A.N: Right, here's the next part! Hope you enjoy!
13 in a Million, Chapter 5
Aftershock
By Starlite1Hands shaking violently, Tama placed the steaming mug on the table once more. "Why us?" She stated bluntly. She turned around to Rose, tears welling in her eyes, "What makes my daughter so special that an alien chooses her from nearly a thousand students and then rips her into shards? Why not someone else? She's never been overly sporty, she never topped anything. Never touched anything illegal…" the tears flowed freely down her face, as she hissed, "Why her?"
Rose stared regretfully at the distraught woman she had met barely minutes ago, saying calmly, "Time can't exist without the minutes and seconds."
Pulling up short in her agitated pacing, Tama demanded, "What does that mean?!"
Returning her own cup to the table, Rose appraised Tama. Pausing slightly before answering, she explained, "I learnt the hard way that even the most insignificant person can change the course of history. Something happens, and history either shifts or crumbles. But from what we can work out, that creature needed to stop something that is due to happen this summer. The only way to do that was by infiltrating the school."
"But why Pahana? Why my daughter?" Tama interjected.
Rose shrugged, "Because she was the only one who arrived late enough not to make everyone else suspicious, but soon enough to change history…"
Suddenly exhausted, Tama collapsed into a chair." Who are you people? Really?"
"Travelers."
Tama shook her head, "That's not the full story. What are you? Aliens from outer space bent on taking over the human race?"
"If we were really bent on taking over the world, do you think we would have stopped Stynn?" Rose retorted.
"So you are aliens?"
"We're the ones you want on you're side." Rose replied firmly, "Jack and Anita are both human. Admittedly Jack's from the fifty-first century, but Anita's born and bred twenty first century."
"Really?" she said, intrigued.
Rose shuddered, "Her mother's a nightmare to deal with. Now where was I? Lucy's half human, her dad was one of the first 'aliens' to come to earth under diplomatic agreements. She's from the twenty fourth century, grew up in Italy as a matter of fact."
"Her son?"
"Senka? We know he's a quarter human and Yinoran, but the other half, we have no clue. He was born in the 12th century…"
Tama's brow furrowed, "How is that possible?"
Rose's features darkened, "Lucy was abducted, raped, and dumped over a thousand years before her own time. We met the pair of them last year when we were dealing with some other aliens trying to take over the earth."
"What about Josie and Adrian?"
A smile instantly replaced the scowl, "Twins. Half human, half Gallifreyan. Adrian's the elder. Josie's twenty minutes younger. Also she happens to be telekinetic, that's how she's keeping Stynn under control."
"Gallifrey?"
"Was my husband's home planet. Destroyed in a war that ripped all of time and space apart."
"Is that what's happening now?"
"I don't know." Rose replied regretfully, "I certainly hope not. Now how about we go and check on how the boys are going?"
Tama nodded in acceptance, placing her mug upon the bench. Turning to Rose once more, she asked, "What about you?"
Hesitating at the door, Rose answered, "You know, I honestly have no clue anymore."
IOIOIOIOI
"Ready when you are, Josie!" Adrian said victoriously, grinning as he and Jack tweaked their contraption. From the sidelines the two women watched on apprehensively.
Josie stood just off the center of the room, looking extremely exhausted. Sensing her captor's weakness, Stynn thrashed about, pounding against the barriers more feverishly than before. Focusing intently, she pushed the bubble, and the vainly resisting creature to the center of the room.
"Do it." She ordered.
Instantly a crackling shield of energy encircled the center of the room, a scream of sheer frustration emanating from the prisoner inside.
"Shield's stabilizing." Jack read out, "No unusual spiking. No fluctuations."
"Good." The Doctor stated calmly, "It's about time we got this monster behind bars."
"Please tell me I can let go…" Josie said, weariness finally making its presence known in her voice.
The Doctor glanced at Jack and Adrian. Both gave him the thumbs up.
"Yes."
Instantly she rumpled to the ground, "Finally…"
"You did brilliantly. Both of you did." The Doctor told them proudly.
"I'll just have a can of Red Bull…Or six…" Josie idly commented from her spot on the floor.
"And they will have been well earned." Jack said, flicking a switch on the monitor, "Now the TARDIS can take over, and we can go and get some food."
"Sounds like a plan," The Doctor said, leading the way to the door, "Oh, and Stynn?"
"Yesss…"
"Just in case you get any ideas, there are no ways out of this place. The air generators are in here, so there is no connection to the open world."
