Chapter 7
Ripples
14 AD
Emetrius released the grip on his opponent's throat only to grasp him by his wrists and began to wildly spin him in a violent circle. When he was at a breakneck, superhuman speed, he released him, flinging him violently high into the air. While is opponent was a ballistic missile, Emetrius himself crouched and that began to shriek in a high pitched voice and then launched himself off of the bluff where he had been sitting. He leapt high into the air and then as he began his decent towards the ground, he tucked his legs close and began to somersault. As he hit the ground he rolled a several times and then he was on his feet, running at a superhuman speed towards the village, shrieking the entire time.
His opponent landed with a thud and since he had not been in his normal form, several of his bones broke with the impact and he howled in pain. He clamped his hands tightly over his eyes and reverted to his preternatural state in order to more quickly heal. In several moments he was able to pursue Emetrius, now able to hear the shrieking off into the distance. He tripped and stumbled many times through out as he was unable to see.
Sunday November 4, 1888
The Doctor was still linked with Elizabeth watching the events of the past evening unfold. Despite the fear that this poor woman had experienced and was experiencing now, she had a great inner strength to her. She would have made a great companion he thought to himself. He was going to probe a bit deeper when a beeping noise began from his pocket. He broke contact with Elizabeth and reached into his coat pocket. He pulled out a device that looked like a PDA and began to look at it. He pressed the screen a couple of times and the beeping stopped. He put on his glasses and looked at the tiny screen with intense concentration. Elizabeth uttered a choked sob.
"Shhh," Rose told her as she clutched her close. "I know that all this seems to be so strange to you but the Doctor will be able to help."
The Doctor was still studying the small screen when all the color drained from his face. Then without a word, he rose to his feet and without a backwards glance he made for the door leaving an astonished Rose in his wake.
"Doctor!" she cried incredulously as she ran to follow him.
14 AD
Emetrius reached the edge of the city and leapt up to the roof tops and paused listening. He could hear the various cries from the carrion birds as they circled above. It was apparent that they were disturbed by him. His shriek that he navigated by was inaudible to the human eat but the birds were apparently bothered. He could hear The One still trying to close the distance, but without the noise that he was making, The One could not see unless he was to suppress his powers again. Emetrius smiled a wicked smile at that. He paused for a moment, listening and then he began to make small shrieks and jumped roof top to roof top searching.
The TARDIS
"Doctor," Rose shouted almost out of breath as she closed the door to the TARDIS.
The Doctor was already at the control console and was entering coordinates that began the center columns pulsing up and down.
"Doctor," Rose asked. "What is going on?"
"The timeline has been corrupted Rose," said the Doctor. "I am headed for Athens to see what has happened but I can't seem to program the TARDIS to land at the time when the event occurred.
He looked up at her and said, "It would seem that the event in question has been time locked."
"Time locked?" she asked.
"It is a way that was used to keep certain events from being changed. Take for example Earth's Second World War. If someone as to go back in time and kill Adolph Hitler before he came into power, it could have disastrous consequences."
"But Doctor, he was responsible for killing over twenty million people!"
"Yes Rose, he was indeed responsible and removing him from history would seem to undo a great injustice, right? Now let's say that out of those twenty million people that didn't die a baby is born in 1941. Now in 1975 that baby rose to power and the Second World War was not prevented after all but it was merely postponed. In this alternate time line instead of twenty million people dying, everybody but twenty million people died. We're talking billions in 1979. That once happened on your planet Rose and my people time locked the history from 1939 to 1945. If preventing those twenty million people from dying it virtually wiped out all of human kind."
"Doctor isn't that a worse case scenario? How does that apply to what's happening now?"
"I'm not sure that it does Rose but someone, somehow managed to time lock the period where history was changed in a significant way and I don't know how."
Nineveh
723 BC
The TARDIS appeared in a back alley and the Doctor and Rose emerged.
"Where are we Doctor?"
"We are in Nineveh a few years after an event that was time locked."
"What is it?" she asked.
"I'm not sure Rose, but let's go talk to the people and find out. We should hurry as it is not safe to be out after dark in Nineveh during this time." He said.
With that, they walked out onto what should have been a bustling city street but what they saw, surprised the Doctor. Instead of a bustling market place it was obvious that the people that they encountered there were scared and broken. At least half of the great city had seemed to have been abandoned.
He was called a Day walker. He had not been completely transformed but his Mistress assured him that he would soon be. There were a few like him and it was there job to mingle in the day light and observe anything out of the ordinary. A pale skinned woman with yellow hair was significant. He didn't appear any different than the other people who were mingling about on the street and he kept his gaze downcast. He saw that she was with a man. The man at first glance appeared as if though he belonged here. They both did and when he tried to look directly upon them, he found it extremely difficult. He looked away for a moment and almost lost them. He really could only seem them clearly out of the corner of his eye. That was strange and they seemed to be attempting to talk with anybody who would listen to them. He was pondering these things when all of a sudden both of them were standing in front of them. He felt an unaccustomed bolt of fear overtake him.
"Excuse me would you be able to tell us where and Inn is that we could get a bite to eat and possibly a place to sleep tonight?" the man asked.
The Day walker was astonished as he could understand this man so clearly. That should not have been possible as he could tell that the pair of them was so different that they should be completely out of place. He was sure that if he didn't have enhanced abilities that they would seem ordinary and completely natural. He muttered an oath under his breath and refused to make eye contact with them and he turned away. The pair of them simply went to someone else on the street and repeated the question to them. He walked into the back alley way when he encountered the blue box.
"Doctor, why are these people so afraid?"
"I have been picking up random bits of conversations and it would seem that people have been disappearing at night. These people are terrified Rose."
