Changed the crossover category to Doctor who and Naruto to more accurately represent this story at the moment.
I didn't die or anything in the last two months. First my inspiration went on holiday, then I had exams to revise for and I now have full time work to deal with. I actually have a kind of awesome job, it will take up most of my time and energy for the next four moths though. I will write when I can.
My blog is more often updated (with Formula1 stuff too), but again less due to work and lack of living with my uni housemates for summer. Check it out: Tumblr. JustAddCaffeine. com (minus spaces naturally)
There's also my twitter which is linked from my blog. I'm not adverse to talking to people on either.
Time is a funny thing. For most people it appears a strictly linear progression of cause to effect, all running at the same rate for everyone.
The second you step into another point in time this no longer applies to you, the longer you spend traveling to different points in time, the less linear it becomes until it is a jumbled mess of wibbly wobbly, timey wimey stuff.
Even with the many times people 'invented' time travel it never lasted long. Time is can be fragile in places, but resistance to change in others. Sometimes all it takes is stepping on a butterfly to cause a chain reaction that can alter the future that you know. It's very easy to alter the past to a point a time travelling machine never gets invented.
Max knew all of this. The idea had caught her interest for a while back in her old dimension. For a while, she, Laura and Louise would spend their lunch break picking something to change in time then imagining how it would change the present.
When Ducky gave her the crate with a note in it, her own note, she knew she would end up time traveling, she'd started a loop in the future that ended right there in the past which would end up starting the loop to ensure the events in the future happen.
Everything Max was doing had already been done at least once before by the version of her that wrote that note. Everything that was said had been said before. That is why, in the Time Lord history books, she was known as the hero of Atlantis before she even knew she would earn that title.
The Doctor had no idea that he would see her gain that title.
The Wraith had managed to get a few darts through to the city, under the radar of the Ancient systems. A few teams of the space vampires had been beamed down in various places throughout the city.
They all had the same destination. The control room.
Max was the first alerted to their presence in the city having been pulsing FA every few minutes searching for anything that wasn't there before. She'd passed on the information to the Ancients. The Wraith boarding the city coincided with all internal sensors going offline.
From what Max knew of the Ancients, which admittedly wasn't a lot, short range weapons weren't really their thing. They seem to rely on the drone and other long range weapons to defend themselves, assuming that no one could get close with them. The looks of panic on the people faces were so far confirming that assumption.
Hopefully someone would figure out even just a temporary defence. To do that they needed time to work, like with McKay. To have that time they needed someone to slow or stop the invading force.
Time to stretch her powers and make up for the lack of use in recent times. Max stretched her limbs and made a few clones. She would take on the larger group of Wraith while her clones took out the others and some stayed back just in case. She flicked off a lazy salute before speeding off, apparating mid step through doors. She needed to get the adrenaline, magic and chakra flowing after only occasional use for so long.
She stopped with a door between her and the squad of Wraith and took the time to unseal her scythe. She ran her hands along the blade, checking its sharpness. Using modern weapons would be a bad idea. Though technically at this point in time she hadn't signed the contract for either her guns or the wolves, she didn't want to try it with so little time.
The door in front of her opened and the first few Wraith poured through only to get hit by a small cluster of fireballs. They hadn't been expecting anyone to be waiting for them. In the resulting confusion Max leapt into the group, slicing through the space vampires in her graceful dance.
It seemed incredible timing that just as the last one crumpled to the floor, now slick with blood, a loud rock song blared from her pocket. Only one person knew she could be contacted right now and that was the doctor. She fished it out of her pocket, ignoring the miscellaneous weapons that fell out in the process. That actually explained some of the random cuts on her hand that she'd been finding recently. She flipped the phone open, silencing the ring tone as she answered it.
"Yello'." She greeted, sealing her scythe back into its scroll. It would need cleaning at some point.
"Internal sensors are back up, internal communications are still down." Ok, so not the doctor. That was Morgana, someone who knew what she needed to know. "The area around you is clear now. Other areas are being cleared. There is a wraith dart circling the south pier." Nothing more was needed to be said.
"On my way." Max confirmed and ended the call, switching it to silent before stuffing it back into her pocket. It was a small miracle it still worked with all the scratches and chunks missing.
Taking the nearest route to outside Max shushined across the gaps that spread out the arms of the city. Inside would be slower and more convoluted. Apperating just wasn't a good idea over a long distance in this city. She spotted the mentioned dart and dived for the nose of it, only at some point mid-flight realising that was probably a dumb idea. Still, she grabbed the tip of it, using her momentum and some chakra to send it into a dive, letting go of it just before it smashed into one of the towers on the south pier. Max hoped there wasn't anything important there.
She clung to the side of the tower, working out the easiest balcony to get to. Her clones, all maxed out on chakra usage, all dissipated, sending memories back to her. The influx of information shifted her focus from staying attached to the wall and in an almost comical way she looked down as the ground suddenly seemed to grow closer.
