year 10 billion, where a siege was underway and all available weapon tech was needed.
"'Snot my fault!" Simkin gasped, "Emergency muster!"
Jack let Simkin go, although he still looked very upset. This was the last place – and time – that he wanted to be in.
"At least we still go the TARDIS," Rose murmured to the Doctor. The Doctor had wisely decided to park the TARDIS in an empty room within the stores. Simkin had assumed it was merely a quirky Transmat device.
"Don't worry, Jack," Simkin said, rubbing his neck, "Just sit tight and once I've signed out the weapons they want, they'll send us right back again."
The trio sat in the spacious office as Simkin left to get on with work. Jack was definitely moping now. Rose walked over to him, placing a palm on his back.
"Any idea what's going on?" she asked.
Jack shook his head.
"Don't know. Some kind of attack on the TIME Agency here. Which should be the Spiral Galaxy-based embassy. Damn it!"
Jack punched the wall next to him with vehement force. He did not want to be here.
"You can't run away from it, Jack," the Doctor said, seeing right to the source of Jack's frustration, "Aranea has to come with us because she already has."
"And if she comes with us, she'll die!" Jack snapped, "I won't be a part of that."
"We all have to die sometime, Captain," the Doctor retorted, "She died saving lives, especially mine. Or would you rather have her die here, hounded by TIME Agents?"
"What?" This came from both Jack and Rose.
"The embassy is in the heart of the Crystal Empire. Before it can be in enough danger to require calling in an arsenal of weapons, the Empire itself would be falling. I don't think that's happening. So the most probable reason for the current siege would be…?"
He left the statement dangling.
"Because they've got Aranea, or they're attacking her," Jack finished, "They want the Citadel."
"Exactly."
Jack checked his wrist computer. He could still access the embassy network.
"Let's see what my former employers are up to," he muttered.
As information scroll holographically before him, Jack's face paled.
"Oh God," he whispered.
"What? What's wrong?" Rose asked.
Jack snapped his computer shut and sprang up.
"Don't leave this room," he warned, "I'll be right back."
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She floated into what looked like the embassy stores, hoping to find a communication device, or at worst, a weapon she could use to blast a window open. She was running out of time; sooner or later, they'd figure out how to filter the butterflies' signals out and home in on her. Or some TIME Agent would get lucky and spot her.
Hearing footsteps, Aranea froze.
"Yes, I know there are hundreds of signals. Those are just decoys," a male voice was saying testily, "Just concentrate on her brain wave pattern, she can't fake that."
Aranea was alarmed; how did the TIME Agency get her brain wave patterns? Who was this man? He came to a stop immediately beneath her. If she needed to breathe, Aranea would have been holding her breath. He had to be a highly-ranked TIME Agent; the wrist computer he was consulting was only given to top field agents.
He looked right up at her and smiled.
Aranea released her forcefield and pounced on him. There was a brief scramble, and Aranea came to two conclusions: he was far better than her in close combat; and he was making an effort not to hurt her. They broke apart and got up, Aranea watching the stranger warily.
He was very handsome, Aranea admitted grudgingly to herself.
"Ok. I know this looks bad, but I'm on your side," he said, holding his hands up placatingly.
"How stupid do you think I am?" she snapped, "You're a TIME Agent!"
"Ex-TIME Agent," he corrected, "Captain Jack Harkness. What are you doing here, Aranea?"
The moment he said her name, Jack knew he had made a big mistake. Aranea's eyes flashed at him, her wariness becoming coloured by anger.
"Empress," she said coldly, "No one calls me by name, especially not someone from the TIME Agency."
"My mistake," Jack said smoothly, bowing to her, "I apologise, Empress. Why are you here?"
"You're trying to stall for time, aren't you?"
She narrowed her eyes at him.
"No, I'm trying to get you out of here alive," he replied, "and right now, you'd better fly back up again, Empress. We've got company."
She could pick up more footsteps, still faint, but getting louder. Jack stepped in and put an arm around her waist just as she was setting up her forcefield. She glared at him, but there was no time to do anything other than take him upwards with her. Aranea pinned him to the ceiling behind her so that her camouflage would hide him.
A pair of TIME Agents walked past, checking their scanners. They conferred for a minute in the corridor, then moved on. After waiting a minute for them to get out of earshot, Aranea descended again.
"I can get you out of here," Jack whispered lightly, "Empress. How about it?"
Aranea looked at him appraisingly. He looked like what Clytie would label as a "smooth talker", all smiles and slickness – until she looked into his eyes. He looked at her with concern, his light banter not quite covering the tension in his eyes. He looked at her as if she was something precious to him. That puzzled her more than anything else.
"My options are limited," she admitted, "all right."
His smile was like the sun, erasing the edges of darkness that lined his face earlier. He grasped her hand and started running.
"You'd better call your butterflies back," he commented as they ran, "It could be a bit difficult to convince the Lost and Found here to return them to you later."
She was already doing so, but again, he surprised her. How did this man know so much about her? His warm human hand engulfed hers with a familiarity she had never experienced, and whenever they paused to check the surroundings, he would pull her closer, angling his body so that he protected her.
They ran down a corridor, then through a series of doors, and finally into a large office where a young man and woman were leaning against a long wooden desk. The young woman seemed surprised to see them, but the young man grinned as if he had been expecting them.
Aranea pulled away, ready to run off.
"This was a trap, wasn't it?" she asked Jack, backing away.
"No, no!" Jack turned to her, the tension back in his eyes again, "They're not TIME Agents. This is Rose –" he gestured at the young woman," and this is, uh, the Doctor."
"Hello!"
The Doctor gave a little wave before stuffing his hands back into his pockets, his trench coat hanging insouciantly from his slender shoulders.
"If you're not TIME Agents," Aranea asked slowly, "What are you doing in the embassy?"
Jack chuckled. Rose, knowing he was going to come up with some super-slick cock-and-bull story, cut in.
"We were in the weapons store when the entire facility was shifted here for an emergency muster," Rose explained.
"You're thieves?" Aranea looked at them in disbelief.
Jack held up his hands, fingers upraised to make a correction.
"We were invited," he said, "unofficially."
"To steal weapons," Aranea said flatly.
"Well…" Jack paused, hands on hips, "Yeah."
The look on Aranea's face was so scornful that Rose started laughing.
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AN: I just want to thank everyone who left reviews, especially FunkyInFishnet. Thanks, people! I really appreciate it, and you've all kept me going thus far.