A/N: Before diving into the next chapter, I would like to talk about a few things.
Being an American writer when choosing a British setting for my story (although for Part 1, it will be temporary, only for a chapter or two), I am very aware that I may use certain terms and phrases (especially British) that seem wrong or off, and I confess that as an American having lived in England but one that hasn't lived there in over a decade, my knowledge of British culture and phrases is a little rusty, and I apologize in advance if I get a British word or phrase wrong, or if I seem to be a little out-of-character for some people like the Doctor or River.
Also, for those that are confused about Nova's origins, she is American in this story, hence why she is using American words and phrases throughout. I know that in the actual show, most Time Lords seem to be portrayed as British, but there is always a first for Time Lords to be American, this being the case for Nova.
Finally, if you wish to comment on my works, feel free to be as honest as possible, whether it'd be about constructive criticism or grammar mistakes. I always want to look for ways to improve my writing skills and make my stories as great as they can be. The only thing I would like to ask is that you try to be kind with your criticisms, despite your honesty. In the words of the Twelfth Doctor, "Hate is always foolish; love is always wise. Always try to be nice, but never fail to be kind."
I hope you are still enjoying the story.
WARNING: This chapter is very long and contains a minor cliffhanger/reveal at the end.
Chapter 12: Mummy Dearest
Four days after our first arrival, we set off exploring what will soon become our new home city. During the first few days, Hazel and I stayed in the hotel for the majority of the time, mainly because I insisted that Hazel catch up on sleep to get over jet lag; she could barely get out a full sentence without yawning every six words that came out of her mouth. Now, she is finally over it—at least for the most part—and we spend the day getting familiar with the city. We spend most of the morning and early afternoon touring the city on the top of one of the iconic double-decker buses that we've often seen pictures of in travel magazines, and we visit some of the most famous tourist attractions in the city, such as The British Museum, Buckingham Palace, Westminster and the Houses of Parliament, William Shakespeare's Globe Theater, and the Tower of London.
After touring around Westminster, we decide to walk across the river to The London Eye and rest our feet at a small bench along The Queen's Walk at the edge of the river.
"This city is amazing!" Hazel exclaims after twenty minutes of resting. "I can't believe you tried to ditch me and come here without me."
"I didn't 'ditch' you," I shake my head, "not on purpose. Well, sort of, but it was for a good reason. I told you, I left you to keep you safe."
"Yeah, yeah," she rolls her eyes, "you thought you'd attract danger to yourself because of your powers; you keep saying that. In case you haven't noticed, there hasn't been any 'danger' that's come after us since we got here; in fact, there hasn't been a single invasion since we got here. Are you sure you weren't just being paranoid for no reason when you left?"
"No," I say seriously, but then I pause, suddenly feeling uncertain. "Well, maybe. I…I don't know. The truth is, I don't actually know if my powers attract danger or not. I just noticed that after I healed a paper cut back in Second Grade, a dangerous psychopath invaded our school a few days later, and because of that, I figured I may have accidentally attracted him there because he'd sensed my so-called 'Time Energy.' I'm honestly still not sure what he meant by that, or what that actually is, but I think that energy may be something inside me, something in my body that's giving me my abilities; and as long as that energy is inside me, those who can sense it will be attracted to it and come after it like a moth to a flame. Ever since that moment, I've had the fear of similar 'beings' coming after me, as well as my family…and you."
"What about that armored dwarf that tried to kill us during Laser Tag back in high school?" Hazel asks curiously. "Do you think it was attracted to your Time Energy too?"
"I don't know," I shrug. "It only said it was after me but not my Time Energy; although, it may have been after my energy, hence why it was looking for me. In any case, because I feared that would happen again, or that those psychos would come after my family too, I decided to leave, hoping my family would be safe from them…from me." My words suddenly make me think back on the memory of my bio-father when he said the exact same words to me before he gave me up, and about the same psychos that are the so-called 'Silence.' I sigh. "Honestly now, I'm starting to regret leaving in the first place. Maybe I was just being paranoid for no reason. Maybe they only sense my energy whenever I use it, but not when I'm not."
"So…I guess this means that if you go back home, you can't ever use your powers again," Hazel points out, "not even for healing."
"Yeah," I nod, "but at least I'll have a shot at being human. That's all I've ever wanted to be since I was told I wasn't human." Of course, not using my powers ever again won't change the fact that I'm not human, but I don't admit that to Hazel, knowing that she is already well aware of that.
"Well, now you can fulfil that wish," she smiles.
"Yeah," I smile back. "Sort of."
Just then, I suddenly have a feeling like I'm being watched, but it's not yet clear if the person watching me is an enemy or not. Ignoring the strange feeling, I ask Hazel cheerfully, "So, what's been your favorite thing you've seen here so far?"
Clearly not having the same feeling as me—either that, or the feeling just hasn't gotten to her yet—she answers casually, "Well, the British Museum was pretty cool, and Buckingham Palace; although I wish we could've walked inside. How cool would it have been to see the Queen sitting in one of the rooms drinking tea, or something? Then again, that might be a bit creepy, seeing complete strangers watching you drink tea, right? At least, that would creep me out."
