Chapter III:
Rose stood in the cell, pacing back and forth for the umpteenth time since the Doctor and Colonel Sheppard had been escorted out. No matter how many times they were captured, the waiting part never got any easier and this time was no exception. It didn't help that the Gabrihaths seemed particularly inclined to abuse the Doctor either; in fact, it made her worry even more.
At first glance she couldn't tell if the Colonel's companions were just as nervous as she was or not. They were a quiet bunch, with the exception of the fatter one, Doctor Rodney McKay, who kept intermittently yammering on about nothing that she understood in such a condescending manner that she wanted to smack him upside the head, all while fiddling with some sort of device in his hand that didn't do anything (in her opinion) other than beep and hum.
The taller one, Ronon, was perched on the wall, leaning against it with the appearance of casual carelessness but Rose could see how taut and tense his muscles were. She guessed that he was ready to attack in an instant's notice which was something she didn't want to be on the receiving end of. His bright green eyes had darkened considerably in a fashion that had nothing to do with the fading light in the cell. They glared at the entrance to the cell as if they could burn through the bars with the death stare alone.
He had been perfectly amiable, if not a bit short, when she'd tried to engage him in conversation but Rose could tell that if his friend wasn't brought back in the same condition he'd left in, the Gabrihaths would have a very angry tiger pouncing on them from the minute they entered.
The woman, Teyla, sat on the cold, damp floor with her legs crossed and a blank but serene look on her face. Her arms were stretched out, the tops of her forearms lying on top of her crisscrossed legs with the underside of her arms facing the ceiling. Her hands were lax but in a position that screamed MEDITATION. The calm sounds of her breathing filled the stale air and if Rose could actually relax enough to concentrate she had the feeling she would have been close to meditating right along with her.
Heavy, uneven footfalls announced the return of several persons, bringing Teyla out of her meditative revere and Rodney out of his nervously indifferent state. They joined Rose off to the side of the cell where they all impatiently waited for the return of their friends.
"How long do you think they'll keep 'em?" one unknown and guttural voice asked offhandedly.
"I dunno," another answered in what sounded to Rose like a cockney accent. "But I don't care either. As long as they're occupied they leave us alone. Now come on, we have to feed the rest of them."
The small group looked at one another in confusion. Only three of them knew who "they" were, and had explained it to Rose, but they'd said that it was pretty unheard of to be questioned by more than just the wraith queen. Still, they were all worried that the Colonel and the Doctor weren't back yet so they listened more, hoping to hear something that would tell them how their friends were faring.
"Feeding prisoners, it's downright insulting it is," the one with the cockney accent grumbled. They heard the sound of a metal bucket scraping against stone then a grunt as someone lifted it.
"You do not think they should be fed?" the guttural one countered with strain in his voice.
"No I do, it's just, it's servant work."
The lock to their cell door released, flooding the room with light and fresh air. Two Gabrihath soldiers stood in front of the door with what one could only assume was an unhappy look on their faces. The first one held a bucket of water, which was deposited sloppily just inside the cell door, and the other held a massive tray of bread, cheese, and some dried meat.
The one carrying the pail left as quickly as he'd come, leaving only the one carrying the food. He watched all of them carefully, as though expecting to be instantly attacked, then he walked further into the room.
Rodney rushed forward and grabbed the food, scurrying over to his corner like a starving rat and leaving the rest of them to fend for themselves. Taking that as his cue, Ronon swiftly grabbed the vulnerable Gabrihath by the nape of his neck and swung him into the wall.
Much to their surprise, several other Gabrihaths appeared, seemingly out of thin air, and trained spears on each and every one of them.
"Ronon," Teyla warned in a tone that suggested she hadn't approved of him doing that in the first place. "Let him go."
The big man looked around, calculating his odds of living if he didn't. Rose saw a flicker of defiance flare in his eyes before he slowly released the creature and stepped back.
The Gabrihath coughed violently, trying to get air through his no doubt damaged throat.
"I apologize for my friend," Teyla stated, placing herself in front of Ronon so that she could stop him if he chose to charge again.
"It is alright," the soldier gruffly granted. Under the guttural quality of his voice, Rose could hear an accent that sounded an awful lot like German. How diverse were these creatures? He turned around and waved a dismissive hand at the guards who hadn't moved a muscle since first poising to attack. "I understand you are worried for your friends and would like to return home. If it were up to me, you wouldn't have been taken in the first place but sadly I am nothing more than a soldier and do not have a say."
"What's your name?" Rose asked feeling as though they might be able to make an ally out of this creature.
