OKAY. Suffice to say this took way longer than I expected but I still, for many reasons, can't say I'm entirely happy with this chapter. Spent a lot of time at probably stupid hours of the morning/night trying to fix it but honestly I'll never get through this if I don't come back to it. Who knows, maybe that's how I'll manage to fix this. It'll just take time...
It's been a hell of a week honestly. Had to say goodbye to a wonderful and very much loved furry family member. Also pretty sure he's haunting the house now so there's that. No sleep, thanks. I'm good.
Anyway, hoping to get back on schedule even with the move and potentially a second D&D group I'm joining. We shall see! But thank you very much to my Beta readers and readership for, well, reading!
Disclaimer on Doctor Who. Damn.
If he was going to do this, he had to start at the source. The Doctor was more than a little suspicious when he saw both drones waiting in the consul room for him yet not a single word had been uttered from the blue one until the Tardis had materialized within a nearly dead silent room that held an oppressive air and bright sterile white lighting. It was filled to the brim with computer servers, metal shelves with dusty manila folders ready to burst with near ancient papers.
"Doctor. Two Draugr units have been detected within the area and are well aware of your presence."
"Good," he almost growled. His sonic in hand, the first thing the Doctor did was calibrate a signal to force the pair he found waiting for him to completely ignore his existence and the existence of the two drones and the Tardis. In fact, if anyone but him came back into the room they'd delay them. The next step was a bit trickier but nothing his sonic couldn't handle. In 15 minutes time, files from the once secure server room were streaming all through Pillar to every device connected to its grid, and he was willing to bet that there were still a lot of people with the technology to access an entire universe of new information, even with things in this current state. "Wil."
"The lieutenant is being transported to Central Command under Draugr custody. She is alive and well for the time being Doctor."
"And it's gonna stay that way."
Caligo didn't look back from the city gates once, not even when she heard the groan of the Tardis quickly replaced by silence. The Doctor said he would come back, but what did that mean honestly? Suddenly she was quietly berating herself for not thinking of a better choice of words. If the Doctor did indeed come back in a few days as she had requested… Unfortunately, that isn't going to be my problem soon, she thought.
Things had gone differently than she thought they would, however. Rather than simply being shot on sight at the gate, the waiting guard units simply cuffed her and had taken her to Central Command. Whether that was good or bad was a hard thing to discern, however, because she rightly couldn't be sure. She also couldn't be quite sure that something wasn't off about the team that had taken her into Central to begin with but she didn't have the luxury of pondering that once the hanger doors to the vehicle depot closed. It wasn't as if she were looking for a way to escape, not intentionally at least. After all, she had come back to set the record straight.
"You'll see Commandant Brahms now, lieutenant," the taller Draugr told her.
"Yes ma'am," she answered, stoic as she could manage. Their lift came to a halt at the lab, presumably because that's where the Commandant was waiting but when they entered it seemed more as if they'd beaten him there. A team of workers were going about their business, only one or two of them stopping to glance at Caligo as she entered the room. On the far right side of the room were at least a dozen beds, at least seven of them currently occupied by presumably the newest series of Draugr. Perhaps the first in two decades, she thought. Caligo watched as two of the researchers took vitals of a brunet male and a stout looking woman with orange hair. An unwelcomed knot formed in her stomach as another individual was wheeled out to one of the unoccupied beds.
This area, the lieutenant was sure of it, had never been visited by her before and yet there was an odd familiarity to it. One that made that knot in her belly tighten to the point of causing a twinge of pain and her heart began to race. Caligo felt the telltale twitch in her left eye muscle and the dull throb at the base of her skull turned into a blaze that left her feeling as if molten metal were being pressed deep into her flesh. She hadn't even realized she'd begun to strain against her bindings until one of the Draugr stilled her with a firm hand wrapped around the back of her neck.
"Some things don't change, do they, lieutenant?" A tall man who looked to be in his late fifties wearing a stark white dress uniform reminiscent of a twentieth century American Navy general Caligo once seen in a book entered the room accompanied by two armed guards. His salt and pepper hair was cut short and neat to the point where it looked as if all he had on his head was peach fuzz. Only one notable thing stood out on the uniform that he wore and it wasn't any medals, ribbons or patches for he had none of those, but a braided silver cord looped over his left shoulder with a polished black skull attached to it.