I laugh. Haze, always so dramatic. "Okay. What else?"
"The Tower of London was pretty neat too," she continues. "Although, what I don't get is why the place had such tight security. I mean, I know the Queen's jewels are kept there, but why do they need extra security, like those soldiers that we kept seeing in almost every hallway? Who did you say they were again?"
"U.N.I.T," I explain. "Stands for 'United Nations Intelligence Taskforce.' They're in charge of defending the city, maybe even the planet, from alien invasions…or anything alien, really."
"Like you?" Hazel asks jokingly.
I chuckle. "No. I'm not that kind of alien."
Hazel laughs as well. "Yeah, I know. That one lady was very friendly, welcoming us to London; though she was a bit of a loony, to be honest. She wore a freakishly long scarf that looked at least four times her height, and it's not very cold out. She even wore a bow tie, and women don't typically wear bow ties."
"I kinda liked it," I say honestly with a small shrug. "It suited her, no matter what the temperature was. The bow tie was kinda cool too."
"She seemed to really like your necklace," Hazel comments with a smile, glancing down at my necklace hanging down my front.
"Yeah," I agree, looking down at it as well. "Though I should probably hide it from now on." I then shove it down the neck of my shirt so it is out of sight.
"Why?" Hazel asks, puzzled. "It's a beautiful necklace; it's from your home world, or rather your dad's."
"Yes, the necklace is beautiful," I agree, "but I don't want people looking at it and recognizing the symbols. I have a feeling that most people who do are enemies of us…of my species, I mean. I don't want them to be suspicious of me." The last thing I want is to be attacked and killed by a seemingly random stranger who just happens to know where my necklace comes from. I mean, why should someone be brutally attacked if someone else doesn't like a certain piece of clothing or jewelry? The comprehension of this is lost on me.
Though, Hazel seems to understand just fine, at least for my case. "That's true," she nods.
Suddenly, the feeling of being watched heightens a bit, and it has become much harder to ignore it. I glance toward the direction of where I am feeling the sense the most, and I see a pair of men dressed in black staring right at me, one of them wearing a sinister-looking eye-patch, moving two feet closer to our current location. In fact, I've noticed this happen at the corner of my eye several times already.
"Speaking of which," I murmur to Hazel as I stare intensely back at the men, "I think there might already be some suspicious people here."
"What do you mean?" Hazel asks with a frown. "What's wrong, Nov?"
Since I don't want to point directly at the staring pair, I step to the other side of Hazel so she is facing them, but my back is to them. "Those two men in the black hoodies…they're staring at us," I murmur to her. "Have been for a while."
She glances suspiciously at them and then murmurs back to me, puzzled, "Why? Who are they?"
"I don't know, but they're dangerous," I say, still keeping my back to them and my voice low in case they might be listening.
"How do you know?" she asks, her anxiety increasing slightly.
"Two reasons," I say. "One, their posture, and two, they've been gradually coming closer to us without making it seem too obvious. Although they're kinda failing at it, especially to those who have a keen eye for noticing red flags like this, like me. Needless to say, I've become much more observant as of late, and you can understand why."
"So why are they making it obvious to you that they're coming after you?" Hazel asks, knowing of the complete lack of logic that this situation seems to possess. Obviously, when you're planning to capture someone, you don't make that obvious to the person you're trying to capture, right?
Then again, maybe these guys actually know what they're doing—in which case, they want me to know what they're up to—which sets my nerves on edge.
"Because they might know who I am," I say, confirming my own suspicion, "and maybe even what I am."
"Are they here for your Time Energy?" Hazel asks nervously but also curiously.
"I don't know what they want from me," I say, shaking my head. "Maybe they are, or maybe they want to kidnap me, no doubt to train me as an assassin against my father like they did with my mother. Or they're here simply to kill me. Whatever the case, they're dangerous, and we need to avoid them at all costs."
Just then, I see one of the men whisper something in a walkie-talkie, and I am able to make out a few phrases with my enhanced Time Lord hearing.
"Let's go," I insist as I take Hazel's arm and pull her in the opposite direction as a way of giving the message that we need to leave this area immediately. She takes the hint, but she can't help but look behind her at the men, who begin to follow us at a distance. "Don't look at them," I tell her, not wanting the men to know that we know they're following us; although, they might already know. "Just keep walking. I don't think they're alone."
"How do you know?" Hazel asks, her anxiety increasing even more.
"I heard one of the guys whisper through a walkie-talkie, 'she's by the river to your left,'" I explain without knowing any other way to say it without totally freaking Hazel out. "'She' being me, so they're obviously not alone." Of course, with so many people around, there's no way of telling who else these creepers could be with.
"Who else are they with?" Hazel reads my mind exactly, glancing around her in seeming panic.
"I don't know, but stay close and keep your eyes open," I say seriously, sensing that we're not as safe here as I thought we would be. Then again, to be technical, nowhere is truly safe, knowing that dangers could be lurking around every corner, including in one's own home. "They could be attempting to surround us."
"But they won't actually attack us, right?" Hazel says reassuringly, even though she was mostly reassuring herself. "Not with so many people around."
