They ran back to the TARDIS. Annie started pacing the console room.
'What do you mean, 'My brother'?"
She, the Doctor, and Jack were panting as they shut the TARDIS doors.
"Well...When I got you, there was a boy called Arthur with you. But I took you two to the planet Bob to pick up some baby supplies and while I was on the paying platform, he was kidnapped.''
"By what?"
"Well, like I said, I think by the thing that made that explosion. But what the creature is...I have no idea."
"So, you've been lying to me."
He sighed. "I'm sorry Annie."
"I know. Just...let me have some time alone to mull it over." She stood up and walked off to her bedroom.
The Doctor buried his face in his hands and sighed.
"That went well." He heard Jack say.
"Not the time, Jack. Not the time." He lifted his face from his hands and stared in the direction of his daughter's bedroom. "Do you reckon she's okay?"
Annie was not what you would call 'okay'. She was stunned that her father had kept this from her. And for so long! Sure, there hadn't really been a right moment for him to tell her...But still... She sighed and looked around her room.
What else had he hidden from her? Well, there was that incident when he didn't want her to go to that one place when they first landed on Earth. But why had he done that? What was so bad about that place?
Ever since she brought up Earth, her father seemed to be hiding so much from her.
And whole the hell was Rose Tyler? Or this Jack Harkness? Her father usually introduced her to acquaintances, friends, and sometimes even enemies that he had.
But not this time, and it really bothered her.
Annie flopped on her bed, staring at the ceiling. If only she were able to communicate with the TARDIS like her father could. He had told her thousands of times that Time Lords had certain telepathy links with their TARDIS'.
She never thought that she was Gallifreyan. She knew that all the Time Lords were dead except her father. He had told her about the Time War. Of course, he didn't tell her everything about the Time War, only what he thought she needed to know. That was another event that he hid from her. She didn't even know how all the Time Lords died. Was it by an explosion? And if it was, then who caused the explosion? She assumed that it was always the Daleks as they were heading towards their death.
But what if there were some type of third party involved and they did it?
She rolled over on the bed, frustrated. Very little could bother Annie, but there was one thing that could really weaken her senses and her mind: secrets.
Especially secrets that her father had been keeping from her all her life.
Whenever Annie felt like anyone was withholding information from her, she couldn't stop thinking of all the possible things they could be hiding.
Like Rose Tyler. She knew that her father had travelled with other people before. She had heard him throw their names around before. Susan, Sarah Jane Smith, Leela, Romana, Martha, Donna, Rory, Amy - the list went on. But he had never mentioned any Rose Tyler. If Miss Tyler had traveled with her father, then why hadn't her father ever talked about her?
And what had Jack said about this woman? That her father had been in love with this so called 'Rose Tyler'? And then her father had said she was in a parallel universe and is with something called the 'Metacrisis'. And that-what the heck was a 'Metacrisis'? He'd never mentioned that to her. And then there was her brother...Why had he not told her about him? Didn't the sister deserve to know these things?
She rolled over again and stared down at her floor. She knew some stuff. Like how old she was, and that she'd lived with the Doctor her whole life. That much was certain. But what about the other stuff? Which planet did the Doctor find her on? What race was she really from? Who was she? What was she?
Arthur...The name never really suited him. He was way too powerful to be a mere 'Arthur'. In Earth legends, "Arthur" was a name of a king who fought for the good of his country. This king believed in the equality of his "knights" and had them sit at a round table so that not one of them would think he was greater.
However, Arthur, the one sitting in the chair at the ship's console, felt nothing like this king.
He had power. Oh yes, he had power to boot. But he was not the loyal and trustworthy king that the legendary King Arthur of Earth was. And yet, he didn't mind.
So instead, his crew knew him as "Captain" and nothing else.
"Captain, we have arrived at our destination."
"Thank you, Lieutenant," he said dryly as he stood up. "I'll be in my cabin. Prepare the crew for disembarkment."