"Kolanthel," the man answered. His eyes traveled over to where Ronon angrily prowled, fear shining brightly within them before he faced Rose. "Kol to my friends."
"I'm Rose," she introduced, putting a hand on her chest. "This is Teyla, Ronon, and Rodney."
The Gabrihath nodded at each person as their names were said but said nothing more. Rose could tell the poor guy was scared as hell but she got the feeling it wasn't of them.
"Do you know what is going on?" Rose asked. Though the Lanteans had tried to explain the possibility of their capture, Rose still hadn't quite grasped the true reason. "Why are we being held prisoner?"
"I told you, to be eaten!" Rodney snapped from his little corner. His two friends closed their eyes as though asking for patience but said nothing.
Kol frowned at the scientist's explanation, his eyes now holding nothing but pity and sadness.
"That may be the eventual plan, yes," he granted thickly. "But I have been told that your friends are being put through some tests first."
"Tests? What kinds of tests?" Rose asked, immediately alarmed. Something told her it wasn't like the math tests she took in school.
"They say that your Colonel Sheppard is strong of mind," Kola answered conspiratorially, "the Queens want to see how strong he is."
With that he exited as quickly as his feet could take him, shutting the door behind him and once again leaving the group to worry in darkness.
Amara stepped back from her test subject with frustration on her face. She and her sister had been throwing everything they had at him and yet it seemed not to be making any difference. While her sister took her frustration out on said test subject, Amara crossed her arms over her chest and thought. She laughed hard when she figured it out. Having been surprised by the laughing, her sister stopped her assault and watched as Amara started walking over to the Doctor.
"Of course! How stupid could I be?" she asked no one in particular. She rounded on the Doctor with laughter and fury in her eyes. "Doctor, have you been protecting him?"
The Doctor, she was pleased to see, was bleeding freely from a cut above his right eyebrow and could barely see out of the same eye. The slight trickling sound of blood landing on the stone floor told her that his straining against the cuffs had torn the beautiful skin around his wrists.
Even still, the look he gave her with his remaining eye held nothing but pure innocence.
"I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about," he replied, sounding a bit strained.
She smacked him twice; once just to wipe the look off his face and another for daring to lie to her. It appeased her somewhat to hear him groan in pain but it wasn't enough. She nodded to the drone behind the Time Lord and waited until he pulled out his stun gun. Of course, she wasn't about to tell her guests that the stunning mechanism had been removed and been replaced by something else infinitely more damaging; that was something they were going to figure out soon enough.
"Now, I'll ask you again Doctor and this time I'd advise you not to lie to me. Have you been shielding him?"
The whir of the drone's weapon straightened the Doctor's spine quicker than anything else in the universe or two could. Still, he looked at her with all the seriousness he had, which she had to admit was a lot.
"Well," he said, dragging the word out, "it's a bit hard to when I've been chained up over here, now isn't it?"
With the nod of her head, the drone fired his weapon, aiming at the inside of the Time Lord's left knee. The blast hit directly on target, cleanly slicing through the first few inches of the alien's leg.
The Doctor cried out in excruciating pain, collapsing as far to the ground as his bound hands would allow.
"What the hell was that for!" the human raged at her, his green eyes alight with fury but cold with hatred. "He gave you your answer-"
"-And he was lying!" Amara snarled at him, moving so that she was in the thing's face.
The human's face was almost as badly beaten as the Doctor's. It still had the use of both its eyes but its lip was dribbling with blood and was as fat as a worm or two. Deep purple bruising marred its admittedly handsome face with one deep cut over one of the deeper bruises just on his cheek. From what she could tell her sister had mainly stuck to beating its face which was a shame since Amara guessed it had such a nice torso that could use some marking.
"That was no stunning blast," the Doctor growled though whether it was from pain or anger, Amara didn't know and nor did she care.
"Did you like it?" Amara asked with a cruel but excited smile. "I've taught my colony a thing or two about technology. They now have two different guns two choose from. One does the normal paralyzes-the-nerves-for-later-feeding but this one is a laser blast for those creatures who are not worthy of being food; among other things."
She paused, waiting for him to answer the question that was so obviously on the tip of his tongue. What happened to you?
It was a question she asked herself from time to time but she never gave it much thought because the answer was simple, the Doctor had happened to her. He'd led her to believe that he cared about her, that they were partners. Then one day he decided that their journey together was over and just dropped her off on some random planet without making sure it was even her planet and left? No! That was not in the brochure.