"You never know of anyone's true intentions, Haze," I say honestly. "Maybe attacking us in front of millions of people doesn't matter to them, no matter how stupid that plan is. What's important is that we stay clear of them."
We start walking away from the London Eye and toward the main streets. I have started developing a plan in my head to try to lose the creepers in several ways, like crossing the street when the traffic light immediately turns green, or sneaking into a shop and laying low in it until the men give up.
"Where are we going?" Hazel asks me after a minute of walking.
Not knowing of any particular destination that comes to mind, I say, "Anywhere as long as we lose them. The last thing we want is for them to know where we're staying."
"What if they keep following us," she asks, her voice now starting to shake a bit out of nervousness, "even if we try losing them in a large crowd?"
Knowing that our options are severely limited, I say the only other alternative that comes to mind, even though it's going to be one that Hazel will not like. "Then…we'll have to split up."
Apparently, I am right, because she says incredulously, "Split up? Are you crazy?"
"If I'm right that they're only after me, they might leave you alone if we split up," I confess. "That way you'll have a chance to escape."
"But what about you?" Hazel asks, now legitimately panicking; I know, because I can literally sense her single heart beating rapidly in her chest at the insane idea. "I'm not leaving you!"
Even when I first thought of the idea, it was insane to me too. By splitting up, the guys will have to choose who to come after (between me or Hazel), and, of course, whoever they choose to come after will be in the most danger. Obviously I'm not going to let them come after Hazel, since whatever these creeps want me for, she has no involvement in it whatsoever. If anyone is going to be followed, and, possibly later, captured, it should be me. Besides, I have a feeling that whatever it is these guys have a problem with, it must be a Time Lord thing, which is obviously way beyond Hazel's comprehension; then again, it's way beyond mine as well.
"You may not have a choice," I say, shaking my head. "This is exactly the reason why I didn't want you following me to London. Whatever it is those thugs want with me, I don't want you involved. That is why you must run."
"No!" Hazel exclaims. "I'm not leaving you!"
Knowing that Hazel would refuse to leave me, especially after I had left her (and honestly, I don't blame her), I shake my head and say, "Haze, there's no time for arguing! They're gaining on us, and there seems to be a lot more of them now."
Since we've been walking, I've seen other men dressed in black—a few others wearing the same eye-patch as the first guy—coming out of nearby alleyways and side streets, and they all seem to be converging on us.
"How many?" Hazel asks, nervously looking over her shoulder at the other men that have joined the original two.
"Too many for me to take on at one time." I turn back as well to find at least fifteen men—five of them wearing eye-patches—walking at a close distance behind us, gradually increasing their speed. The eye-patch makes the men appear to be a part of a sinister cult, or something of the like, which sends creepy vibes up both of our spines. "Crap!" I curse at them, turning my back on them once again.
"What do we do, Nova?" Hazel says, her voice whimpering now out of fear. "There seems to be way too many of them now, like you said. If any more come, they'll catch us…or worse…"
Not knowing of any other options that would help us in our escape, I sigh and say apologetically, "I'm sorry, Hazel, but…I think we may have to split up, after all."
No surprise, Hazel doesn't like my suggestion, even though it's the only one we have now. "What? No! I said I'm not leaving you!"
"Haze, you have to!" I insist. "I'd be keeping you safe that way."
"No!" she screams, tears now streaming down her cheeks. "'You go down, I go down with you!' Remember?"
"Not this time, Haze," I say regretfully. "It's not safe for us to be together right now. Besides, they're after me, not you. If you run and hide somewhere, and if I'm able to lose them, I'll come and find you."
For some reason, when these words are said, they sound like a lie. For some reason, I don't think I am going to survive this, which is why I want Hazel to run if I am actually captured. Even though I promise to find her, thinking about it now, I may not be able to live up to that promise. In fact, I may not live at all, if the men capture me and decide to kill me right on the spot; or, at the very least, I won't survive as myself, depending on if I can still regenerate. Even if I do survive this, I may reunite with Hazel, but with a new face. In any case, if Hazel is captured, her chances of survival are slim to none.
"No, Nov, listen!" she argues. "If we split up, you won't have anyone to protect you if you get caught, and nor will I!"
"I know," I nod. "Like I said, they're not here for you; they're here for me. If I'm caught, you'll have a chance to escape. You'll be safe without me."
"No!" Hazel screams again, not wanting to hear any more of the subject, but I'm not going to give her a choice, because I know that this is what is best for us…for her.
"Haze, this isn't up for discussion," I say sternly. "We're doing this. I'm doing this to keep you safe. I don't want you getting hurt."
"I don't want you getting hurt either," she says with tears still streaming down her cheeks.
"I'll be fine, I promise," I say, although it sounds like a lie again. "I've got my martial arts skills to protect me. Meanwhile, you're going to run, and you're not going to stop running until you get somewhere safe. I'm going to do the same thing, and whenever it's safe again, I'll meet you back at the hotel."
"How will we know when it's safe to come back?" Hazel says uncertainly.
"Honestly…we won't," I say with a sigh. "At least I won't."
