(no subject)
Written for savagestime, who wanted a story about Martha telling her story. Did I mention that I can't do happy?
"Stay away from my brother!" Martha can hear the girl's high-pitched, clear voice from where she's crouching behind a slab of concrete. She knows, even if the girl doesn't, that it's too late for her brothern - the crumpled body at the foot of the girl's heap of rubble looks even smaller in death than it did in life, a thin form swallowed up by the rags that swathe his body. The Toclafane circle around her, giggling.
"Why don't you want to play, little girl?" one of them asks. "We want to play - the Mister Master likes it when we play."
Martha hates it when they toy with their victims, and it's this, perhaps, that spurs her into motion. She leaps over the concrete and runs the few metres to the girl as the Toclafane descend. She throws herself at her, shielding the girl with her body as the blades bite into her back, somehow managing to loop the twine around the child's neck as well. She can only pray that this'll work and that the Toclafane won't sever her spine. She's not here to be a martyr, she reminds herself, biting through her lip to keep from crying out.
The Toclafane back off, confused; she can practically hear the circuits whirring as they try to compute what's just happened. "No fun," one of them whines. "Mister Master'll make them pay for taking away our fun." And as suddenly as they'd come, the Toclafane are gone. Martha stays where she is for several minutes, the tears cutting paths through the grime on her face, before she levers herself off of the girl.
"What's your name?" she asks her, rummaging through the bag she carries for something that'll serve as a bandage. She wrinkles her nose at the state of the ragged blanket she carries - Martha Jones the medical student makes a comment about bacteria entering the wounds and infection setting in, and how will she help the Doctor if she ends up with gangrene? - but Martha the traveller simply shrugs and rips long strips off of the blanket.
"Ashley," she says quietly, her blue eyes wide as she stares at Martha. There's no way she can be more than eight, Martha thinks. Maybe ten; food's been scarce in Australia since the Master took over, after all, and she looks especially thin. But, then again, everybody does - even Martha. "You gonna be all right?"
Martha gives her a tight smile. "I've had worse." Which isn't exactly true, but it keeps her from yelping as she ties the makeshift bandages around her body. "You got any family round here, Ashley?"
She nods, her eyes welling up with tears. "Still got my mum, yeah. Dad left when the things came and never returned. And Tim - " she glances over at the small body then, and she dissolves into sobs.
Martha gathers her into her arms, ignoring the bloodstains her hands leave on her ragged clothing. "Shhh," she murmurs, holding her close. "C'mon, we need to get out of the open, yeah? Before they come back for us." She thinks about lifting Ashley and carrying her - she can't weigh much, not if Martha can feel her bird-like bones poking through her skin - but knows that even small girls with enough courage to stand up to Toclafane have their pride. "Will you take me to your mum, Ashley?"
Ashley sniffles and nods, swiping the back of her arm over her eyes. It's been a hard year for all of them, and Martha's heart aches for this girl who's had to grow up entirely too fast - who's learnt to treat death as something commonplace, as they all have. She takes Martha's hand and stands slowly, her eyes riveted on her brother's corpse for a long moment, then she leads Martha into the twisting alleyways of Sydney.
***
Australia's inhabitants haven't been forced into labour camps like the more densely-inhabited countries, and Martha isn't surprised that Ashley and her mum - who introduces herself as Beth - live in their own flat, even if the flat is run-down (and what isn't?). Martha strips off her top and washes her wounds with boiling water as another batch of water heats in the kettle - because even at the end of the world, certain rules of hospitality have to be obeyed, the carefully-hoarded tea leaves doled out for every visitor, not that anybody visits anybody else anymore.
Her eyes are drawn to a dark shape huddled in the corner; if she concentrates, she thinks she can hear muttering, and she's pretty sure that it's a human being over there. "Who's that?" she asks Ashley in a low voice.
