They attacked suddenly, three regular soldiers backed up by two of the freaky robed people. For some reason, they reminded Jess of Sith. It was probably just the robes and how she couldn't see their faces.
The soldiers came running out of the brush, surrounding the two, their guns leveled at Jessica.
Mel clung to Jessica's hand, her grip making Jess' hand go white. Not that the older girl seemed to mind. She was holding onto Mel almost as tight. "What do you want?" she asked, trying to sound casual.
"You've forgotten, Melody," a hard, cold voice came. Out of the bushes stepped the eyepatch lady, irritably batting at a branch that tried to cling to her collar. "You've forgotten what we taught you, what we trained you to do."
Mel didn't answer. "Leave her alone." Jess growled.
"Oh look, it's the little guard dog. You're really getting to be quite the nuisance, dear. I'll have to kill you eventually, you know."
Jess felt Mel's hand squeeze even tighter around hers. "So glad I could bother your perfect existence." Jess said conversationally, trying not to show how scared she actually was. Think, think, what happens? she screamed at herself in her mind, trying to work ahead of these people, to see what they'd do.
What good were dreams that could tell the future when you couldn't remember the details?
"We can do this the hard way, or we can do it the easy way." the eyepatch woman continued. "We've caught up to you time and again, Jessica, and each time, you've managed to get away. That won't happen here."
"Pretty confident, aren't you?" Jess asked, still fighting to keep her voice calm.
"For good reason. What do you have? A little girl who can't defend herself and you, without a weapon in the world."
"You still haven't answered my question from last time," Jess said, acting as if she hadn't heard. "I'd really like to know."
"I don't see why it matters."
"I want to know why I should give you Mel. Seems to me, from all I've heard, that you've hurt her more than helped her."
"Oh yes, you and your fairy stories that try to go against what we know to be true. It's very simple. There's a man, a terrible man. He's a warrior, a killer. He's killed so many over the years…his own people for starters. Then there were the defenseless Angels, who only wanted to be left alone. Or the Daleks, who had triumphed over their own weaknesses to survive, and were torn apart by that man. The Doctor." the woman said the title like a curse word, spitting it out at Jess. Her gaze moved from Jess to Mel. "And that, Melody, is what you were born to correct. You must kill him, don't you understand? You must kill him so he can never hurt people again."
"Jess dreams about him," Mel said, her voice trembling. "He's nice."
"Dreams?" the eyepatch woman looked eagerly up at Jess. "What do you mean, dreams?"
"Nothing. I have dreams about crazy people. Sometimes I wonder if you aren't some kind of weird trick concocted from my subconscious. And since that's what I'm pretty sure you are, we're just gonna-"
One of the robed people moved to block Jess' way as she tried to leave the circle.
"Face it, Jessica," the eyepatch woman said, "this is the end of the road for you and Melody. You can't go any farther. You can join us or die. Your choice."
Jess turned to face her, searching her face for any hints as to what she was planning. Memory, vague at the edges of her mind, intruded. Ah yes.
"Mel. To the tracks." she whispered. "Now."
Mel jumped forward, darting past the eyepatch woman. Jess rammed her fists into the stomach of the soldier next to her, catching his gun and turning it around, preparing it to fire as she took aim at the eyepatch woman. "Try and kill me, and you're dead."
She saw Mel standing safely on one of the train tracks, easily balancing. She turned her eyes back firmly to the eyepatch woman. "So you can tell the Robes back there to turn their lightsabers off."
The hiss that had started up cut off as the robed men returned their swords to their sheaths at a nod from the eyepatch woman. The woman came one step closer to Jess. "This is not over, girl."
"Oh, I bet not. But here's a little present from me, just to remind you." Jess shot her in the leg, whirling to catch one of the soldiers with another shot, then jumping over the fallen body through a hail of bullets. She ran all-out down the train tracks, knowing eventually they'd get of range.
She heard Mel pelting along beside her, shouting, "We're gonna die, you know!"
The bullets stopped coming as the eyepatch woman screamed behind them, and then the two of them were in the trees, ducking over and under obstructions.
Finally, they dared to stop. Jess was still cradling the stolen gun in her arms, though it was pretty obvious she wasn't going to be able to take it anywhere near civilization. It would get her thrown in jail faster than she could say eyepatch.
"What are we going to do?" Mel finally asked.
Minutes stretched by as Jess tried to think of something reassuring to say, something that would make her look like she was in control. In the end, the best she could come up with was, "I don't know."