"Commandant Brahms," Caligo acknowledged, although she hadn't meant for her voice to come out so shakily. "I don't understand sir." For the commandant to take the time to interrogate her himself, she honestly didn't.
Brahms looked at her with something almost akin to pity. Almost. "No, I'm sure that you don't. Regardless, you've been brought here for a reason and I'm sure you know what the reason is if you bothered to come back. So tell me."
"I returned to inform whatever next of kin Patricia Nelson had that she has passed." Commandant Brahms didn't speak, but continued to stare at her as if he were expecting more of an answer than that. Pity that he should be disappointed again. Caligo felt her eye twitch of its own accord once more at the trace of bitterness that found its way into her thoughts and quickly averted her gaze elsewhere.
"The hospital staff mentioned a strange wheezing sound like a machine, and yet much like a living being, the moment Mrs. Nelson disappeared from her room," the Commandant casually mentioned. He was leading her on, fishing for very specific information and they both knew it. "Your signal has been disappearing for short periods recently and suddenly you go from Blackridge to Pillar in mere minutes with no record of a travel path."
"I find no record of this, sir," she answered coldly. Caligo was suddenly feeling quite… Belligerent. Uncooperative. Spiteful. Bitter. Rebellious. She couldn't help the way her body jerked at the streak of pain that coursed through it, her inhibitor fighting against such thoughts and, it seemed, losing the battle.
"A man came with you to see her. Who was he."
"This unit finds no record of another individual, sir." Another unpleasant surge of what now felt like pure electricity streaking through her spine. Caligo's jaw clenched tightly when the sensation continued to build to the point where she was sure she could feel tooth and bone beginning to give under the pressure she was putting on them.
Brahms frowned at her. It was blatantly obvious that she was withholding information but he couldn't figure for the life of him why she wouldn't give it up. Hell, it was a wonder to him how it was she would still put up a fight after so many years. "They're saying that you murdered her."
"They are wrong," Caligo bit out through clenched teeth. Still, the pain wouldn't subside even a little and it was beginning to become harder to endure as the seconds ticked past. "The doctors diagnosed it as cellular degeneration. She had less than a few hours. I took her out of the city and when she passed I buried her."
"Where is she buried."
The minutes passed in silence and the pain only grew until at last she growled out, "I will not tell!"
"You'll tell me where you buried Patricia Nelson, lieutenant. That is a direct order-"
"Your orders be damned," Caligo yelled, bringing a chilling silence over everyone in the room, and finally dropped to her knees. She couldn't consciously feel any part of her body and yet it felt like she was on fire. Every cell, every atom, even her mind felt as if she were being consumed by a raging inferno and yet she was still unbearably alive in spite of it.
The Draugr on either side of her instantly drew their weapons from their holsters and pointed the barrels to both sides of Caligo's skull when Brahms bid them to stay their hands a moment longer. "I'll find out anyway, you know. Dead or alive. All the data will still be there but there are so many reasons why it would be better for everyone that you just give up. Who was the man you were with in the hospital before Mrs. Nelson disappeared?"
"The Doctor, that's who!"
There was a novel's worth of curses that ran through her mind when she heard the damned word 'Doctor' until she suddenly came to realize two important, terrifying things. First, that it was not her who had spoken. Second, she recognized the voice that had and that could only mean her fear had become reality. Caligo chanced a glance up and lo and behold, there stood the Doctor in the doorway of the lab with at least three guns pointed at him and without her to stand in the way of them.
Commandant Brahms didn't seem the least bit alarmed, but perhaps pleased that the Doctor had revealed himself so willingly. With frightening calmness, he replied, "Doctor who?"
"Just the Doctor," the Time Lord answered, but without any sort of mirth in his words as there usually was. The sight that he beheld, while he wasn't expecting the most pleasant of things, fueled the fire burning within his hearts and deepened the chasm of regret hidden there as well. "Commandant Brahms, was it? Right. Doesn't really matter one way or another except that you're the one in charge here, aren't you?" The Doctor strolled into the lab without a care, as if there weren't three energy pistols with top marksmen on the other end of them, their sights on his head.