"Why do I get the feeling like I'm never going to see you again?" she asks fearfully, like my words will be the last that she will ever hear me say, which, for all I know, probably will be.
"I'm sorry, Haze," I say, now feeling tears fill my own eyes. "You're just going to have to trust me."
Hazel then squeezes my hand so tightly that it hurts, but I don't let it show. "I always do."
Looking ahead, I notice that the street ends at another perpendicular street that goes seemingly infinite in both directions, and I get an idea. "Okay…" I murmur to Hazel quietly, knowing the men are much closer to us now, a little too close for comfort. "Once we get to the end of the street, you're going to walk one way, and I'm going to walk down the other. Then, once we reach the end of our streets, and depending on how many men follow us, we're going to run. If they run too, just keep running, and don't stop running until you get somewhere safe. Then you're going to head back to the hotel; luckily it has good security, so they can't access the lift without a keycard."
"What about you?" Hazel asks nervously, still not liking this plan of mine, but it is the only one available.
"I'm going to have as many men as I can chase me," I say, "and once I'm able to lose them, I'm going to lay low for a while until I know I'm no longer being chased. Then I'll come and find you back at the hotel." Again, it sounds like I'm lying, but at this point I can't help it. Even if I actually am lying, this seems to be exactly what Hazel wants to hear—for me to come back to her safely. However, the definition of 'safely' for me is very different from her definition. Will I safely return to her with my current face, or will I return with a totally different face? Will I even return safely at all? Only Time will tell at this point.
As we're reaching the end of the block, Hazel hugs me tightly. "Be careful, Nova. I don't want to lose you."
"I don't want to lose you either," I say, returning the hug. "Remember, run, and don't stop running." I then look back at the men, who are still following us. In fact, I don't think they're going to stop following us until they capture us…or rather, they're not going to stop until they capture me.
Suddenly, something happens that we don't expect. One of the men shouts out at us, "You little ducklings seem to be lost."
At first, I am surprised that one of them actually spoke up at all, but I don't let this distract me from my plan. "Get ready," I murmur to Hazel, ignoring anything else the men might say to us.
"I'm scared," Hazel whimpers quietly to me, squeezing my hand again.
"Don't be," I shake my head. "We're going to see each other again. I promise." That last bit is an honest truth. No matter what, I'm going to find my way back to her, no matter what face I am wearing.
The same man suddenly speaks up again, this time saying, "If you're lost, we can show you the way. We can help you get back to where you need to go."
At this point, I almost pause in my tracks, suddenly recognizing the man's voice.
Hazel must have caught on to the same conclusion as me, because she says in shock, "Nova… That voice…it's—"
"Yeah," I nod. "It's the school intruder from back in Second Grade. Get ready to make like a Banana Split." At first, Hazel frowns at my words, but then she nods a second later, understanding what I am saying. A second after, her expression shifts back to fear. "I know, Haze," I assure her. "I understand, but this is the only way." We both have our own priorities. She doesn't want me to ever leave her again, and I want her safe from any danger that ever exists. Unfortunately, with our current situation, neither of us can be safe…
Not unless I take this leap of faith. Alone.
"You know who I am, don't you?" the man that was our school intruder speaks up again. "I heard you two whispering. And I know what you're about to do. You're not going to get very far."
Even if he does know what we're about to do, we're not going to let him succeed in taking us, wherever it is. Once we reach the end of the street, I hug Hazel one last time. "Okay, it's time," I whisper in her ear. "Run, and don't stop running."
"Be careful, Nova," she says tearfully before she releases me and bolts down the right end of the street. I pause and stare at the men before I start walking in the opposite direction as Hazel.
After five seconds, I look back, and I notice that the 'leader man,' who I assume is—was—our school intruder, signals for a small group of other men to go after Hazel, and I can't help but say angrily in my head, Don't you dare come after her. Come after me instead. Of course, the majority of the men, including the school intruder, continue coming after me, but I turn my back on them again and ignore them as I pick up my walking pace.
"That wasn't a very clever move," the intruder taunts me, "splitting from your little human friend. Now, she doesn't have anyone to protect her…and nor do you."
He is right, of course, but there is something about me that he doesn't know. No, I say in my head, but I have a secret weapon; and if you hurt Hazel, you're going to wish you never came after me eleven years after you last terrorized me and my friends.
I then turn onto another more public street, but the men continue to follow me (no surprise). I pick up the pace again as I sense the men doing the same. Then, just as a large group of tourists exits off a bus and blocks the men's path, I immediately begin running at a full sprint.
"She's bolting!" I hear the intruder/leader shout behind me. "Don't let her escape this time!" I then hear rushing footsteps behind me from the other men, but I don't dare look.
'This time,' I couldn't help sniggering in my head, because last time he failed to capture me because of my bio-mom. How hilarious would it be for that to happen again?
I continue running at full sprint down the street, avoiding running into people as I go. Luckily, most of them jump out of the way as I pass them; however, those that aren't fast enough get shoved out of the way, at least by the men chasing me. Seeing an alleyway, I take the chance to use it to lose the men, but they follow me right inside.