He stalked down the hallways quickly and silently as if he were a phantom, heading towards his cabin. He hated Earth. The people who inhabited it were ignorant and weak. They assumed that they were the only beings in the universe - ha!
The door to his cabin slid open as he approached and closing behind him as he entered. Unlike the rest of the ship, the room was not all that dark. Actually, it was a light navy blue.
He headed towards the mirror; he had to make sure that it would still stay in place - his eyepatch that is.
He remembered full well how he had gotten this eyepatch. There were lasers firing everywhere on the battlefield. He had seen dozens of his comrades fall at the mercy of the enemy. But he wasn't about to let this one go.
The soldier had been loyal to him and their cause since the very beginning. He had been raised by it, but this one had been taken in. They had fought side by side hundreds of times before. Hundreds had fallen at their feet. Many had tried to rebel. But they had never even considered that. They needed the power that was offered to them. But more than that, they needed each other.
And now she had been shot. Arthur knew that she was a human, and that her wound was fatal, but maybe, just maybe, he could get her to safety. He could probably get her back to the ship. The communicator had fallen from his belt hours before, so there was no way he could get help at that moment. He was only searching for a temporary place of shelter for her until he could find another communicator to ask for help.
Climbing a dirt mound, Arthur began gasping heavily. He was wounded as well, his side had been shot. But he couldn't afford to rest even for a second. He had to get her to safety.
To his horror, something else met him at the top of the mound. Its metal exterior gleamed in the moons' light and its bright green eyes glared at him in hatred.
"You're trying to kill us," it stated.
Arthur didn't know how to respond. All he could think about was getting her to safety. He looked at it right in the eye and begged, "Please."
Looking at it in the eye was a mistake. These creatures had a defense mechanism when looked at in the eye. Arthur had momentarily forgot it in his despair and hopelessness.
Memory returned to him and he sharply turned his head to the left. A dark green laser shot out of the creature's eyes, hitting Arthur's right eye as well as his right cheek.
Arthur's eye stung at the memory, and he rubbed it irritably. Now all that was left was an empty socket and a long scar on his right cheek and forehead. His comrades had done their best to repair him, but this was the best he could do.
And he couldn't afford a new eye.
"Captain," a voice said on the intercom. "We're ready for you."
He sighed, straightened his black and blue uniform, and grabbed his black cloak as he headed through the door. He put it on as he gingerly walked through the hallway.
He smirked as he looked out the windows of the unloading dock.
"Earth almost looks... beautiful, at this time of year." He chuckled. "But it might look even better when it's all turned to dust."
Annie was still frustrated. She couldn't figure any of it out. Like, why had her dad kept this from her? What else had he kept from her? Knock, knock, knock. She heard a gentle rapping on her door.
"Come in." She was expecting her father, but instead it was that strange Jack Harkness. "Oh, it's you. What do you want?"
"Your father needs to tell you something. And I just wanted to see you." He smirked.
She growled. "This is one of the reasons I'm not into men like you."
She got up and walked out into the control room, grumbling about overly flirty guys. She'd never liked them. Let alone trust them! She'd always liked calmer, more sophisticated, less flirty males. Then again, they were a whole other species to her.
When she got to the control room, she found her father sipping a cup of tea. "What is it Dad?"
He sighed. "Look Annie, there's something else I've been meaning to tell you for a long time. In answer to Jack's former question."
"Which one?" Jack had entered the control room.
"The one where you asked what species she was."
"Oh!" Jack walked over to them.
Annie looked intently at him. "Well? What am I?"
"You're-uhm." He tried to stall. It had been a very long time since he and his daughter had had a fight. On Earth, he supposed she was a 'Daddy's Little Princess'.
"I'm a what, Dad?" She wasn't going to let up. She had waited all her life to find this out. She knew she was some kind of alien, she just didn't know which kind exactly.
'Well-er-you're a..."
"Will you stop stalling and just TELL me? !"
"Well...You're human, Annie."