A balcony managed to save her from dropping the full distance to the water level. Max rolled onto her side, winded from impact. She could feel her ribs protesting the movement, it was possible some were at least fractured if not a few broken ones too.
"Note to self – Falling is nice. Hitting the ground, not so much." Max muttered and she hauled herself up to a standing position. She could feel blood running down the side of her face. Her natural instinct of reinforcing her body with chakra had saved her from too much damage, mostly absorbing the momentum. It didn't stop all injuries but it could have been worse.
"You are no Atlantean."
Now it was worse. Max could feel the back of a weapon pressed to the back of her neck. She wondered why she hadn't just been shot. It would have just been easier for whoever it was.
"Turn around slowly." Max might have admitted she was a bit curious to see who it was and so complied. Ah, a Wraith. Nice. Finger on the trigger ready, not really many ways out of this, not after that fall. She could feel her actions being sluggish. The Wraith moved towards her, Max moved back, trying to keep some distance until she felt the balcony wall preventing her from moving any further. "Feel free to panic. It makes this so much better."
Max didn't have a chance to ask what before a hand was pressed to her chest and pain blossomed from that area, her chakra draining at an alarming rate. Instinctual panic flooded her mind, followed by a howling from her tenant. She had to stop this now, she couldn't move though. She tried to pull her chakra back and succeeded for a while, confusing the wraith who pressed the weapon harder against her, reminding her it was still there. The very real possibility that she would die here came to mind but was quickly shoved away. She had other things to do, that had already been done, she got out of this situation alive. There was the time loop to finish. How to get out of this though?
It seemed like her thoughts were moving at the speed of light. Then a curious idea came to mind. Reaching for the magic she still had Max started shifting her form, forcing it to speed up. Her skin rippled as it took on an almost skeletal humanoid-canine form, fur stretched tight over bones. Glowing eyes looked down on the Wraith, this form added a lot of height. Tatty wings flared out, casting a shadow over the slightly panicked enemy. Panicked was not good though. A few energy blasts passed harmlessly through her animagus form. As a last ditch attack the Wraith continued to try to suck out her energy.
Something seemed to snap and the wraith was blasted back and Max's already pained head gained another sharp pain just behind her eyes. From then everything went black as she passed out.
Waking up in a healing environment was never a pleasant experience. It didn't matter where or when you were, there would always be something about the atmosphere that made it uncomfortable and irritating.
The second thing Max noticed was the lack of vision. Suppressing panic, Max reached up to her head, hoping there was a good reason. She let out a breath of relief when she found cloth covering her eyes. It was slightly damp with something fragrant but that was all Max could tell.
"Your eyesight should be fine in a few days." Morgana again. "This is not a permanent fix, it is unknown what caused damage to your eyes. Healers have done what they are able. It's the best we could do after you prevented the Wraith from succeeding and crippling one of their ships."
That was new.
"Crippled a ship?" It felt weird making facial expressions with her eyes covered like this. Even with FA on full it wasn't this bad.
"The wraith that beamed down from the dart you crashed was later collected before we could stop it. Later the ship it returned to exploded. We registered a large release of power similar to that we register from you."
"Nice."
"You're being honoured as a hero. You already know that though." Max nodded, there was no point lying to her ancestor.
A week later Max was finally released from the healing room, but only after having escaped anytime Wraith tried to get into the city. She'd had to work relying on FA the entire time. It had been tiring her out. It had never been meant for long term usage, only for battles, so to compensate she cut it down to bursts every so often when there was no apparent danger and clones patrolling.
The Doctor often sat with her, talking to her. He was a bit in awe of her gaining that title even if it hadn't been in the peaceful way he had probably hoped for. He also seemed anxious to leave. Max couldn't blame him, he was much like her, not liking the feeling of being stuck, but he couldn't leave her behind. It was much relief to the both of them when Max was allowed to leave, the bandages removed and a final session with an ancient healing device done.
It had taken a while for Max to adjust to seeing with her eyes again, the colours all seemed much brighter than before, everything in full clear focus. Almost overwhelming, as if she had been seeing through a cloudy window before.
Just before they got to the Tardis Morgana appeared, smiling secretively, and offered a small vial to Max. "You'll know what to do with this." Max eyes the glass container with a bit of scepticism, she couldn't help but remember the last time she was offered one. She'd ended up missing her episodic memories and only got them back after injuring Itachi.
It appeared that most trips in the Tardis with Max would not end up as a nice ride. It was nice to not be thrown around the console room, but being pinned to a wall by extreme g-forces was not nice. The Tardis was supposed to compensate for most of it but Max had a sinking feeling that the space ship wasn't in that much control anymore. They were being dragged through space with no idea of their destination and not way of escaping the pull.
The next few crossovers are all planned out, as is the story for a while. Feel free to suggest some ideas, I may not be able to add it in, I only have limited recreational time for the next 4 months, but I will try.
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