Sorry for the delay. Exams et cetera.
An entirely Amy/Kate chapter, this one. Somewhat intense, so be prepared.
CHAPTER 41. In The Morning Light
After the fire, the voice.
The words. Those five words. Over and over.
He is not coming back.
It just makes her scream all the louder, so as to drown out the noise.
Her hands are raw, bleeding and blistered. The blackened strips of wood still glow from the fire, burning her palms as she cradles them into her. The skin is peeling off her arms, and she's screaming, screaming her life out, but not from the pain. Not from the burns.
She's spent so long waiting for him. So long. She's staked everything, built everything around waiting, to the exclusion to almost everything else.
She'd met him for minutes, mere minutes, but she knew, deep within, that he was the only man who understood her. Who believed her. Who could see her for who she truly was. She'd waited for this, waited for her dream, and now it was in flames. How could this happen?
Maybe it couldn't.
Maybe she'd been right the first time. Maybe this isn't real, maybe this is just some horrible, awful dream. Because she knows, to the very core of her being, that the voice is wrong. She knows that her raggedy man will come back for her.
And she'll wait through every moment until he does.
2 April 2011
With the dawn came the light.
The purple hue of the early morning sky was lightening, the darkness being chased away by the glorious blue of the day. As the first rays of light crept over the horizon, they scattered off the rustling leaves of the woodland, the gentle sigh of the breeze the only sound. At this hour, not even the birds and the bees were awake, and nothing moved. It was peaceful, so peaceful, and Amy loved it.
She stood in the clearing, feeling the wind through her hair, the fleeting warmth of the light on her face. She stood in the clearing, alone, and took a moment to savour the feeling, the tranquility that could only come at this time of day.
It was ironic, really. She'd never been known as a morning person. Rory often had to bribe her with promises of coffee and hot breakfast to coax her out of bed in the time they'd been together... that all-too-brief, wonderful time. But, of course, with her humanity had gone her need for sleep, so now here she was. She took a long, slow breath, closing her eyes against the light.
They were half a mile from the edge of the woodland, according to the map she'd taken from Iverson's villa. Katherine was lagging behind for some reason, so Amy had taken the opportunity to move ahead and relax. If the next few hours went to plan, she'd neutralise the Windcatcher, send her position to the Doctor, get the TARDIS working and get them all off this place safe and sound.
Though, if they didn't...
That doesn't matter.That was the point of what she was doing now. She would escort Kate to the edge of the woodland and get her clear. While it would almost certainly be under surveillance, she was confident that Kate, alone, would be in no danger. It wasn't her they were after. It was a contingency Amy had to have, because she was well aware that there was a good chance that she'd be dead in a handful of hours.
And she was okay with that, really. The dying bit, anyway. Oh, sure, it wasn't ideal, and she had no intention of dying, and she was still young enough to be a little apprehensive, but it wasn't that sort of fear. It wasn't the sort of existential, primal fear in her bones that meant she'd climb over a mountain of dead to save herself. No, she wasn't that sort of person, she'd never been that sort of person. She would fight, and fight until the end, but she wouldn't use anyone as a shield.
She hadn't feared death when she thought the Angel had turned her hand to stone, and she didn't fear it now.
She'd lived well, after all. Briefly, but well. The last year had been the stuff of... well, dreams seemed a bit mundane. She'd actually dreamt of this, after all, and it had blown all her expectations right out of the water. All the things she'd seen, all the things she'd done... what could compare to it?
Nothing. Absolutely nothing.It hurt sometimes, but it was the most wonderful kind of hurt she could imagine.
Yes, there'd been a cost. There'd been debts that had needed to be repaid, to her and by her. Given the godawful mess that her human self had left her, there were a lot of them. She'd done her best to deal with them in the short time life had given her, and she'd done alright. Rory was safe and well in Leadworth, she'd neatly resolved all her other issues in Leadworth – thanks mostly to Jack – and she was, at last, free.