"You won't get very far, Time Lord!" another of the intruder's/leader's cronies shouts after me, seeming to not care who else might be listening. "We'll find you!"
"You'll have to catch me first," I can't help snapping back at him, though it is more of a murmur to myself.
I continue running, hoping beyond hope for a way out, but this particular alleyway I've run into seems to have become a maze, and I keep thinking that the next corner I turn around might just be the way out, only to be wrong, and I end up finding more dark and seemingly endless alleyways. Usually with mazes, there is at least one way out, but there are also a number of dead-ends, and if I run into a dead-end, I'm screwed.
Unfortunately, the odds of escaping this alleyway alive are not in my favor, because I suddenly run into a dead-end with absolutely no way out. I look around frantically for some kind of hidden door to slip through quietly, but there is none; there isn't even anything I can use to defend myself with. "Fudgeknuckle!" I curse loudly in defeat.
I then turn toward the way I came, and I see that the men have managed to catch up to me. "You got nowhere left to run, Time Lord," one of them taunts, grinning at me like a predator grins at a piece of meat. "There are too many of us for you to fight alone."
"You sure about that?" I glare back at him, gathering all of my martial arts training to the forefront of my brain. "I'd take back that last statement, if I were you. Automatically assuming things like that about a person makes you look stupid, and stupidity never looks good on a henchman."
The man sniggers at me. "You think you're so clever with your words, just like your father, but you have no idea whom you're dealing with."
"I think I'll take my chances," I say carelessly. I may appear to be weak, fragile, and easy to kidnap, despite having two hearts, but these bozos know absolutely nothing about me and the powers I possess, not to mention the skills I was taught since I was seven. "You wanna dance, it's on!" I say as I get into the 'ready position' that I was taught to get into before a big fight. "Bring it!"
"I'll lead!" The man says as he advances on me, but I take him down in a heartbeat.
"Whatever happened to 'ladies first?'" I ask in mock puzzlement as several more men come at me, but again, I kick them to the turf just as easily as I did the first guy.
After a while, too many men come after me at one time, and I struggle to take them all by myself. One of the men grabs me and throws me against the wall, and my vision is cloudy when my head bangs hard against the rough surface. As I struggle to get back on my feet from a slight headache, another man kicks me in the chest, and I scream in pain from the powerful blow, hearts racing and vision hazy. Maybe it wasn't clever to taunt them, after all, I think, and even in my head, my voice sounds weak.
Suddenly, I am roughly hoisted up to my feet by two men who restrain me. Once they have me secure in their tight grips, I am approached by another man who seems to be the group's leader. When first laying eyes on him, I immediately think of the character Voldemort from the Harry Potter films, because his skin is incredibly pale, and he has thin slits for a nose, but, unlike Voldemort's eyes, his eyes—or rather eye, since one of his eyes is covered with that creepy-looking eye-patch—are deep-set and dark as night.
"We meet again, Nova Susan Song," he says with an evil smirk, like he has finally claimed the prize that he has been longing to win for a long time—eleven years, to be exact. I know this, because I recognize his voice as the intruder that invaded my school back then.
Physically, I may be too weak to fight, but mentally, I can still pack a solid punch.
"Again?" I scoff. "Sorry, I don't recall ever meeting you. At least, I didn't get to meet you in person after my mother shot your ass!"
"Ooh, such fire in your soul," he sniggers at me. "Your parents named you well."
"What do you know of my parents?" I ask in a doubtful tone, because I seriously doubt that he knows anything about my parents, both foster and biological, including me.
He pauses, feigning puzzlement. "Hmmm…depends which 'parents' you're referring to—your biological parents who left you behind, or your primitive human parents whom you left behind. I must say, you leaving your human parents behind was the biggest mistake of your life." He then smirks again. "Or should I say 'lives?'"
Lives? I think. How could he possibly know of such things? Nobody should know anything about that except my family and Hazel.
"That's right," the intruder/leader nods, noticing my confusion, "I know your little secret. I know what you are…Time Lord. There aren't very many of you anymore. There used to just be your daddy, but now there's your mother…and you."
At the mere mention of my guardians, I can't help but fear for their safety. "What have you done to my guardians?" I demand angrily. He obviously knows something about them; otherwise why would he have mentioned them at all? He must've done something to them, and maybe to Hazel.
The intruder/leader chuckles. "Oh, you call them your 'guardians' now? That makes sense, seeing as they were never your real parents. And don't worry about them; they're being well taken care of. My madam has found them a comfortable place to rot." He then grins evilly, saying, "And soon, your little human companion will join them."
Something unexpected happens in that moment. I feel that so-called 'fire' burning inside me again, but this time it seems to take over my entire body. My vision seems to take on a strange tinge, like I'm seeing the world through a solid gold stain-glass window, and my other senses seem to heighten as well. As my anger toward the Silence members grows (they must be Silence members; why else would they be taking advantage of me like this?), so does the raging fire.
"NO!" I scream on pure instinct as the fire suddenly overloads in the form of golden energy shooting out of my hands toward my captors, sending them flying like rag dolls and then crashing hard against the walls on either side of the closed alley. Many other Silence members back away in horror, or are also pushed off-balance by my apparent 'Force Push.'
