The Doctor walked lost in the haze of his past. How could Ace have fallen like that? She had always been so strong, she might have been reclass in somethings but plotting the course for a jump through time and space on her bike was not one of them.
Ace had been one of only a few people who knew most about him. She had traveled with him through time and space for a long time, she learned a lot about Gallifrey in the process. He smiled in the momentary memory of her. She had been the only one to call him 'Professor', only calling him 'Doctor' when she really wanted to get his attention. He found himself back at the large forest the covered the eastern bank of the river. Beyond this was his home, once perched on the edge of a cliff above the great plains of Torash flowers. Their Amethyst petals glowing in the night, looking akin to Dutch Tulips by day. By night their petals would open like stars. The fields becoming a glow with the amethyst shine.
He had last seen Ace outside where his family home had once stood. The main building had fallen over the cliff and into the field. He knew they had since rebuilt it. He had been about to go to Skaro to take the remains of the Master to be buried on Gallifrey. He had rebuilt Ace's bike after her first had been destroyed in the Trap that ultimately led to his home falling down the cliff.
When he had returned as the Time War had raged, she had been out in the field, fighting Daleks as she had trained for all those years ago when she left his 7th self for a time. Now she was atoms on an alien planet. Once Dorothy McShane who hated her mother, abused by her father. Traveled time and space with powerful explosives she had created. To fight in a war that was not her own, just because she loved the Doctor like an Uncle and wanted to help the one that had shown her that she was not an outcast.
He ran his thumbs over the tainted fabric as he sat in the shade of a fire fruit tree, almost hearing her voice.
"You should have seen it Professor. It was wicked!"
"Oh Ace, I should never have got you mixed up in this" he said to the wind.
"Gordon Bennit Doctor! Stop being a grumpy old man. Come on, I'll even let you play your spoons. Though I know I'll regret it later"
Memories kept playing on and on past his gaze.
"Soldering iron"
"Soldering iron"
"Multi-meter"
"Multi-meter"
(Sounds of someone rummaging through a toolbox)
"Ace, what are you doing?"
"Looking for the screwdriver"
"Why?" an exasperated question.
"Because you're going to ask for that next"
"Ha! Pliers"
"Oh! Pliers"
Things never to be repeated as her life was extinguished before its time. Never to be called Professor by the bright brave girl. That was like a burning pain in his soul. How may had he lost now? Would he loose Rose the same way?
He jerked in response to that blinding thought Rose! He had left her alone in the market. He got up and retraced his steps, he did not fear for her for she was safe on Gallifrey. But she would be worried about him. He returned to the market, surprised by the amount of time that had passed since he had spoken with the Bursar. Seeing no trace of Rose in the now closing stalls he decided to go to the medical wing. No doubt she would have gone to check on Jack and Galen.
He placed the remains of Ace's jacket inside one of his pockets, walking through the white alabaster streets. Some nodded to him, others gave him disgusted looks. He was stopped when some children rushed to him.
"Champion!" the children shouted,
"Is it true?" one young one asked.
"Ah there is truth and there is truth. And then there are jelly babies….but that is something else entirely. So what truth little one?"
"That you rode a Guardian and brought back time" one boy exclaimed excitedly, as if he should have known.
"I have ridden a Guardian, yes"
"Can we see him Champion?"
"Another time guys, he's not feeling too well"
"Tell him thank you, we always knew they would come. When will we see the other Guardians?" the youngest asked, remembering the stories of the skies filled with the flying forms of Guardians, their bright colored scales flashing in the sun.
"You won't little one. The Chosen Guardian is the last. His world fell protecting us" multiple eyes dimmed in sadness
"Really?" The Doctor nodded in reply.
"Children!" the 5 children turned to see their tutor calling them.
"We have to go Champion." With that they ran off, leaving the Doctor to continue to the Medical wing.
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Jack had found some food, eaten and then returned to Galen's bedside. God when had he gotten so soft? He wasn't even sure Galen would be interested for heavens sake! He was heading for heartbreak that was for sure. But there was something about him that drew Jack like no other. Maybe it was his will, his strength. To keep his word even after his world had fallen. Galen was a lot like the Doctor in his strength and intensity. But behind the kind Guardian lay something so terrifying it made Jack shiver. Maybe it was the danger that drew Jack, which would be unfair to Galen if it were true.
Jack looked up when the Doctor walked into the room, his black leather jacket a dark contrast to the sterile white and gold walls.
"Hey Doc, you and Rose have fun?" he waited for the blonde girl to make an appearance. For her to tell him of the fun she had, while making goggle eyes at the Doctor. But she never appeared. "Where's Rose?"