Brahms still didn't look at all surprised or bothered by the Doctor's sudden intrusion. Hours had passed since the hospital incident and he felt quite content to dispose of a foolish man who would simply walk into the heart of a hostile military base. "You're correct. So I must ask exactly what business you have here, Doctor."
"Because," the Doctor announced loudly as he took a slow, deliberate lap around the room and pretended to scrutinize everything in sight, "My companion here, Cal, isn't as smart as I thought she'd be if she somehow got to thinking that I wouldn't know what was going to happen to her the moment she set foot inside the city again." The Doctor ended his walk around the lab right in front of Brahms, still lacking any sort of mirth and perhaps looking even more cross than when he'd first entered. "She's also absolutely mad if she thought that I'd just let it go knowing that. Patricia Nelson is in fact dead, Commandant, but she wasn't murdered. You know what I think?"
"I think that you know where her body is, Doctor, and I know that you won't give up the location any sooner than my Draugr will," Brahms answered coldly.
The Doctor went on, half ignoring Brahms' words and his own hardly more than a whisper. Brahms was the only one who really needed to hear this. "I think you don't care that someone's dead. Nor do I think you really care about the why or who or how and I think that's because you already know."
"Cellular degeneration can't be fixed by some fairy dust and divine miracles, Doctor. I'm sure you know that or else perhaps you might've found some sort of cure for Mrs. Nelson's condition." Brahms gave a dark smirk when the Doctor didn't fire back at him with some clever remark. "You're right in part that the only thing that matters to me at this very moment is repossessing her body. It's a complicated thing and I don't have time to waste explaining my actions to someone who hasn't been here for perhaps the better part of two hundred years, going on three." His smirk only grew when he noted the way the Doctor's eyes narrowed at him. "Don't look so surprised, Doctor. I know who you are, or at least I know the legends. The stories. I know a lot of things about you but I can't bring myself to believe that even half the things in UNIT's files of you are true." The Time Lord's anger was palpable as Brahms continued to speak without a care. "This isn't your Earth anymore and the human race? Well, they're all but gone now Doctor. At least here, anyway. You've no jurisdiction here. You never did and I will honestly say I have no qualms of simply shooting you now and being done with you. But you see this Draugr here?"
Brahms surely gestured to Caligo but she couldn't bear to open her eyes. The air felt like a million billion needles when it blew across her skin. Their voices rang like chimes in her ears, disorienting and rattling her inside and out. Above all, she could feel their gazes drilling holes into her body from where they stood and swore that anger radiated from the Doctor in actual waves of heat. Leave. Please leave. They really will shoot you. Brahms is incapable of caring about your life!
Brahms observed the Doctor carefully as he took in the sight of his kneeling companion and realized that he didn't grasp the full severity of the situation. "Hardly anything save for true obedience to the chain of command is tolerated from a Draugr, and this one is anything but. As much as she would try to hide it, if you looked into her eyes you'd see the pain she endures for her refusal to obey orders. Know this, Doctor. All she had to do to avoid this was tell me who you were and where Mrs. Nelson was buried but she refused. She meant to conceal you from us and now you've made her efforts all for naught by being here."
"And I'm not leaving here without her," the Doctor shot back, equally defiant. His stare bored into Brahms' eyes as the wheels in his head turned violently, forming a plan with the best and worst possible outcomes. Oddly enough that was also when he noticed the black skull against silver cord on the Commandant's shoulder and suddenly things made a world of sense. "You're a Draugr too, aren't you Brahms?" The Doctor's anger subsided slightly and turned to excitement at this crucial piece of the puzzle when Brahms didn't answer him, but he really didn't need to. "I get it. Can't break off from orders, can you? Why? Because you're programmed that way so to speak. Same as Cal I'm willing to bet."
"My job is far from easy," Brahms answered with just a hint of irritation now, "But I must continue to perform as if it were."