Once it's over, my vision returns to normal, as do by other senses. "Whoa!" I exclaim, staring, in complete shock, at my hands, the glow now beginning to fade, as well as at the damage I had apparently done. "That's new!" Since when did I become a Jedi?
However, the shock is short-lived, as exhaustion abruptly hits me like a wave, and I feel my body collapse against the wall and slide down it to the floor. Before I could slide completely to the floor, the Intruder/Leader orders more of his cronies to seize me, and they do, grabbing me firmly by the arms and forcefully holding me up.
"Impressive," the Intruder/Leader says in genuine surprise, but to me his voice sounds far away, despite him standing just feet from me. "Clearly, our experiments worked!"
I frown in confusion. "What…experiments?" I feel so weak that I can barely get a word out, which the Silence members apparently find amusing.
"You'll understand soon enough," he says with a smirk, "once you join our cause."
"I'll…never join you sickos!" I pant with a growl, my hearts pounding with rage and contempt. "And…if you've hurt…my family, I swear, I'll—"
He chuckles again. "You're in no fit state to stop us, little Time Tot. At least not anymore. Though, I'll say this for you: there is much fight in you. Clearly, I underestimated your abilities, you taking down six of my men all by yourself. At least, that was before your little light show."
"I've had years of training," I spit back at him matter-of-factly.
"Oh, my dear," he drawls with that perverted smirk, "we know. We've been the ones training you all this time."
"What are you talking about?" I demand with a frown, completely dumbfounded. How could they have known where I was all this time, where I lived? How long have they been close to me, without me even realizing it?
"We've been much closer to you than you think," he explains, his disgusting smirk still plastered on his greasy, pale face, "ever since your human parents urged you to start defending yourself. You must have often wondered why your personal training was much more advanced, much more potent, than everyone else's. We weren't training you to defend yourself. We were training you to kill."
"Master Kang…" I say in shock, feeling completely devastated that I didn't see this sooner. "He's one of you?" How could that be? How could he have been one of them, and I didn't even know?
Then again, it would explain why he was always so hard on me, and the other trainers and trainees were suspicious of him, having seemingly come out of nowhere after my previous trainer (who I'd only spent two days with) mysteriously disappeared and was found dead days later 'under mysterious circumstances.' At the time, I didn't think 'Master Kang' was the one responsible for her death, but now it is clear that he was—or at least the Silence were. After he disposed of her, Kang immediately applied to be a martial arts instructor in her place, and he insisted on training me, and only me. His exercises were very tough and incredibly violent for my comfort, and he had a very strict attitude, like he was going to severely punish me if I didn't try hard enough; but I learned to tolerate his toughness toward me, even though in reality he was training me for something much worse, and I should've stopped there and then, but I didn't. I regret every minute of it, now that I know the truth.
"Yes," the intruder/leader nods. "Has been for a very long time, long before you were born. Long before even your mother was born. Kang was the one who trained your mother when she became one of us."
Not willingly, I bet, I think spitefully. She must've been a real nasty piece of work back in the day. Shame she betrayed them. What makes them think that I won't do the same?
Also, how insane was it that the exact same man who trained me also trained my mother?
"And you will have many more years if you join us," the intruder/leader continues. He leans ever closer to me where I can smell his rotten breath. "You know you fight just as well as your mother did when we trained her. She, too, had much fire in her soul; we obviously chose well with her, and it seems like we might choose well with you. I wonder if all Time Lord females have this much spunk, or it's just a family trait." He then attempts to stroke my cheek with the back of his hand, but I don't give him that satisfaction and think that he has any power over me.
"Sorry to disappoint, Voldemort," I say, roughly pulling away from his touch, "but I think I'll pass on that offer. I don't think 'murderous psychopath,' or even 'Death Eater,' would look good on a résumé. Besides, I'm pretty sure my mother failed you guys when she married the one person she was trained to kill. And a good thing too, because I wouldn't be here if she didn't."
The intruder/leader frowns at me and looks as if he's about to ask me how I know all of this when suddenly, he is interrupted by an all-too-familiar female voice from behind him, "No, she wouldn't." I look over his shoulder and see the mysterious British curly-haired woman I had seen several times throughout my life, now standing twenty feet from us with a proud smirk plastered on her face—her face that looks very similar to my own. "Hello, sweetie," she smiles at me, her unusual greeting greatly confusing me. Why would a complete stranger call me 'sweetie?' I think to myself. We don't even know each other.
At least…I think we don't. At least, I don't know her, but she clearly knows me, hence why she's appeared to me throughout my childhood.
"You!" the intruder/leader exclaims in shock and anger. "Get her, you dunderheads!"
The other men advance on the new arrival, but she takes them down just as easily as I had the first time, only she shoots them down with her futuristic-looking gun, which she takes out with lightning-speed. About eight other men follow suit, but she shoots them one-by-one, and they don't get back up, making me wonder whether she'd stunned them or killed them. Even the two men that hold me captive release me and attack the woman, and I take the opportunity to take down the intruder/leader, having regained my strength, but he's quick and pushes me back against the wall, pressing his elbow firmly on my throat, making me choke slightly.
