Etched In History
Grief and Hope
The familiarity of the cell was far from comforting, although at least it was far enough away from the group's captors. Jane sat rocking in the corner, with Martha sitting right beside her, a hand squeezing her shoulder in support. However, the two beings most in shock were on the other side of the small room had to be Rynne and the Doctor. Martha had never seen the 900-and-odd year old being look this way before, not even when he spoke of Rose. Unshed tears stayed perfectly still in his eyes as Rynne sat in his embrace, the pair both confused about what was going on, but glad that there was finally someone else there for them. The girl herself seemed to just be in some kind of shock, as if she hoped it were all a dream, where the Doctor didn't even seem to register where he even was. Nothing made sense, the world tipping upside down, and Martha was just caught in the middle of it.
After all of their time together, the dark skinned doctor-to-be could only hope for a taste of the closeness that the Time Lord was now sharing with a girl that was still practically a complete stranger; despite the seriousness of the situation, there was, admittedly, a pang of jealousy that Martha was ashamed of. Ignoring it wasn't as easy as she would have originally anticipated either, but she was doing a good job, concentrating instead on Jane and how she was holding up. The rocking continued, with small whimpers of fear. Beforehand, her future may have been uncertain at best, but now she had definite proof of her impending doom, and she wasn't standing up well in its face. Turning to the Doctor, Martha gave a weak smile, nodding over to Rynne. "She alright, Doctor?"
"What do you think?" he snapped back, pulling the girl even closer as he felt her shudder under his touch. At the hurt look from his current companion, though, his annoyed expression softened a touch. "I'm sorry. I am, honestly, but I know how she feels, I know what she's going through, and it's not fair. It was like someone managed to cut her off from her true bloodline. But it still doesn't make sense!"
Sniffing, Martha let the biting comment go, deciding to just go with the final words instead. "It's kinda like the thing you used. You know, with the watch?"
"The fob watch from the Chameleon Arch?" Frowning, the Doctor paused for a moment, thinking about that possibility. Only a few months beforehand, the pair had to hide from the Family of Blood, a short-lived race that wanted to absorb Time Lord DNA to make them live forever. Of course, they could follow the Doctor's scent across time and space, so the only way to make a good escape was by changing the whole of his physiology by the use of the Chameleon Arch in the TARDIS. A painful process, the machine then split the true essence from the body, putting it into a fob watch and rewriting the Doctor's genetic code to make him a complete human. Along with a convincing past, he believed that he was a schoolteacher named John Smith, with only Martha knowing the truth, until the fob watch was opened again and the Doctor returned to who he really was. "But that wouldn't account for the blackouts. Or the fact that her heart was in the wrong place for a human."
"And what if it was a botched job?"
There was really no answer to that, was there? Pondering the thought, Rynne leaned further into the Doctor, resting her head on his shoulder. "You keep talking as if I'm not here. And I thought Time Lords were meant to be important," she added dryly. For all intents and purposes, the girl was taking the information rather well, but that was only the surface talking. Who knew what was going on deep down? Only that morning, Rynne had no idea that she was something not of this world, and now she was faced with the fact that her age may not be her real age, and she was part of a civilisation that was one of the oldest in the entire universe. Plus, she was only one of the two left alive… a humbling thought indeed.
Even the fact that Rynne had said what she was out loud was enough to bring a lump to the Doctor's throat. It was still a strange feeling, admitting to himself that he was no longer the last. Of course, it was what he had openly dreamed of, but Time Lord DNA was different to the usual human stuff that you generally found, sprawled across the galaxies. No, the Time Lords could feel each other – not specifically, but they could sense others of their species being born or dying, like there was a wonderful web linking them all together, greater than any of the technologies that they could create. What made this all worse was the fact that the Doctor had had all of his life to get used to the sensation of spinning worlds beneath his feet, the feeling of Time Lords, the flow of Time itself… and now Rynne was being bombarded by all kinds of information that she couldn't digest. How was that fair? Despite questioning, there was no extra memory for the girl's past before Earth, either, which was awful. Was she created on Earth? Did the Time Lords – whichever ones were involved – remove those memories from her for a purpose?
None of it made sense. After Rynne's comment, silence once again took over the room, leaving the foursome tense and unhappy. Who would feel anything else, considering they knew that their death sentences were coming sooner rather than later? The only possible consolation for this was a lack of Daleks, though. At least the metal monsters left them alone in the room. Plus, of course, the cell was no longer deadlock sealed. Using the sonic screwdriver, the Doctor could spring them all out… if he didn't know that there were Dalek guards right outside their door. Such a move wouldn't have been the wisest, would it?
It would have been pointless to stay awake, and being tired would have been no excuse not to carry on with the task at hand, so the group decided wisely to take up the Daleks' offer of rest. It would be ridiculous to squander any opportunities from the dark race, and even a couple of hours was better than nothing. That is to say, there wasn't exactly a number of happy, fitful dreams, but it was better than nothing; just enough to recharge the batteries. However, peace wasn't going to reign forever, and movement was heard outside of the door, to which both the Doctor and Rynne jumped up first, followed closely by Martha. Jane somehow managed to sleep through it, the whirring of machinery seeming to quieten, like it was moving down a corridor. The trio looked at each other for a moment questioningly, making sure that they hadn't just dreamed what they had heard, but their questions were answered faster than they would have originally hoped.
Before long, the noise had dissipated into nothing, and a glow could be seen at the edges of the doorframe, accompanied by a familiar humming sound. Not daring to say anything, the Doctor, Martha and Rynne stood back, watching the door intently for any more movement. Patience was paid off rather quickly as the door was pulled to one side, showing something more than just unexpected, with the three looking out into the hallway practically open-mouthed.
"I would imagine that you would all like a chance to escape?"
A/N: Comments? Want me to work faster? You know what to do, read and review! Wow, that even rhymed... not bad for this time of night XD In all honesty, not my favourite chapter so far, but I needed to get it out of the way for the next turn in the story... who wants to bet who the saviour is? The first person to guess correctly gets a sneak preview of the next story! I don't think I can say fairer than that ;)