"Yeah, except who told you to? That you can't ever deviate from whatever orders they've drilled into your brain? Who told you that the Earth was going to be at war with the rest of the universe forever?" The Doctor didn't expect him to answer because he didn't expect him to know. Two hundred years going on three and the Draugr have existed for the better part of it, ready to fight a war that might never come in their lifetime so they would always need to make more, prolonging the suffering. "All this," he announced loudly, waving his hands toward the Draugr, the computers, the individuals still laying in their beds, "stops today."
Brahms gave the order to shoot in a heartbeat, yet none of the Draugr present could respond. He looked at each of them and found them to be squeezing the triggers of their weapons but not a single one would budge. The Doctor, source of all his problems at the moment was grinning smugly in his direction.
"You thought I didn't think of that? Thought UNIT would've given me more credit than that! Not bad Wil~"
The steel blue drone wandered into the room, Yuki right behind him and quickly moving to apprehend their weapons. The hot rod red mechanic drone was far stronger than Brahms' guard and crushed the barrels of their energy pistols before moving on. "Doctor," Wilhelm spoke as the drone made his way over to him, "Swift action is required. Draugr units have already summoned reinforcements."
"If they wanna join the party who am I to stop 'em," the Time Lord chuckled and quickly sprinted to the computer at the far end of the room per Wilhelm's suggestion and began to type away furiously at the keys. In two minutes flat, just as they heard the lift arrive, the Doctor had permanently shut down the Draugr signal dispatch. He left their hive mind untouched however; They didn't need the extra shock on top of the near bombshell that was about to hit them. To his left he saw Caligo slump to the ground, probably both relieved and exhausted. He knelt down next to her and carefully pushed the hair from her eyes. "Cal?"
Her entire body was shaking and she was breathing hard, but soon enough Caligo's eyes opened and she faintly smiled up at him. "Never been so glad to see you Doctor," she sighed. His hands were cool against her skin and although the mere brush of his fingertips over her aching skin caused her to flinch, she wouldn't trade the feeling for anything else on this Earth. The relief was short lived however as a dozen or more very confused – and some very angry – individuals stumbled into the room with a slew of questions. The situation was about to literally explode with the sheer number of Draugr present in the room. Caligo didn't miss a beat when the Draugr that had her gun pointed at her skull minutes earlier looked up, eyes wide and livid as she brandished the broken weapon. The offending Draugr didn't see Caligo coming, legs locking her arm in place and throwing her down to the ground a moment later. "Doctor, stay down!"
Commandant Brahms was up on his feet once the disorienting feeling had left him and glanced at his guards. One looked absolutely terrified of him and the other was in the process of drawing his combat knife to shove into his throat. Brahms beat him to the punch, stole his weapon and threw the man to the ground before staking him in the chest. Well aware of what was happening, he drew the now slain mans' firearm, took aim at the group stumbling their way out of the lift and opened fire.
The Commandant's erratic aim scattered those who were confused and scared but it was the ones who looked absolutely furious were ready for it and the fight broke out instantly. Caligo could feel the blood rushing through her veins, drowning out the sounds of utter chaos as she pushed herself up to her feet. The calls from the Doctor went unheard and she'd all but forgotten about the restraints holding her arms behind her back because neither of those things mattered. If they all kept fighting, eventually someone would die and damn if that someone ended up being the Doctor. "Not after all that's happened today," she roared, leaping into the fray.
The Doctor watched as Caligo leapt into the fight, still partially restrained and attempting to knock down anyone who threw a punch or went for a gun. A few of the other Draugr, shaken as they seemed, slowly got to their feet again and restrained several of their enraged comrades. Within minutes, the only few who remained were Brahms, a screeching brunette woman and Caligo. In the midst of the chaos the Doctor didn't see it, but Caligo's hands were in front of her now as she tripped Brahms and caught him by the neck with the length of her restraints. Yuki grabbed hold of the woman, lifting her at least a foot off the floor with his large clamp – like hands secured firmly around her arms and torso.
"Give it up Commandant," Caligo growled, fingers gripping the back of his skull and pressing his head forward so that the length of steel joining her restraints barred his throat. She didn't let up until he was gasping for air and finally placed his hands on the ground.