Free to live. Free to love.
Love. It burned so fiercely inside her, filled the emptiness so completely that she thought she might burst with all. Through all her snark, all her crazy and all her sadness, it was really the one thing she could rely on.
Love for the Doctor. A love so deep that she could scarcely comprehend it. In the end, she was little, so little, without him. She hadn't quite comprehended how tightly they were intertwined, now that she'd spent a week without him.
Love for her Aunt, who despite the arguments, the tantrums and the rage, had taken care of her when no one else would.
Love for Rory, and that would never, ever die. No matter what the two of them did, what paths they took, she knew in her heart that he would do anything for her. It ashamed her that she couldn't say the same. He would have found a way to solve their relationship if he was in her position, she knew, yet she'd failed. All her intellect, all her power, and she'd failed. Really, why had Katherine been so surprised when she'd found out just how bleak she was inside?
Speaking of Katherine...
"Alright. I'm here. What's this all about?"
Amy opened her eyes, turning around. Kate's usually lustrous hair was unkempt and frazzled, the result of a week of interrupted sleep. Amy smiled fondly at her.
"Esther's Falls is just past the treeline. Get to the spaceport and wait for me. There's a map in your bag. We'll pick you up when the TARDIS is ready."
"Wait for-"
"There's bound to be people watching. If I go out there with you, I'll probably get you killed."
Kate stared, disbelieving, at her. "So your plan is to make me go alone?"
"They're after me, not you," Amy replied quietly, turning away. "I need to deal with the Windcatcher by myself. I'll be fine. Don't worry about me."
Kate wasn't about to leave it at that. She grabbed the Time Lady's shoulders and forcefully turned her around. Amy didn't fight, but she didn't look at her either.
"Amy. Look at me."
"Don't call me that," Amelia replied bitterly. Kate didn't relent.
"I'll call you what I want. Look at me."
At last, Amy relented, mournfully meeting her friend's gaze. Katherine reached up, brushing away some of the hair that had fallen across her friend's cheek. It was just about the most tender thing she'd ever done.
"Don't do this, Amelia," she whispered, imploring. "Please."
"I'm not going to die. I just need to do this alone, that's all. I've got a plan, don't worry. You'll see me again soon." Amy smiled confidently as she spoke. It was quite something, really, just how at ease she was with... everything. At last, at long last, she was at peace with the world and with herself.
But Katherine wasn't convinced. "What if I don't? What if – what if you-"
"Then that's how it is," Amy cut her off firmly. Quietly, but firmly. "It's alright, Katherine. Don't worry about me if I don't make it. So long as you're safe, and the Doctor's safe... that's what matters. You taught me that."
"I didn't teach you this," Kate retorted. "Not to throw your life away on some stupid fucking game."
"I'm not. I'll make it. This'll work, I know it will," Amy repeated, utterly confident.
"But if it doesn't-"
"-then it doesn't matter. Whatever happens, they'll be distracted long enough for you to escape. Everything ends eventually, and I'd rather go out like this, fighting for the people I love. But that won't happen. I'm a survivor, Katherine. I'll survive."
"And if you don't?" Kate repeated, her voice shaking. A single tear threatened to roll from her eyes, but she brushed it back. "Then what do I – what do I say? What do I tell the Doctor? What do I say?"
"You don't need to say anything," Amy replied gently, stepping forward so they were barely separated. "Just remind him how much I loved him, how much I will always love him. Just remind him that through my mad and my crazy, I was just a lonely little girl who got to see the stars. Isn't that enough?"
Even as the first tears began to roll down Katherine's face, Amy's expression didn't change one whit. Just that dignified tilt of her chin, that same crinkle in her eyes, the same damned sad, tender smile.
"Damn you, Amelia. Why are you doing this?"
Because I have to, came the unspoken reply. Because of you, because of Rory, because of the Doctor.