Stynn merely hissed in frustration.
IOIOIOI
As the seconds ticked into minutes, and the minutes into hours, the tension began to fill the kitchen. Any attempt at conversation died a quick and pitiful death, suffocated by the oppressive silence.
Eventually, the tension rose to the point where frustratedly Josie stood up, glancing at the boys, before heading off towards the med bay.
Anita was sitting on one of the beds, a cup of potent black coffee cradled lovingly in her hands. Her skin was slightly ashen, chunks of her fiery hair falling limply from beneath the bandanna she wore. The oversized scrubs swam on her petit form, giving Josie the feeling she might fade away.
"Hey…" She said, downing the remainder of her cup.
"Is it rough in there?" Josie questioned sympathetically.
Anita nodded vehemently, "The amount of damage that monster has done…It's amazing she's still alive…"
"Are you all right?" she inquired.
"Yeah. It's really a strange intro into medicine, and it's pretty weird doing this, but I can't turn back now…"
Suddenly Lucy appeared at the door, "We need to get back in there."
Anita nodded, "Duty calls."
"Guess I'll see you at the other end."
Anita grimaced, "See you in hell…"
IOIOIOIOI
Somewhere around two in the morning, Anita and Lucy entered the kitchen. Instantly Lucy crossed to slump against Jack.
"We did it. The damage was pretty horrific, but we did it." She declared.
Tama's eyes instantly lit up, "She'll live?"
Anita nodded, "It'll take six?" Quickly she glanced at her tutor who nodded, "Weeks for her to be back on her feet…"
Once more a deluge of tears threatened from her eyes. "I am so grateful for what you have done for my Pahana."
"It was us who got her into the situation in the first place, least we could do!" The Doctor commented cheerfully.
"Just think! What may have happened if you hadn't turned up…"
IOIOIOI
2056- Timeline B (The deviant time stream)
"Can't believe they're pulling this place down!" Jim murmured, glancing around the decrepit building, eyes falling on the rearing wolf adorning the shield over the entryway, "I remember when I was a kid, we used think it was haunted!""Quit your moanin', lad!" Donald groused in his thick Scottish brogue.
"Oh come on! They used to say that the family who lived here were killed off, one by one!"
"So what happened to the bonnie lasses in this tale of yours?" Donald asked.
"The Children, the father, all killed under mysterious circumstances until only the mother remained…"
"Pull the other one!" Donald snorted.
Grinning, he put his torch beneath his chin, "They say the mother went mad from grief. And her eldest daughter forced to wander the house in limbo for all eternity, a lost soul cast astray…And still she wanders the halls…"
"Quit yer gasbaggin'!" Donald snapped, "We're supposed to go through, see if there's anythin' wort' salvagin' befor' we begin wit the bashing balls and dynamite!"
Shaking his head, Jim rambled up the stairs, ones which must have once appeared grand and stately, yet now hung rusty and draped with dust and cobwebs. The Vestibule was cracked and covered in grime, bathed in the shards of light from the cracked and broken windows. Every step sent a cloud of dust billowing into the air.
Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw a girl staring at him from within the dust, a notion in light and shadows, her round face sad and lost. Yet when he turned to her fully, she was gone. He shook his head, must be seeing things…He thought apprehensively
Slowly he walked down the passageway, opening the doors to reveal room after room filled with emptiness.
Eventually he made his way to the end of the passageway, coming face to face with an old linen cupboard. Even though he knew that all he would find inside was a pile of petrified towels and sheet, he felt compelled to see what lay within.
Shivers coursed up and down his spine as the doors opened, not revealing the previously promised Manchester, but instead a rickety flight of stairs.
"Hello?" He called vainly, pulling a torch from his belt, shining it through the veil of cobwebs. Each footfall brought a wailing protest from the begrudging steps.
He reached the top, "Hello? Anyone here?" He called once more, he voice echoing hollowly as he swung his torch around the piles of discarded, decaying boxes. The light suddenly fell on a face grinning blankly back at him. All the color instantly drained from his skin, his eyes unable to leave the ghastly spectacle before him. The skeleton stared back, its tiny form slumped against a trunk, wires falling between the ribs of parched, ancient bone.
"Jim, whattya been……."Donald began, trailing off as he realized what he was staring at, "Oh God and Mother of Mercy…what do we have here?"
"The reason they say this house is haunted."
IOIOIOI
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