"Look what you've done," Brahms rasped angrily, turning just barely enough to glare hatefully at the Doctor, "What'll you do now with all these violent freaks! Murderers! Thieves! Despicable, heartless killers!"
"Fuck you Brahms," the still flailing brunette shrieked, tears running down her cheeks and pinning the commandant with an equally hateful gaze, "You're one of us too! You could bathe in the blood shed by your sins!"
"I made my way without killing!" Brahms' breath came out in pitiful rasps, the color of his skin darkening and red lines beginning to make their appearance in his eyes. "You're not even human," he spat out through gritted teeth, "Just a bunch of DNA Frankensteins…!"
Caligo's grip tightened on his skull, driving the bindings joining her wrists tighter against his throat. Perhaps it was the blood rushing through her veins or the adrenaline still making her heart pound violently in her chest but her ears were full of bells. The din of over two dozen individuals' thoughts, the number steadily rising, rang through her mind, a cacophony of wailing, cries for vengeance and retribution and weeping for the violence and pain to come to an end. What should she do? What did she want from all of this? It could all end in just a second after all. It only took just a minute or two, and he would have no air left to breathe. She could crush his skull with her prosthetic hand. If she put just a fraction more of her weight down on the foot pressed against his bent spine it would snap like a dry, old twig.
"Cal," the Doctor called over the sound of frantically muttering individuals. The room was practically silent save for the few discontented sounds the scientists and a few Draugr made but he knew just from the mad look in their eyes that they were all screaming on the inside. "Cal, you kill him and you'll be just as bad."
"I already am Doctor," she yelled back, eyes still boring madly into the back of Brahms' skull, "He's right. There's blood on my hands already so what's one more?"
"Cuz what good would killing him do you? Nothing. You'll feel like it was for the best at first but then it'll come back. Every single night, it'll come back and haunt you until the end of your days and if I have a say in it, you'll live an awfully long life." It wasn't a threat, but it was certainly a promise and that promise could be as good or as bad as she wanted it to be. "This is the first choice you've got as a free woman. As a human being. You get to choose what you do! Not Brahms, not me, not anyone else in this room except for you." The Doctor kept his distance, trying to keep as much faith as Patricia had in her and hoped like hell he wasn't wrong about the lieutenant. Your move, Cal.
One more. One more was all Brahms would be on a long list of 'one more's over the years of her life. Caligo had made all sorts of wrong choices that ended up with more 'one more's than just once and this time, she couldn't place the blame on Brahms. She didn't need the Doctor to tell her what 'one more' was. She already knew. "Just one more," she hissed softly and bent low to whisper in Brahms' ear. "Just remember that you put those 'one more's on us but they will always, always be yours." Caligo swiftly let go of his head and let the commandant drop to the ground, allowing him to catch his breath. The room erupted into a violent resound of enraged and relieved shouts.
The Doctor was beyond relieved when she dropped the man and quickly ran over to embrace her, knowing his faith in her, his gamble, hadn't been for naught. But Caligo, her entire body, was shaking and his presence seemed to do nothing for her. He quickly freed her from her restraints while the other slightly more sensible Draugr did their best to keep their disgruntled counterparts from causing trouble while everyone calmed down a bit. The injured received medical attention, Yuki and Wilhelm were busy starting various repairs and those present were more than happy to assist the Doctor in shutting down any of the equipment pertaining to the creation of future Draugr series.
"Funny thing, this mess of a lab," one of the scientists – a plain old human male with no spinal implant – had told him, "All these people that come out from here were made to solve the limited population problem after the wars. Didn't want inbreeding to become a thing but I guess even good intentions have their consequences." One of the greatest problems with a severely reduced population was a loss of a large chunk of the human gene pool. The dead can't reproduce so whatever genetics they had, good or bad, was lost altogether. Eventually, the Earth population of humans would've died off even without any more wars or invasions. "You know the only difference between the Draugr and a lot of people created by this process is their lifespan; gotten better over the years but most if not all of them only have maybe thirty years at best. That's it. If it weren't for that, you'd never know me and them were born of the same pod."