"Because you are all so, so precious to me, and I can't lose any of you," Amy continued aloud. "I can't, OK? I love you all so, so much, and I'd sooner die than lose you. Here." She took Kate's free, trembling hand in her own, and placed her palm on top. Kate looked down as she removed it, revealing a tiny piece of obsidian-black metal.
"You know what this is," Amy said softly. "Everything I have is in here now. Show it to him. Show it to Rory. Keep it as something to remember me by if I don't make it, that mad Scottish girl who dreamed of a raggedy Doctor who could come and save her."
Kate could barely think. Could barely breathe. Could barely see through the tears. "Amelia..."
"Go, Katherine. The spaceport is less than a mile away. I'll meet you there in a few hours. Get there, and be safe." Without further ado, she grasped Kate's cheeks and pressed her lips to her friend's forehead.
"Thank you, Katherine Broad. Goodbye."
With that, she was gone, disappearing into the woodland with the merest flicker a breeze. Katherine turned around, crying desperately for her friend, but she had gone, vanishing as the dawn broke over her.
He awoke with a gasp, completely disoriented. The space he'd found himself in was relatively dark, but he could feel thin rays of sunlight feeling their way through the windows.
Where the hell am I?
As the world came into focus, he quickly worked out that he was in a small log cabin of some kind. Based on the sparse trees he could see through the single window, he guessed that he was still in the woodland somewhere. He tried to sit up – but stopped when he heard a soft, accented lilt behind him.
"Going somewhere, Alpha One?"
He turned around to see Amy Pond right behind him, leaning against the corner of the cabin. Her arms were folded across the chest, holding an easy, nonchalant pose.
"You didn't kill me," he vocalised in mild surprise.
"It's not my style." She pushed herself off the wall and, to his surprise, sat right next to him, as a friend would over lunch. He studied her closely. He was expecting a scarred, battle-hardened lady of war, and maybe she was, but she wore the face and demeanour of an attractive but otherwise average young lady, a sparse collection of freckles the only blemishes on her pale, round face. She smiled at him.
"Expecting someone else?"
"Someone older, yes," he admitted.
She laughed. "One thing I've learnt is that time doesn't tell you how old you are – on the inside, anyway. In another life I might have been waking up with a raging hangover from a party at this moment, but no."
He shifted slightly, but kept his eyes firmly locked onto hers. Young she may be, but she was clearly self-confident, and it wouldn't do to give an inch to her.
"What do you want from me?"
She laughed again. "Nothing. I've already taken what I need. Doesn't mean we can't sit and chat, though."
"Sit and-"
"I'm not in the business of making enemies, it's just not a good idea. The only real enemy I ever made is now my best friend. I don't have anything against you, or the Windcatcher, or anyone else."
"But you're taking me hostage," he pointed out.
"True."
"And you'll probably kill me and anyone else who tries to get in your way."
"Also true," she admitted. "Young doesn't mean nice."
He eyed her carefully. He didn't doubt that she was telling the truth, he could see that in her eyes. Cold. Hard. Lit by an unbreakable iron will. If he were to get out of this predicament alive, he would have to be careful. And he would have to know what cards he had to play.
"What do you want?" He asked. Put that on the table.
"Same thing as you – I just want to go home. I just want my friends to be safe. I want to make sure no one gets hurt. And," she paused for a moment, letting the words hang in the air, "I think the Windcatcher wants the same thing."
He snorted. "Won't happen. His contract has changed to capture-or-kill, you know. And he never fails to fulfill a contract."
To his surprise, she simply cocked her head and smiled at him. "Well... we both know that isn't quite true, is it? Especially not where Time Lords are concerned."
He gasped silently, doing a quick double-take before regathering himself. "That was a long time ago."
"I wouldn't know. The Time War was before I came around."
His eyes widened to saucers, his face paling. That little tidbit was a bridge too far. How did she know that? That was a piece of information the Windcatcher had been very, very careful not to let anyone but his most trusted associates know – and know a target had found out?
How?
