Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to Doctor Who.
Annabella ©2011-2016 MamaBunyip
Everything else and story line by me but of course they're set in the Dr. Who Universe so I still hold no rights to them.
Story takes place somewhere in the 11th Doctor Era. I hope you enjoy it!
Rating: It's perfectly safe for the whole family, like the show. So don't worry.
PART 6: A trap within a trap within a trap
Anabella woke up easily enough.
It took some looking around and mirror staring to come to accept that her time with the Doctor hadn't been a dream, but despite all the danger, it filled her day with a sense of purpose which was infinitely better when compared to the apathy she was used to feel.
There was just something about trying to save the universe that made her feel more important than weigh some tables. She put on her clothes which consisted in a one-piece white dress, sneakers and a small grey overcoat, just in case their destination was cold.
She climbed down the stairs trying to remember the way back to the main room, the control room that led to the exit door. As she made her way in, she could hear the Doctor talking.
"Just listen. To me," he gravely requested, as the control room crept into view, "we have no other choice. Do it, or the Silence is going to be the least of our worries."
Leaving the stairs, she allowed her foot steps to alert the Doctor of her presence. He gazed towards her. He looked a bit distressed for a second but then he smiled and nudged her along.
"Yes, yes, well, as long as you hurry, I am confident you'll be able to make it in time. But please, keep a line open at all times, you know how it goes..."
He waited a few seconds, giggled, and then voiced out with a warming smile.
"Yes, that. Definitely that. Good luck, River."
He put down the phone and looked at Annabella. "Good morning, Anna! Did we sleep well?"
"Well enough," she nodded, "what was that about? You sounded worried."
"Oh, posh," he waved the concern aside with a jesting smirk, "us Doctors are always worried. Especially about someone who's adamant to not listen to us."
She smiled, "how long 'till we get there? And what are we going to do once we do?"
"Why, investigate, of course," he looked at a screen, "should be another few minutes. We might as well have breakfast while we wait, right?"
And they did. They went to another room, there was fruit there. then came back to crash-land at their destination.
Leaving the police-box, they were met with…nothing. Looking back, Annabella saw a large and open world, dark except for a purplish hue which glowed through the black machinery that built the world around them, every piece of it far away. She recognized it immediately.
"This is where…"
"Yes," the Doctor confirmed, "but back then, you were not Empress yet. Now, you can take down the shields."
It was the place she remembered. The place she drew, the world she woke up on when she was kidnapped as a child. It made her specially uneasy, in a way she couldn't very well describe other than by comparison to how it felt the day after she ate that horrible liver sandwich.
Wait, shields?
"What shields?"
He led her forward.
"This mothership has shields that the Tardis can't go through."
"But can't it go anywhere?"
He stopped.
"Anywhere in any dimension and any space. But this—" he pointed his sonic screwdriver, pushing it against the air. It collided with something, and reacted immediately and aggressively, releasing sparks against what now showed itself to be a shield. Purplish, obviously, it formed a membrane that went upwards.
"It's a dome, made of…you know how molecules are made of atoms which are made of sub-atomic particles, quarks and on and on?"
"Yes?"
"Well, no matter is truly hollow, void doesn't have a manifestation, right? The smallest component of all is composed of concentrated…you don't have a word for it yet, let's call it existence uhm…juice. Life energy. This shield's made of that. It can't be bent, it can't be broken, it makes it impossible for anything existing to cross it."
"Wow."
"Yes, that's what I said when I first saw them too!" He was proudl of that, for some reason. "It should take the direct energy of a star to feed something like this so it stands to reason this ship has some kind of remarkable power source. I don't know what but it's gotta have the rough output of a star."
"Wow, scary…" she said in awe, "so what do we do?"
"Same thing we did in the prison," he smiled to her, "command it."
Annabella opened her eyes, blushing a bit, "oh."
"Hum," she turned towards the shield, then felt silly for thinking that mattered. For a lack of something to look at, she looked up. "Close the shield, I wish to pass."
Unlike in the prison, though, the shield did not change. Of course, it was invisible so it wasn't exactly easy to tell if it didn't change.
"Doctor?"
"It's still there…" he reported after a few beeps from the screwdriver. "odd, I wonder if the Empress has—" *voooon…*
The shield interrupted the Doctor, turning off. He pointed the sonic screwdriver at it, making noises.
"Ah, there we go," he said, putting his sonic screwdriver away, pleased with himself. He walked out, leading her. But as soon as they passed it, it hummed and turned on again.
They glared back, both equally startled.
"I…didn't say anything," she pointed out.
"This isn't good," he said, looking around, but nothing was visible except for what was now a visible end to that massive room. There was a door leading into the rest of the ship. It slid open for them, even at that distance, as soon as the Doctor looked at it.
They waited for something to come out but nothing did.
"Looks like somebody's home…" the Doctor drew his sonic screwdriver but didn't point it at anything, like a gun with the safety on, "and they're expecting us, too," he added with an interested tone of voice.
"Wha-what do we do?"
"Well, let's not be bad guests," he said, stepping forward. "Follow me and stay close, we have no route of escape unless that shield is turned off."
"But I can't order it, can I?"
"No… we were tricked, it seems. Let's see what they have in store for us."
She followed but Annabella wasn't feeling very confident. If they walked into a trap, that meant they had failed to pick the course of action that was different from the other timeline. That in turn meant they had already lost, but what would they lose, exactly?
"Should we really be heading towards…whatever it is? It's most likely the Empress or some other Bleak."
"I prefer to have the danger in front of me, myself."
That was odd, they had run from the Empress.
"What do you mean? We just ran from the Empress."