Luckily, the woman has no problem taking down all of the other men, unlike me, and I can honestly say—though maybe not at this very moment, what with One-Eyed Voldemort's elbow blocking my vocal cords—her combat skills are impressive and clearly much more advanced than mine. A small part of me thinks to ask her to give me some extra combat training after this is over, but I put that thought to the back of my mind.
Once the last of the intruder/leader's cronies falls to the floor (dead or unconscious, I don't know), the woman steps forward and points her gun at him. "That wasn't very clever, ordering your 'dunderheads' to kill me," she says under her breath, glaring daggers at him.
Surprisingly, the intruder/leader isn't upset that she had defeated his other men in the fight. Instead, he smiles, seemingly innocently, and says, "Mrs. Song, how good to see you again. Here for a little family reunion, are you?"
For a second, I wonder what he means by 'family reunion,' but I put that thought to the back of my mind as well. Instead, I focus on the current situation, knowing that I could have my neck snapped at any moment.
"No," the woman says seriously. "I'm here to finish what we started. Clearly my aim was a little off last time, but now, I can promise you that I will not miss this time." She's obviously referring to their last meeting eleven years ago, when she saved me and my other classmates from the leader when he invaded our school. Apparently, she hadn't killed him then, like I thought she did; obviously, since he's standing right in front of me, strangling the life out of me. "And it's Professor Song to you." This statement makes me snigger under the leader's tight hold on me, knowing those with a proper title, such as that, have a much higher power over anyone else lacking a legitimate title. She continues, "I've said it before, and I'll say it again, a little differently this time…let the girl go, or I'll burn a hole right through your chest, this time without missing!" My smirk widens a little, knowing the leader isn't going to survive much longer, despite him still holding me tight by the throat. One shot from the woman, and he's toast.
But apparently, the leader thinks he still has the upper hand, even after his other henchmen have been defeated. "I've said this before, and I'll say it again…" he says, "what could be worse than a burnt hole in the chest, mummy dearest? Our numbers have risen by millions since our last meeting. One less Vokanari makes no difference." Those words instantly make me think back on that day in Second Grade, when he said those exact same words to her. He then smirks, glancing at me, making my stomach churn. "In fact, now that our numbers have risen so much, perhaps we no longer need your precious daughter to be the face of our cause." He then takes his arm off of my throat and, instead, wraps his fingers tightly around it, this time blocking any air from getting into my system. I involuntarily begin having a choking fit under his grip, trying and failing to rip his hand off of me, and I feel my hearts go into a panicked overdrive due to my lack of breath.
"I'm warning you!" the woman shouts, cocking her gun as if to change the setting from 'stun' to 'kill.' So the other guys aren't dead, I think with a small pang of relief. "Step away from her now!"
As much as I don't want to see anyone actually get killed, a part of me can't help but beg the woman to go ahead and kill the bastard, since he's clearly trying to strangle me to death. At this point, my vision begins to darken due to the lack of oxygen, and I feel like I'm going to pass out at any moment.
'Please…' I beg the woman in my head, my voice sounding incredibly weak. 'Do it. Take the shot. Now!'
I suddenly see the woman's posture perk up as if she heard me, but how she heard me, I have no idea.
"Sure, my madam might be disappointed that it wasn't your daughter that finally did away with your hubby," the leader says as if he hadn't heard the woman's warning, "but even if someone else were to succeed in killing him, I'm sure she wouldn't care either way, as long as he's dead and stays that way."
Suddenly, there is a loud noise and a flash of light, and then I feel the leader's grip around my throat loosening, making me breathe a little easier. I manage a small gasp of air as I look down and see a perfect burnt hole in the leader's chest, which looked like it had gone straight through his heart.
I glance back up at the woman, her gun smoking at the tip, as she says, staring unblinkingly at him, "You're wrong. I won't let anyone harm my husband or daughter for as long as I live…especially you." After she finishes speaking, the leader finally releases me and collapses to the floor, leaving me coughing out of shock and breathlessness.
"Are you alright?" the woman asks me after she blows on her gun to make it stop smoking and replaces it back in her holster at her hip.
I nod, rubbing my sore neck. "Yeah. Thanks." Still feeling a little weak, I lean against the wall, struggling to catch my breath and get my racing hearts back under control. While I am recuperating, I watch the woman as she seemingly inspects the bodies of anything worth of value. From one of the cronies' bodies, she steals what looks like a leather strap with several buttons and a large screen on the center and seems to do something with the device before placing the leather strap back on the body's wrist. She repeats this process on all of the other men except the leader. She even steals the eye-patches from the men who were wearing them and places them in her jeans pocket.
Thinking of this as strange behavior, I ask, "Um, what're you doing?"
"I take it you don't want these men coming after you again," the woman says casually but also knowingly, "so I'm going to send them over to the proper authorities; though not the authorities that you're used to." She doesn't say anything about what she plans to do with the eye-patches.
At first, I'm not sure what she means, but then I remember the fact that this woman may not be human, like me; therefore, the 'proper authorities' that she is sending the men to may also not be human.