"Oh, don't act all surprised," she told him, still smiling, as if able to hear his thoughts. "After all, you were the one who told me – in a manner of speaking."
The penny dropped. When he next spoke, he did his best to keep his voice level, not betraying the nasty twist in his stomach or the dryness in his throat. "And what else have I 'told you'?"
"Only what I needed to know."
"Such as...?"
"Such as the fact that he fought alongside the Doctor, a long time ago."
He goggled at her. "That's it? You don't know who he is, or what he wants, or why he does what he does – but you're willing to believe that he'll let you go based on that?"
"I'll have to work at it," she admitted, "But it's good enough for me. If it's good enough for the Doctor, it's good enough for me."
He was about to reply, and challenge her cast-iron resolve, but was interrupted by the shrill beeping of an alarm.
"Ooh." Amy stood, checking her watch and smiling thinly. "Looks like it's time for me to make a phone call. Sorry, but I gotta dash." She picked up a long, curved sword she'd left on the floor and pulled out a small, pink mobile phone from her pocket before glancing back at him. "You don't even need me to tell you that trying to escape would be a really dumb idea, yeah?"
"I suspect that you'd be able to stop me either way," he admitted, though he was busy running through his options. None of them seemed particularly viable, however, when he knew that she was probably monitoring his thoughts.
"Good to see we're on the same page." She pushed the door open, but paused before she entered. "What's your name, by the way?"
He narrowed his eyes. "You already know it."
"Your real name."
"Why do you care?"
"I need to remind myself that I'm dealing with actual people's lives here," she told him quietly. "What's your name?"
He swallowed, that little twist in his stomach knotting further, before answering. "Johansen."
She gazed at him, her eyes searching, studying, two drills piercing his defences, before nodding and turning away. The last time Johansen saw Amelia Pond, she was murmuring his name under her breath as she closed the door behind her.
This was killing her. Kate was sure of it, both physically and emotionally.
She'd barely been able to walk in a straight line since Amelia had taken her leave. One, because she was convinced – like, properly convinced – that she had just seen the Time Lady for the last time. Amy was going to her death, she was sure. Proud-backed and clear-eyed, but it was still her death.
Damn her. Why was Amy doing this? She'd tried calling out in her mind, but Amy had put up some kind of barrier around her mind which was simply impenetrable. Trying to reach Amy that way would be like trying to climb Mt Everest with nothing more than her bare hands.
So yeah. That was tough. She could still see that sad, distant smile, fixed in her mind eye, she could still feel the goodbye kiss to her forehead, a lingering burning sensation that simply refused to be gone.
She hated this, saying goodbye. Hated it. She'd had to do this sort of thing before, and although there was at least some hope Amy would get through this, there were a few old demons she'd inadvertently triggered here. It was all the more painful because she knew she'd have to do this one more time, in a different and rather more personal way, and do it soon.
She leant against the wall of the spaceport entrance, closing her eyes and breathing heavily, trying to block out the hubbub of noise around her. The last week had taken its toll. Not just emotionally, but physically too, if this headache was anything to go by. The dull ache in the base of her neck had spread into a full-blown, fiery migraine.
"You okay, miss?"
She opened her eyes. The security guard had evidently noticed her slumped and panting against the wall, clutching at her hair in pain.
"Fine, thanks," she replied with a dazzling false smile. It disappeared once it left, though, as the pain took hold once more. She'd had to take one or two breaks on the way here, trying to ride out the debilitating flame-front of pain gripping her head. She'd even passed out once, simply collapsing in the street for a few seconds, as if her body had momentarily decided to take a break. If she could think straight, she would probably have to pin it on whatever Amy had done to her last evening.
Well, she was here now, and supposedly safe. And supposedly waiting for Amy. She looked around at the spaceport entrance hall surrounding her. It looked sort of like every other airport terminal she'd seen, frankly. Lots of people, lots of concrete, metal and glass. High, vaulting walls and clean, polished floors, with the morning light now streaming joyously through the broad windows.