The Doctor began walking back towards where he and Rose had left the TARDIS. He was disconcerted to say the least. He pulled out a scanner, and the more that used it, the more puzzled that he became. He activated the controls to the TARDIS and the center columns began their rhythmic ascending and descending in a familiar cadence. He looked up at Rose and upon seeing her troubled face, he smiled at her. He attempted to convey the sense of the carefree attitude that he always had but she knew him well enough to sense that it was merely an attempt to hide the turmoil that had over taken him.
14 AD
Emetrius crouched down and concentrated his preternatural hearing, taking in all the sounds. The flies busily going about their business, the shrieks of the carrion birds, even the skittering of rats tiny claws on the ground. He knew exactly where he was in the city. He heard just the smallest of noises. The whispering of voices, the creaking of a wooden door and he immediately launched himself in that direction.
Athens 251 BC
The TARDIS materialized into a darkened chamber. The door opened up and golden light spilled out. The Doctor and Rose emerged briefly and the Doctor went back inside the TARDIS. He emerged several seconds' later and held two torches. They were in a subterranean chamber. Rose took her torch and shined its beam onto a crude marble statue. It appeared to be a woman. She shined her torch onto a second statue, this one better developed than the first.
"Rose," said the Doctor.
She looked in his direction and saw that he was further along in the chamber. His torch was shining on another statue. This one was a perfect recreation of a woman. They both knew who it was. It was the girl from the bookstore in 1888. It was Elizabeth.
Suddenly, a large wooden container that was in the far reaches of the room burst apart and a very ragged looking, almost skeletal creature came at the Doctor as to attack him. It appeared to be a man and he was attempting to get his jaws around the Doctors throat. Despite its appearance it was incredibly strong. The Doctor, only with supreme effort, was able to fight it off.
"I need to feed, I am so hungry!" the creature cried in a raspy voice.
"I am the Doctor and I can help…" he said before he was cut off.
"I KNOW WHO YOU ARE DOCTOR!" The creature screamed at him. "IT IS BECAUSE OF YOU THAT I HAVE BEEN TRAPPED DOWN HERE FOR SEVEN YEARS." With that, it renewed its attack once again. The Doctor was still able to fight it off when a proximity alarm chimed from within the TARDIS.
The creature began to giggle as if it were insane.
"Now the master knows you're here. She'll reward me and finally I will be free…" Abruptly he was cut off as his entire body suddenly arched in a spasm. Blood began to pour from his ears, eyes and nose as he collapsed face down on the floor. He twitched twice and then was still.
The proximity alarm sounded inside the TARDIS once again and the Doctor paused, still looking at the creature at his feet.
"Doctor!" Rose said.
Without a word the Doctor ran to the TARDIS. Once they were both inside, he closed the door.
"What is it Doctor?"
"There is an event happening about 750 years in the future." He said grim faced. "There has been a massacre."
He activated the controls of the TARDIS and sent it on its way.
Janaline sensed their presence within the chamber the moment the TARDIS had materialized. Her minion had been imprisoned there with the scant hope that he would appear before he perished. A Day walker could survive a decade without feeding before perishing. She used a Day walker as opposed to a fully converted vampire because the Doctor could fight off a Day walker, even a healthy one. His human companion was of no consequence to her. She made her way down to the chamber and sensed with the Day walker, overcome by bloodlust, burst free from his hiding place to attack the Doctor. That wretched creature was about to give away everything when she sent a psychic shock into his mind and caused a fatal hemorrhage. She emerged into the chamber and beheld the TARDIS for the first time.
"A blue box indeed." She said as she watched it dematerialize. The memorized the symbols Police Box with the smaller letters Public Call in between.
14 AD
The Doctor and Rose emerged in the middle of what should have been a busy market place. They were both horrified into silence at the sight that greeted them. Every where they looked, the inhabitants of this village lay dead. Some in bed, some in the middle of the street but they were all dead. The Doctor moved from one corpse to another. He spent several minutes looking and examining each one and none of them, he concluded, should be dead. Rose stood there with her hand covering her mouth at the horror of it all.
"Doctor, is there anything you can do? Is there a way to prevent this from happening?"
"This shouldn't have happened and it has been time locked. I can't even go back to view it…" he paused and then yelled at Rose a single word.
"RUN!"
At dusk the prior evening, Death had come to this village. Emetrius slipped in and began to prowl the streets. He reached out and felt the life force of a few of them at first. He no longer needed to touch them to drain it, to feed upon it. He was only going to take a few at first. It was exquisite to absorb them. He almost felt as if he were still among them as he did so. The very essence of what and who they were fed into his very being. He knew that he needed to feed to maintain his strength but he used to have to touch them, to drink their blood was a very efficient way of draining the life from them. Then as time progressed, he learned that he merely had to touch them and now, his power was such that he merely needed to be in close proximity to them. He concentrated and let his mind seek out the life forces of the village inhabitants and drew it absorbed it like a sponge would water. He hadn't intended to take them all but ended up doing so nonetheless.
Emetrius raced though the streets, kicking up dust and debris as he madly attempted to reach his target. He would soon be reunited if he could only capture the Doctor and his infernal machine. He had heard the Doctor's cry of warning to run as he closed the final gap. He could hear the TARDIS begin its now familiar noise as it began to dematerialize. He slammed into it full force rocking it. Immediately he allowed his eyes to become normal as he watched it fade from view. Liquid fire poured into his eyes and the sun burned him and the pain was beyond imagination. His rage allowed him to endure it and he screamed his rage as the TARDIS faded from view.
His adversary reached the area of conflict a few minutes later but there was no one to greet him but the dead.