Chapter 24

[So I considered having another arc here, that I've dubbed the Ancient Xerxes Groundhog Day arc. I've never seen Ground Hog day, but it sort of summed up the idea. I'm mentioning this because it might have explained some of the jumps between last chapter and this. But for a couple reasons, it just wasn't working within the story. So, it's not here. If I ever write a fic of side stories from this universe, like I've considered doing, I'll include it then.]

Pride woke up to realize it was dark in the TARDIS. Night and day were just sort of constructed in here, but it was clearly time to be sleeping. And yet, he was wide awake.

He got up, put on some slippers, and went to the controls. No one was there. Pride frowned. He didn't hear or see any signs of the Doctor, and she wasn't the type you missed. And Lilly's jacket should've been out here where she'd left it if she was sleeping. Had they gone somewhere?

He opened the door. Outside it was night. The ground was coated with a layer of white flaky stuff that looked and felt like snow, but was too warm. The field seemed to just stretch on forever, and there were no people in sight, but he could see tracks.

Pride closed the door to the TARDIS, grabbed a cloak hanging by the entrance, and headed out.

He walked along the field for a little while, scooping the white dust off the ground. The warm snow was interesting, but not particularly surprising after everything else that had happened.

He stood up with a huff and looked around. He seemed to be on a field of rolling hills. It would be grassland if it wasn't for the 'snow'. Stars lit the sky above. They didn't look like any of the constellations he'd seen before, so not someplace he and the Doctor had stopped at already. She and Lilly were also still not in sight. But someone else was.

He'd spun in a circle while scanning the fields for any sign of the Doctor. By the time he'd completed the turn, someone was in the fields who hadn't been there before. They were coming towards him. As they got closer, Pride saw it was a teenage girl, probably sixteen or seventeen. She had green eyes, and red hair that had been pulled back, but was steadily coming lose and falling into her face. She looked human, but that didn't mean much.

She ran up with a frazzled expression on her face, and looked like she was about to grab his shoulders. Pride made a face and took a half step back. She seemed to get the idea, stopping just short of grabbing him.

"You! Are you the wizard we've been waiting for?"

". . . Yes."

"Oh thank God. Sorry, we didn't realize you were on the rebound."

The what now?

"Still, we should really get moving. It's not safe out here. Especially if our enemies know you're a wizard."

Reassuring.

She reached out for his wrist. Pride held up his free hand. "I can walk for myself."

"Come on then," the girl urged.

She led him over the next hill. At the bottom of it, she pushed a sliding metal door open. It wasn't exactly well hidden, painted gray and out in the open. But it was against the ground and probably used to be covered in snow. You wouldn't notice it from a distance, was the point.

They went inside, starting down a dirt staircase. As they went down, it became more like people actually lived here. The dirt walls changed to metal, the few torches were replaced by more frequent lamps. The floor changed to tile and became more even. There were also now more doors, and halls branching off.

Someone exited one of the doors. It looked like an office on the inside. The man who'd stepped out was on the older side, hair graying and wrinkles forming. He also had a scar on his face, and Pride could see a few on his right arm, that suggested he'd done a lot of fighting.

"Briar? Who is this?"

"The wizard we asked for."

Pride, feeling a little out of the loop, waved. "Nice to meet you."

The man nodded. "A pleasure. I am General Windsor."

Okay, so they were in a war. He'd suspected, but good to know. "I'm Pride."

Pride shook his hand.

"Really?" the General asked.

Ah, the usual skepticism. Pride nodded. "My real name is Pride, but a few people call me Selim if you prefer."

"I'll keep that in mind." He turned. "Briar, if you could take him to the medical ward and see what he can do there, it would be wonderful."

Then he took a few steps behind them, to the hall on the right.

"And where are you going?" Briar asked.

"Nothing to concern yourself with," the man said.

Briar scowled. It looked like she might have been grinding her teeth. Then she spun around. "This way."

Oh this could shape up to be a long night. He braced himself, and spoke. "Are you alright?"

"They don't want me involved in the fighting, since I'm not eighteen," Briar explained without turning back towards him, waving a hand. "But apparently, I am old enough to do the paperwork and help in the medical bay and keep blood off the walls and, well, you get the idea."

Pride nodded. "People take in your appearance and not much else. And frequently, they're not even logical about that."

Briar slowed, turning to him with a dawning realization in her eyes. "Yeah, I guess you really would know about that, wouldn't you? Do people still give you a hard time when you say you've rebounded?"

It would help if I knew what that meant. He made his best guess. "Sometimes. They know I'm older than I look, but it doesn't always help."

Briar nodded along. "Glad I've got a while on that. Well, here we are."

She opened the door, and the two of them entered a medical bay. Pride walked in, looking around. The nearest person was sleeping, but restlessly, breaths labored.

"He broke some ribs," Briar explained.

"Yes, that seems to be the case," Pride agreed. He still checked for himself, pressing his hands to the man's chest. That woke him up.

"Can you fix him?" Briar asked.

"I think so."

Without a Philosopher's Stone, he couldn't just create new materials to repair a body. However, he could use alchemy to rearrange what was there. Transmuting two pieces of bone back into one whole bone was easy, provided no huge amounts had been shattered beyond use. There was just the question of if these people where chemically different than humans.

Pride looked up. The room was mostly beds, with a sink and cabinets at the end. But there were also some shelves built in above the bed, and those were full.

"Get me a book on bone structure," he said.