"Auntie Tegan," she replies matter-of-factly. "A man came and took her away one day, and then she just reappeared and - "
"Ashley!" her mum cuts her off sharply. "That's enough." She glances at Martha, her gaze hooded. "I don't know what my sister did to earn the Master's ire, but she paid for it, sure enough." The look in her eyes softens. "At least we got her back, in the end. Even if, well, she's not really her anymore." Her hands tremble as she pours the tea - four cups, Martha notices. She wishes there were something she could do to help, but she's a medical doctor, not a psychologist. More importantly, she knows that when the Master breaks something, it stays broken.
Martha takes her tea, cradling the cup in her hands, and moves to the sofa. "You want to hear a story, Ashley?"
The girl eyes her warily. "What's it about?"
"My best mate. You've had mates, yeah?"
"Used to. They aren't around here anymore." Martha isn't sure if that's a euphemism for death, or if they escaped to the Outback, like so many did when the Master took over. She hasn't been to meet the refugees there yet, but the underground resistance is full of stories about them - not all of them good. "What happened to yours?"
Martha's taken aback by this question - it's not one she's been asked often. "He's...with my family. The Master's got them. But this story isn't about that. It's about happier times."
Ashley - and her mother - don't look convinced, but Martha continues anyway.
"His name's the Doctor."
There's a yelp from the corner, and Martha glances over to make sure Tegan's all right. The woman is looking straight at her, fear in her dark brown eyes. Martha wonders if she was on the Valiant when the Master had her, if she saw the Doctor, but she forces herself to go on. "I've only known him for a little while, but he's my best mate. No, he's more than that - he's everything to me. I've seen him do things you could only dream of, Ashley - saving worlds, changing history like other people change clothing, freeing entire races from slavery." It sounds like Tegan's creeping closer to hear her story, but Martha doesn't turn her head to look at her again. "But some of the time, he's just a regular bloke. He practically trips over his own two feet sometimes, can be thicker than should be possible for someone so brilliant, and he has this weird obsession with bananas. Anyway, thing is, he's going to save all of us - he's saved all of us already, so many times, and you don't even know it. Me, you, your mum, your Auntie Tegan, the whole universe. He's bigger than all of us, and you just need to believe in him."
Beth snorts. "You sound like her." She jerks her head in Tegan's direction. "Going on about some wonderful bloke who does impossible things. Well, where was he when the Master came for her? Where was he then?"
Martha bites her lower lip for a moment, ignoring her, and looks at Ashley. "There was this one time, we were on the seventh moon of Sarandis, yeah? They'd turned it into this pleasure garden, plants from all over the galaxy everywhere. There were these tame birds that would eat from your hand, and if you petted them, they'd sing duets with themselves. Ahd every night, you could see the planetrise through the domes, and everything would glow the most vibrant shade of green you've seen in your entire life, and all the birds would start singing.
"Except," she continues, "the birds were actually a sentient race descended from two pairs of birds who'd been given to the ruler of Sarandis centuries ago, yeah? They were being held there, waiting for a god to set them free, but nobody knew what was going on, because they couldn't understand their song. They just thought the birds were perfectly happy, like a load of tame budgies. Till the Doctor came along. He knew what they were saying, and he deactivated their control chips and gathered the whole huge flock in his TARDIS - and you should've seen the mess later! He took them back to their home planet and set them free, and, oh, their rainbow wings glittered in the sunlight as they flew away, singing their happiness and praising their god. And that's what he's going to do for all of us. So when the time comes, you just think of that. Think of me and the birds, and most of all, think of the Doctor."
"Doctor," Tegan echoes in her broken, strangled voice, and this time Martha does look over at her, and sees the tears running down her face, even as the light of hope glitters in her eyes, and she knows, and she swears silently that when the time comes, she'll make sure everything happens just right - for Tegan's sake, and for all the other friends the Doctor has out there, the ones the Master's found and the ones he hasn't.
"Stay away from my brother!" Martha can hear the girl's high-pitched, clear voice from where she's crouching behind a slab of concrete. She knows, even if the girl doesn't, that it's too late for her brothern - the crumpled body at the foot of the girl's heap of rubble looks even smaller in death than it did in life, a thin form swallowed up by the rags that swathe his body. The Toclafane circle around her, giggling.