"You mean she hasn't come here?"
"Why should she? She went off with you"
"We got separated, I thought she would come here"
"You mean you lost her?" Jack replied shocked, Galen's warning coming to the forefront of his mind.
"I didn't lose her. Besides she is safe here" The Doctor replied, annoyed at Jacks tone
"I wouldn't be so sure" Jack mumbled under his breath "Come on, lets go and find her.
They set out to search for Rose, first going to her room to see if she had become tired and gone to get some sleep. But she was nowhere to be found, so they finally retraced their steps to the market place. By now all the stalls had closed for the night, the brightly colored fabrics packed away, leaving only the wooden shells and the alabaster stone.
"The bursar took me to one side to tell me something. It was some rather, bad news I may have got distracted" The Doctor was looking around the empty plaza.
"So in other words you went into brooding mode"
"Brooding mode?" The Doctor asked confused, his eyebrows raised at Jack.
"Something Rose told me about, you just sit in the dark, or somewhere quiet and brood. She called it your "brooding mode" so you went off to brood leaving Rose alone."
"What? She'll be fine. I mean wha…" The Doctor was cut off mid sentence as he spied something on the ground; walking up to it he saw it was the necklace he had given Rose. Her name in Gallifreyian proudly displayed on the back. "Rose!" The Doctor called out.
"What is it Doc?"
"I bought this for Rose, she was wearing it when I last saw her. But what could have happened?"
"Doctor! What do you think happened? Don't be so stupid. Galen warned Rose"
"Warned Rose about what?"
"About the Time Lords, about how they feel about Humans. About what they might d if they found out she wielded the time vortex" Jack snapped back, his rage coming to the fore that the Doctor could be so blind.
"They wouldn't do anything to her. I admit they used to be like that. But since I brought Ace and Leela here. They have come to see that they are not so below us." The Doctor defended his person, feeling that he should, which was strange; usually he would be the first to voice their faults.
"Oh don't be an Idiot, you so happy that they are alive that you ignore what is before you. Rose made me promise no to voice this. Because you were so happy, she did not want to taint that. But now she is missing, and you are ignoring the fact that one of your kind has taken her" The doctor turned the dark blue gaze upon Jack, Jack knew he was treading on thin ice, but he didn't care Rose was gone and he should have said something sooner to the Doctor. Ignoring Rose's plea.
"Do not accuse one of us when there is no proof."
"Who else could it have been! From what I have seen, Rose and me are the only humans on Gallifrey. So who else besides your race could have taken her?" Jack shouted back, his face in so close to the Doctors he could feel his hot angry breath. "They have already proved themselves with how they treated Galen. Who sacrificed his entire race for you"
The Doctor seemed to still, his mind working over the information. Could it be true? A sentence from before came to the Doctor's mind
"Why don't you and your…humans get some rest Doctor? There is nothing more you can do here," Orlith ha said Humans with such distain. As if they were pets.
"Come on Jack, we can do a scan for her in the TARDIS she will not be hard to find, with only one heart.
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Rose was awake, but wished she wasn't, because awake she could see everything they were doing to her. Feel everything, but she could make no sound, only to move her eyes to look around the room, to let the tears fall in pain and fear. They had been at it for hours, cataloguing every little part of her inside…..and out. She knew she was open to the air, knew something was not right from the amount of blood she could see on her naked chest, but she could not move her head to angle down to look. What had they done to her?
She could feel the presence in her mind of something. Be it the TARDIS or the Time Vortex she was not sure. The Glare of the light was blocked once more as the Time Lord from before came; she could hear voices but could not speak.
"How comes the research?" she knew that voice.
"Very well, she still has traces of the time Vortex. We might be able to figure out how to adapt us to hold the Vortex. The most rudimentary way would be to use her body as a filter. So all the damage would pass to her leaving the other to have total control over the Vortex." Orlith finished, they were both looking over her body. Making her skin crawl, feeling like thousands of insects were crawling over her.
When they moved the light, so she was no longer blinded, she caught the reflection of herself in the shiny steal wall before her.
If she could……she would have screamed.
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The Guardian slept on, his body forcibly kept in the coma. But something stirred, no longer held back by the mind of the Guardian. The Sultarrvec rose from the cage in the guardians mind, finding the body unresponsive it growled. But it was of no matter. It did not need flesh to exist when the guardian slumbered.
Someone had hurt its host. It growled knowing it would make those that had hurt it pay. It held no love for its host. The guardian always fighting to keep this being in check. But in hurting the host they had hurt he Sultarrvec. And that would not go unpunished.
So it waited until the right moment. And nothing would stop it.
TBC>>>