Fortunately, the massing crowds seemed to take any notice of a lone blonde girl leaning against a wall. Given that she was in a completely alien world with no place to go, there wasn't much else for her to do. She slid to the floor, still rubbing her head furiously. She was about to contemplate a nap when a voice nearby pricked her attention.
"...I've been trying for the last hour, but I haven't been able to get through to the Windcatcher. God knows what's going through his mind..."
Windcatcher.
She opened her eyes again and looked around. A tall, dark man, black-suited with glasses had just strode past, almost identical to the thug who put a gun to her head in the hospital. His finger was pressed to a communicator at his ear, and he was too deep in conversation to notice her on the floor. She got up at once, following after him and straining her ears to catch his words. Her hearing seemed a bit sharper than usual, which was handy as it meant she could make out what he was saying. And what she heard, she didn't like.
"Honestly, I don't understand why he just doesn't send us in and terminate her. It would be easier said than done, but it'd be a damn sight smarter then what he's trying now. He's getting cold feet, in my opinion. Seems to attached to these Time Lords to do his job."
She narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips, pushing the headache out of her mind. The man seemed to be going into a storage room of some kind, presumably for some privacy. As surreptitiously as she could, she reached into the bag and retrieved Jack's blaster that she'd stolen, all those days ago, and followed him in. Fortunately, his back was turned to him as she entered.
"Those are the new orders? From his employer? Excellent. Then move in and take her out, I'll be-"
"Hold it there, sport." He froze instantly at her voice, clearly aware that there was a gun pressed to the back of his head. "Don't make a sound, put your hands up, and turn around. Slowly."
He did so, exactly as instructed. His eyes were wide behind his glasses, which told Kate all she needed to know. She allowed herself a little smile at the knowledge that she'd taken him so utterly off-guard.
"You and your friends are going to kill her, aren't you? Uh-uh-uh," she changed tack suddenly, seeing him open his mouth. A jab of her gun towards him pre-empted any words from him. "No speaking. Just nod for yes."
He nodded. Her hand trembled, a surge of white-hot rage rising within her, but she managed to keep her cool. She looked him up and down, and made her decision.
"Take out your gun and put it on the floor. Slowly. No sudden moves."
He did so. A scoped rifle with a retractable barrel. Just compact enough to fit in her bag, she was thankful to see.
"Your other gun." He had to have another one, she reasoned, and she was right. It followed from under his suit, a small blaster not unlike the one aimed at his face. Amy can have that one.
"Your ammo. Your communicator, too... good. Lastly, your glasses." She could see little images being projected across them, and she guessed they were more for fancy information-giving purposes rather than eyesight correction. They joined the rest of the man's equipment on the floor.
Satisfied that he was both unarmed and free of any other useful equipment, she smiled broadly and nodded to him. "Good. Now get the hell out of here, and don't even think about going near me or Amy. I'm a damn good shot."
He didn't need asking twice. The door slammed shut behind him as he fled, leaving her alone with his bequeathed equipment. Quick as a flash, she crammed the guns and ammunition into her bag, placed the communicator in her ear and the glasses on her nose. The display on the glasses was illegible to her, an array of alien symbols that drew a frown from her. She tapped the frame experimentally – and in an instant, the display changed to what was unmistakeably a map. A map of a woodland.
With thirty tiny red dots on it... and they seemed to be converging.
It hit her at once. They're going for her.
She burst through the doors back into the hall, racing through the soaring, glass-enclosed entrance hall of the spaceport, driven by a single purpose.
If they wanted Amy, they'd have to get through her first.
For one of the first times in his long career, the Windcatcher was nervous.
With reason, of course. He was perfectly aware of what Time Lords were capable of, having fought with and against many in a long-lost, distant past. His only failure, to date, had been an assignment where he had attempted to eliminate a Time Lord which had threatened Valaren after it had withdrawn from the alliance with Gallifrey. Fortunately, a certain man by the name of the Doctor had made a rather dramatic intervention, meaning that the inevitable retribution in the form of total annihilation, well, never came.