When she decided that he was going to remain silent, she continued, "Now, I'm going to give you one last chance to answer me truthfully. Oh, and Doctor? If you lie to me again, this time the laser goes through one of your hearts, possibly both. Have you been shielding him?"
"Oh, you meant psychically? Well, yeah of course. Although, I must say he's pretty brilliant at it on his own, isn't he?"
Amara walked away with a frustrated hiss. She had to admit that she should have been able to tell that the Doctor was helping out much sooner than she had.
When she and her sister, Taor, had first begun to test the human, there was a military taste to his defenses that was both bitter and strong. The more they threw at him, the more bitter it became until both of their mouths tasted of bile from trying.
They'd taken a break to draw all they had then tried again, doing their best to force information from him, any information. This time the resistance tasted almost like cinnamon but with enough bitterness and military in there so that they didn't notice it, at first.
The next three times they tried, they got the same taste and that was what had tipped Amara off. Underneath the spice, bile, and strength, she could taste age and decay; something so old that there was no longer any vivacity in it.
For all his youth, the Doctor was not a young being. He had lived for so long and seen so much that all the childlike wonder had all been sucked right out of him. Amara knew he always acted excited and more often than not had the attention span of a four year old these days but when it came to his soul, his strength and his will, he was nothing but a shriveled up old man, hardened by war and grief.
"Take them away and do not worry about their wounds," she commanded one of the drones.
"You have got to be kidding me," the human objected instantly on the Doctor's behalf.
"I assure you Colonel Sheppard that I kid you not. The Doctor will be fine as will you."
She strode out of the hall before the thing could argue any more. Though she acted the part of the wraith well, Amara knew that, should she spend too much time around humans, her own human side would come out and that was something she could not allow. She had ambitions and she wouldn't achieve them by being human.
She thought, mournfully, of her time with the Doctor and how little she'd been able to repay him for the pain he'd caused her. With a sigh she admitted there was time enough for that. For now, she needed rest.
"What did he mean the Queens want to see how strong Sheppard is?" Rodney ranted for the seventieth time since the door had been closed. "How are they going to go about testing that theory? By playing a bunch of voodoo mind games on him? They should have hired Carson for that, he's good with the voodoo magic. And why are there two queens working together? Aren't they normally territorial?"
"Rodney, please," Teyla pleaded for the sixty-ninth time. Her right hand went to her head as though in an effort to massage away a headache and Rose found herself sympathizing with the woman.
"And what do they need the other guy for huh? I mean, do they even know who he is because I don't even know so how could they know. Unless they've run into him before and wouldn't that just be perfect."
"Oi!" Rose snapped, unable to take much more of his chatter. While the Doctor's rambling was usually thirty times worse, it was always about nonsense or random facts about the universe; either way, it was always positive. But this constant droning about every negative thing he could think of was beginning to wear on her barely-existent nerves.
"If you haven't figured out the answer by now, I highly doubt you're going to. So until the Doctor and your friend comes back, put a lid on it will you?"
"No I will not 'put a lid on it'," Rodney retorted furiously. "I am a genius-"
"-Great, so if we need your help with something, we'll know who to ask. However, being a genius isn't going to help you divine the truth about what's going on now will it?"
"Um, well, no," Rodney mumbled, appearing stunned by her manner more than anything else.
"Okay then. Besides, your friend will pass the test."
"And how can you possibly know that?" the scientist snapped.
"Because the Doctor has had psychic training. He's able to defend his mind from intruders or something like that and I know from experience that he can protect others," Rose answered. She didn't think she'd explained that all too well but it seemed to have worked for silence had finally descended upon the cell shortly afterwards.
"Someone's coming," Ronon suddenly announced after five minutes' silence. The group, suddenly alert, jumped to its feet as one and stared at the door.
"Who is it? Is it Sheppard? One of those creature things?" Rodney rambled though he must have known that no one could answer his question but time.
They stood as one, silently preparing for what was about to come through the door and hoping that it would be their friends in one piece.
The sounds of heavy footsteps pounding on the stone floor echoed throughout the hall, the echo dying the closer they came. It felt as though everyone held their breath when the footsteps stopped just outside their door and they all seemed to hold it as they waited for said door to open.
Bright light burst into the cell as whoever it was decided to enter.
"Come with me," Kola's thickly accented voice commanded. He threw something at Ronon and Teyla then quickly scurried off down the hall.
The small group of four shared a look of curiosity with one another then stared at the unguarded and open door. Without waiting for further instructions, they began to run.
TBC