"What do you mean?" I ask with a raised eyebrow. "Are you talking about space-police?"
"Precisely," the woman nods. "Now, may I borrow your sonic?"
"Sonic?" I ask, puzzled at the unusual word.
"Your screwdriver," the woman says as if it is obvious, "in your pocket." That's when it clicks in my head. She's talking about the sketchy device that my father sent me as a 'coming of age' gift. In confusion, I suddenly find myself handing it over seemingly willingly. "Thank you, sweetie," the woman smiles at me as she stands up from the floor and steps off to the side.
She called me 'sweetie' again, I can't help thinking in my head. Why does she keep doing that, especially when we're practically complete strangers of each other? It must be a British thing. Either that, or 'sweetie' is just an informal greeting that she likes to use. In any case, it's a bit weird.
Ignoring the weird feeling, I ask a little worriedly, "What're you gonna do with it?"
"This!" the woman exclaims. She then presses the button on the screwdriver, and the men suddenly disappear in a massive flash of light, all except for the leader.
"What did you just do?" I exclaim in shock. I can't decide if whatever I saw was amazing or frightening, but a part of me hopes for the former.
"I told you, I sent them to the proper authorities," the woman says as she tosses the screwdriver back to me, which I slightly fumble with upon catching it, not expecting her to give it back in this way. "The 'space-police,' as you called them; though their technical name is the Shadow Proclamation."
I nod, pretending like I know everything that she's talking about, even when in truth I know absolutely nothing. "What about this guy?" I ask, gesturing down at the leader still lying, face-down and unmoving, on the floor.
The woman suddenly shakes her head. "Oh, I'm not sending him with them."
"Why not?" I ask in puzzlement and disbelief.
"Because he's dead," she says obviously.
"So, what, we're just gonna leave him there?" I ask, feeling slightly disturbed at the idea, no matter how horrible this guy was before she killed him.
"Is that a problem?" she asks with a shrug, like it's perfectly normal to leave a dead body lying in the middle of an alleyway for someone else to discover later. Maybe it's normal for people like her, but it's not normal for people like me.
"Well, yeah," I say, at a loss as to why this crazy woman can't see the complete and utter lack of logic of this situation. "I mean, to leave a dead body—"
"Oh, tish-tosh!" the woman says, waving her hand dismissively. "There's no need for that. What matters is that you're safe…at least for now."
"I wish the same could be said for Hazel," I say sadly, suddenly thinking about her. "Those sickos took her somewhere, but he didn't say where. Some of those other guys could've been helpful, if you hadn't sent them away. You could've forced them to tell us where they took Hazel." A part of me blames this woman for Hazel's kidnapping, but somehow I know that's actually not the case. Somehow, I know that this woman tried to save her, but she was unsuccessful.
"I'm sorry, sweetie," the woman says apologetically, laying a gentle hand on my shoulder. "We'll get her back, I promise."
I suddenly frown at her calling me by that nickname again. Seriously, what is up with her? "Why do you keep calling me 'sweetie?'" I ask in almost a demand, pushing her hand away. "Who are you?" Clearly she's using that nickname—a nickname that my mother-guardian always used with me—like she knows me, but I don't know anything about her, except that she's been stalking me my whole life.
She then straightens up. "I think you know exactly who I am, Nova Susan Song," she says, using my full name, which sends creepy vibes up my spine. "You've seen me watching over you and protecting you while you were growing up. It's what any mother would do for her child."
"Your child?" I ask, puzzled. A part of me believes everything that she is saying, but I can't seem to shake the feeling that I actually do know exactly who she is. She clearly knows my true name, and the way she said it was like she was the one who came up with the name all those years ago; not to mention our surnames are exactly the same, and we look similar in appearance. And the fact that she called me her 'child,' that can only mean one thing…
"Wait…" I exclaim in shock, the realization finally dawning on me. "You're my—?"
"Yes, sweetie," the woman nods with a smile. "I am your mother…the original, you might say."
A/N: TO BE CONTINUED!
Yeah! River to the rescue!
It is official! Nova has finally met her mom! Get ready for her to meet her dad next chapter, and also get ready for some big revelations.
And yes, the woman with the long scarf and bow tie that the girls briefly met at the Tower of London was Osgood. Throughout the rest of the series, Nova will meet tons of other iconic DW characters. Spoilers for that.
Also, "I don't think 'murderous psychopath' would look good on a résumé" is my all-time favorite line that I have written ever. That was like Nova's way of saying "f*** you" to the Silence. When I thought of the line, I couldn't not include it.
Also, for any confusion on why and how Nova was choked during the alley attack: As you well know, Time Lords have what is called a Respiratory Bypass System, meaning that when activated, they can survive in places where there is no air, or the air is too toxic to breathe in, etc. In Nova's case, she was never taught how to activate her RBS, nor has she even heard of such a thing; hence why she didn't think to use it when she was choked. From what I read on the TARDIS wiki site, the RBS is not something that can be activated automatically; the Time Lord has to activate it himself/herself. Nova will eventually be taught how to activate and use her RBS, but it won't be for a while.