"Not while we couldn't," the Doctor jested, "always face the danger if you know you can't escape it."
She smiled, not feeling all that scared despite the fact they had obviously been trapped. The Tardis was on the other side of the shield, after all.
They went through the door. The corridors were so poorly lit the Doctor used his sonic screwdriver as a flashlight, looking around intently.
Attentive and interested as ever, he led her from corridor to corridor and every single door would close, all except for one.
"Doesn't it scare you? To be led like this?"
"Oh you have no idea…" the Doctor said while looking up and licking his lips, he turned his gaze again to look at a door opening, "but as long as you don't let it become hesitation, fear's a very useful thing. All good soldiers know this. Being fearless is for the suicidal idiots."
"How did you defeat the Bleaks the first time? If you couldn't get to the heart of the mothership, what did you do?"
"We got to its tail," the Doctor said, "the engines. I rigged them to blow up. They did and took everything wit them. Well, except for what was inside this dome, of course."
"Including the Bleaks?"
"Most of them yes…an…" it was painful for him to say that, it was easy to tell, "I warned them, you know? I always do. But people never quit. They never do. Like I said, they never listen to the Doctor. It was a really bad necessity."
And then they stumbled into a round room, this one had no doors but the one through which they had entered, which quickly closed behind them. The purplish hue that flowed across the walls and ceilings like veins converged there. They formed wires and then cables of pulsing life energy that led to what looked like a giant cocoon. Or a capsule if one was more inclined to machinery-based comparisons over those of nature.
It opened, showing nothing inside.
It took a moment for the Doctor to react.
"Bollocks!" He jerked to the side and flung his arm open to stand between Annabella and the cocoon as quickly as he could.
"No, that's impossible," he pointed his sonic screwdriver at it, it beeped and blinked green, then he shook it and looked at it. "Wha…what?!" He waved it around, staring intently.
"Oh no…we made a huge mistake…"
"What? What is it?"
"We…somehow, when? When did it happen?!"
"What's wrong, Doctor?"
"We…" he sounded hurt, defeated. He looked down and then towards the cocoon, "we went back in time. Somewhere, one of those rooms must have-this was a double trap."
"A triple, actually," a voice emanated from all around them.
An obviously synthesized voice that sounded feminine and middle-aged. The Doctor opened his eyes and looked around while forcing Anna to step back against the wall. "One, I trapped you so you couldn't get away. Two, I led you to when the prophecy is realized, and final third…I led you to where."
"Your voice," the Doctor pointed out, his eyes and head ever twisting and turning, his eyes squinting. "It's synthesized. What are you?" He waved his sonic screwdriver around, waved it and looked at it. His eyes opened in shock. "This is...what are you? You read like a-"
"You should be more worried about what you are about to become. Time Lord."
He looked up and gave the surrounding voice a smirk, all the while tapping his sonic screwdriver.
"Am I supposed to be impressed? Most of the Universe know what I am, but what are you? What do you need the Bleaks for? Why are you using them to power your machines? Are they no more than power sources?"
"I am the Bleak, Doctor." The voice chorused somewhat, booming dangerously. "They are me. We have been together since the beginning."
"Beginning of what?"
"Of me." He glanced at Annabella and rolled his eyes like they were sharing some insulting consideration of the thing that was speaking to them. "Now step aside, Doctor, and allow the prophecy to be realized."
Annabella wasn't thinking anything, she was still stunned, trying to decipher what the voice was, trying to reach all the answers the Doctor had already arrived at and possibly some he hadn't.
Then she felt her body stiffen.
"Doc—" but she couldn't finish her sentence as her lips and face also became rigid. She could only move her eyes to see herself being levitated and then pulled towards the cocoon.
The Doctor grabbed hold of her, though. He tried to pull against the force that was carrying her but he simply got dragged across the floor, his feet skidding uncontrollably.
"No…I didn't…" he fumbled his Sonic Screwdriver with one hand, she could feel his fingers wiggling across her belly.
"Not now, too soon…" he whispered to himself, in the heat of the struggle but she couldn't consider what the words meant. His fingers slipped and she heard him tumble to the floor as she flew towards the cocoon. She couldn't even whimper or moan as her body flipped around to lay inside back first. She saw the Doctor pushing himself up to run.
"Annabella! Don't take your eyes off me! Don't stop thinking!"
The cocoon hummed as it started closing, the Doctor reaching closer but taking too many seconds. His sonic screwdriver whistled in a very high pitched manner as he pointed at her as vigorously as he could. "Work, damn you!"
He looked her in the eyes, the cocoon was closing.
"Breathe and think, Anna! Breathe and thin!—" *CHUNK*
It closed. She kept her eyes open but it was dark. Pitch dark. And when it lit up with some light, it was a purplish light. The purplish light.
It was only when it hit her eyes that she noticed that it wasn't light but a liquid which was glowing just as brightly.
She opened her eyes wide as her heart raced and her brain hurt, both literally speaking. She abruptly felt stupid about all the times she had ironically said her brain hurt, that stupidity made her brain hurt. No, that liquid made it hurt. It was an interior pain, like someone was pouring salt-water into it.
She wanted to cry but she couldn't. She wanted to fight, to flail around, but she couldn't. Her mind began to fall asleep. Her eyes fought against her, they wanted to close despite the terror that afflicted her.
It was a nightmare. Worse than any she had had.
She would have given anything to be able to scream.
Part End: Thank you for reading, please consider leaving a review if you have the time.
Oh boy! Things are so tense, huh? Next up, plot thickens even more, let's keep it up!
Also don't worry, the story is fully written. Next update will come up next week, God willing.