They could be a nasty bunch, Time Lords. Oh, sure, there were nice ones. The Doctor for one, obviously. He'd never met the Corsair before he'd disappeared, but he'd heard good things. There were other good ones, but most of them had thrown themselves fearlessly into the front line and had been ruthlessly wiped out as a result. What remained, as a general rule, were nastier, more duplicitous and well... bad. Far from being the upstanding, pious arbiters of universal peace he had once thought them, they were really not much better than anyone else, if at all. Those days had taught him a lot about the universe.
It was that deeply ingrained cynicism that had led him here. Hunting for one of the last living Time Lords. He wondered briefly what end of the spectrum Amy Pond fell onto.
Well, alright, that was hardly fair. She wasn't really a normal Time Lord. Not just in terms of her abilities, which were certainly unusual, but her upbringing. The research he'd done over the past few days had been both illuminating and confusing. Really, the more he thought about it, the less it made sense.
She'd grown up on Earth. Not Gallifrey.
She'd been human once. Not Time Lord.
She was twenty two. Twenty two! He shook his head at the thought. He wasn't hunting a ruthless, war-hardened psychopath, as he had in the last days of the Time War. He was hunting a girl! A girl who had done, as far as he could tell, absolutely no wrong in her life, and who despite her cockiness must surely have known how out of her depth she was.
And how exactly had they ended up here in the first place? The universe was far too vast a place for him to believe that her arrival here, less than two years after he'd been told to be on the lookout for her, was coincidental. Nor, surely, were the arcane workings of the equaliser field that just happened to provide a ready-made trap for her when she did show up.
No, the more he thought about this, the more it seemed... off. Yes, he was on a contract. Yes, he needed to succeed, or the consequences for him would be unpleasant. But he still had some vestige of a moral compass left, and, well... didn't it just all feel so, so wrong?
When he'd sent his 'showtime' message to mobilise his men for the final push, he'd expected to feel nothing but the satisfaction of a job well done and the security of knowing that he'd have the funds to fulfil his true mission, back on Valaren. That world that didn't exist... that world that only he could protect.
What he hadn't expected was this deep, nauseating feeling, deep inside him, that he was making a terrible mistake. Yet that was what he had now.
He shook his head again, clearing his mind. Young she may be, but she was still exceptionally dangerous, and a false move born of distraction would likely be fatal to his chances of success.
He glided silently through the clearings, his eyes searching hawk-like for any disturbance, any sign of movement. Alpha One's tracking beacon had gone offline some time before, meaning he had very little idea where she was. The morning light made it easier, of course, but where did he start? What was he looking for? He'd been here for some time already and seen nothing.
He was beginning to feel the first onset of frustration when the communicator hardwired into his glasses crackled into life. He frowned.
Odd. His men were trained not to break silence, and not to use an open channel like this. Nevertheless, he adjusted his glasses to boost the signal.
"Alright," he murmured. "You have my attention."
"Hello," came the instant reply through his communicator, smooth, lyrical and utterly assured. "Nice morning, isn't it?"
"Miss Pond," he murmured, searching left and right for any sign of the Time Lady. He didn't see anything, and immediately admonished himself for being so silly. "I'm impressed you managed to find this channel."
"Wasn't hard. Don't try to back-trace the signal, by the way. It's scrambled."
He smiled wryly to himself. "Clever girl, aren't you? Are you always this friendly with your enemies?" He was humouring her, but there was genuine curiosity behind it. Who was this girl, really?
"Enemy? Since when were we enemies? I don't want to fight you. I don't want to hurt you."
He stopped dead in his tracks, taken aback by the revelation. "Hurt me...?"
"I don't know what it is you've got against me, but too many people have gotten hurt already. My friends. Your friends. It's time this stopped."