"The Draugr really got the short end of the stick, drawing attention away from the artificially created population by taking the bodies of the dead and dying to save their DNA to combat the sudden lack of genetic diversity and short lifespan. When they make new people, sometimes it's like those old people come back, but not really. Things like that really rattle people," the Doctor said as he handed Caligo a mug of hot chocolate. This place was apparently called the Mess Hall and mess was definitely the right word. He remembered a time when humans actually knew a thing or two about hot chocolate but that was now literally centuries ago.
I'm made up of dead bodies. The thought made Caligo cringe a little but she took the offered mug and gave him little more than a nod in return. "When people get angry, they lash out," she murmured softly after a while. "They hated me for what I represented to them, not because of who I am then?" Not that it made her feel any better about anything that had happened over the years. Not really.
The Doctor shrugged. "Part of it at least." The answer to questions like that was never as simple as yes or no but it explained some things; like the police woman from the diner earlier in the month and Patricia and Amelia for starters. In the Mess Hall, the Doctor watched small groups of lone Draugr and the occasional soldier sitting together and talking quietly. They were hesitantly getting to know one another; some were getting to know who they really were. Right now, all they had was each other and they had to start somewhere.
"They made me with a machine," Caligo spoke softly before turning to him, "I guess I'm not human after all then."
"Human DNA, human body, human emotions. Granted you've got a mutation or two but at the heart of it you're as human as you want to be Cal." He smiled at her from behind the rim of his mug and took a small sip. Bugger. It was still hot as all hell. "Did I tell you? Humans are probably my favorite race~ Of course your strongest competitors have to be the Dalphinians on the planet Epsilon Four. Mischievous little fellows who communicate primarily through taste, meaning they lick absolutely everything and have all manner of taste receptors on the soft parts of their bodies. Oh. And cat nuns."
Caligo couldn't help chuckling as he went on rambling. She never realized how relaxing it could be to just sit there and let him talk until she grew weary. "Really? A species who evolved an extreme oral fixation is the competition for the top of your list?"
The Doctor pouted at her a little. "Oi. No one's going around judging you for not tasting everything you come across. Well, not that you know of anyway."
Caligo rolled her eyes and they fell back into that companionable silence that had seemed to more often than not form between them on their down time from jumping from one alien planet to another. The time passed slowly but soon, a question she had certainly thought would be better saved for a later day burned at the very front of her mind. "Doctor," she started hesitantly, "Why'd you do it? Why'd you let me decide if I'd kill Brahms or not instead of just stopping me? You could've. I know you could've."
"Because you could've already done it if you'd had your mind set on it," he told her in a very matter of fact tone. "You could've killed Durellis when you punched your way out of that stasis unit. Concussed the hell out of him, yes, but he's alive. Could've turned those sport hunters into wall mounted trophies before I made it back to you. You went and brought an old woman you probably barely knew to see the bright and bold future of the human race and walked back into this city just to tell Amelia, a girl you definitely don't know, she died happy." The Doctor smiled knowingly at his stunned companion. "You could've, but you didn't, and all those things you did because you wanted to. Not because someone told you to. I'm willing to bet that's a part of who you are."
There was no comprehending how the Doctor could have so much faith that there was something good in her. She couldn't understand it herself but then again, what was there to say that he wasn't right? He'd proved her wrong before. Caligo stared down at the mug in her hands, uncertain. "I don't think I know what kind of person I really am."
Carefully, the Doctor set his mug down behind him on the table and hopped to his feet, coming to stand just in front of her. One hand was shoved deep into his pocket while he held the other out to her and grinned. "Why don't we find out then~?"
"What about Pillar? And Central? And Blackridge," she stammered, clearly startled.
"Chain of command nonsense is still in place and we can pop back once a month for a peek. Blackridge can still be your home if you like." He tried to hide the disappointment at the thought. It was one thing to come back for a visit, but a part time companion? The Doctor was starting to think even travelling with him was more of a job to her than an adventure.
Blackridge as her home. That was a bit farfetched, even for Caligo. But then again, the Doctor didn't know how or why she'd ended up there in the first place. "Patricia once told Wil and I that home is where the heart is. I think I don't know where my heart is any more than I know who I am. So I guess that means I ought to go out and look for that too," she concluded, and firmly took the Doctor's hand in her own.