"My contract doesn't work like that, as I'm sure your aware," he replied quietly, though with less ease than normal. "It's you or nothing."
"I'm not dealing with your employers," Amy told him, emphasising the last word with naked contempt, "I'm dealing with you. I've learnt a lot about you, you know. About where you're from, what you did and what you do. And I know you're better than this."
"And are you?"
"No," came the instant, easy reply. "But the people I love are in between the two of us, and I will burn anyone who hurts them. I don't want to have to do that, but I will if I need to," Amy told him, her smooth, sweet voice laced with new venom. "You don't want to see that. I know you don't. Alpha One told me you don't... well, I say told. More I took it from him."
His fists clenched and unclenched at his sides. Again, another reminder that for all her naivete and wide-eyed idealism, this was a thoroughly dangerous individual. "Answer me truthfully, please. What have you done to him?"
"I told you," she replied. "Enough people have gotten hurt."
He frowned. "What do you – ah."
"Now it clicks," she said dryly, as the penny dropped at last.
"So you're proposing a-"
"-straight swap. I give you your friend, safe and well, you disable whatever the hell it is you've done to the TARDIS. That's the offer."
"You're placing a lot of faith in someone who might well kill you."
"You fought alongside the Doctor," she replied quickly and easily. "You must have some honour."
"And how do I know that you won't just fly away in your time machine?"
"And how do I know you won't get the thirty blokes you have watching this place to shoot me on sight – or shoot Katherine?"
"You're the one who put her in this situation," he replied quietly. The calmness of his voice, however, hid the intricate calculations going on inside, the questions he was working over as he scanned his surroundings.
What's she doing? Why is she wasting her time like so?
It made little sense. If the offer was as simple as a hostage swap, then why did he need to drag him to the middle of the woodland, miles away? Why be so specific about the place where he was supposed to be? And why did he need to be alone? And why, why was she bothering to talk to him, distract him like this?
There has to be something more to this.
The Time Lady, however, was completely unaware of the internal machinations going on in the Windcatcher's mind. Based on the tone of her voice, he'd struck a nerve with his last point.
"If your men have touched her..." She hissed, her voice suddenly as cold as ice. "I swear, you'll be in even more trouble than you are now."
He barked out a short, dismissive laugh. "Right now? You speak as if you're... you're..."
He trailed off, something occurring to him. More trouble than you are now.He repeated the words in his mind, joining the dots. She would only say that if she felt she had some direct hold over him. As if she were actually...
"...watching me."
He smiled as the light dawned on him. Oh, you clever girl... but not clever enough.
As surreptitiously as he could, he pressed a finger to his wrist, activating a hidden gun buried there. Meanwhile, the line remained silent – Amy wasn't answering him, and he now knew why.
"You know," he said, in a loud, clear voice, one that carried clearly around him. "I quite admire and respect you. You're clearly a strong-willed, clever and skilled individual, quite worthy of carrying the mantle of Time Lady."
He took out a cartridge of ammunition and loaded it into his wrist gun as he spoke, cocking it so it was ready to fire.
"But the problem is, you're just too young to be doing this. Too young to understand how this all works, and what this all means. Sure, you're clever – but really, you're just a girl. Now you've lost your nerve, you've panicked. And that just makes you..."
In a single fluid motion, he raised his arm and spun around, dropping his knees to firing position as he took aim.
"...predictable."
There, in front of him, was the Time Lady herself. Her long, flowing red hair cascaded across her shoulders, the shining silver sword in her hands was raised in preparation for a strike, and her fierce, blazing eyes were wide with surprise, fixed on the gun pointing directly at her forehead.
"Hello, Amelia Pond," he murmured. "I'm the Windcatcher."
Whew. That was surprisingly tough to write. It hit me as I was doing that first woodland section just how brutally I've exposed Amy to the elements, as it were... poor girl.
Please review, it really, really helps and it doesn't take that long.