"Why don't you want to play, little girl?" one of them asks. "We want to play - the Mister Master likes it when we play."
Martha hates it when they toy with their victims, and it's this, perhaps, that spurs her into motion. She leaps over the concrete and runs the few metres to the girl as the Toclafane descend. She throws herself at her, shielding the girl with her body as the blades bite into her back, somehow managing to loop the twine around the child's neck as well. She can only pray that this'll work and that the Toclafane won't sever her spine. She's not here to be a martyr, she reminds herself, biting through her lip to keep from crying out.
The Toclafane back off, confused; she can practically hear the circuits whirring as they try to compute what's just happened. "No fun," one of them whines. "Mister Master'll make them pay for taking away our fun." And as suddenly as they'd come, the Toclafane are gone. Martha stays where she is for several minutes, the tears cutting paths through the grime on her face, before she levers herself off of the girl.
"What's your name?" she asks her, rummaging through the bag she carries for something that'll serve as a bandage. She wrinkles her nose at the state of the ragged blanket she carries - Martha Jones the medical student makes a comment about bacteria entering the wounds and infection setting in, and how will she help the Doctor if she ends up with gangrene? - but Martha the traveller simply shrugs and rips long strips off of the blanket.
"Ashley," she says quietly, her blue eyes wide as she stares at Martha. There's no way she can be more than eight, Martha thinks. Maybe ten; food's been scarce in Australia since the Master took over, after all, and she looks especially thin. But, then again, everybody does - even Martha. "You gonna be all right?"
Martha gives her a tight smile. "I've had worse." Which isn't exactly true, but it keeps her from yelping as she ties the makeshift bandages around her body. "You got any family round here, Ashley?"
She nods, her eyes welling up with tears. "Still got my mum, yeah. Dad left when the things came and never returned. And Tim - " she glances over at the small body then, and she dissolves into sobs.
Martha gathers her into her arms, ignoring the bloodstains her hands leave on her ragged clothing. "Shhh," she murmurs, holding her close. "C'mon, we need to get out of the open, yeah? Before they come back for us." She thinks about lifting Ashley and carrying her - she can't weigh much, not if Martha can feel her bird-like bones poking through her skin - but knows that even small girls with enough courage to stand up to Toclafane have their pride. "Will you take me to your mum, Ashley?"
Ashley sniffles and nods, swiping the back of her arm over her eyes. It's been a hard year for all of them, and Martha's heart aches for this girl who's had to grow up entirely too fast - who's learnt to treat death as something commonplace, as they all have. She takes Martha's hand and stands slowly, her eyes riveted on her brother's corpse for a long moment, then she leads Martha into the twisting alleyways of Sydney.
***
Australia's inhabitants haven't been forced into labour camps like the more densely-inhabited countries, and Martha isn't surprised that Ashley and her mum - who introduces herself as Beth - live in their own flat, even if the flat is run-down (and what isn't?). Martha strips off her top and washes her wounds with boiling water as another batch of water heats in the kettle - because even at the end of the world, certain rules of hospitality have to be obeyed, the carefully-hoarded tea leaves doled out for every visitor, not that anybody visits anybody else anymore.
Her eyes are drawn to a dark shape huddled in the corner; if she concentrates, she thinks she can hear muttering, and she's pretty sure that it's a human being over there. "Who's that?" she asks Ashley in a low voice.
"Auntie Tegan," she replies matter-of-factly. "A man came and took her away one day, and then she just reappeared and - "
"Ashley!" her mum cuts her off sharply. "That's enough." She glances at Martha, her gaze hooded. "I don't know what my sister did to earn the Master's ire, but she paid for it, sure enough." The look in her eyes softens. "At least we got her back, in the end. Even if, well, she's not really her anymore." Her hands tremble as she pours the tea - four cups, Martha notices. She wishes there were something she could do to help, but she's a medical doctor, not a psychologist. More importantly, she knows that when the Master breaks something, it stays broken.
Martha takes her tea, cradling the cup in her hands, and moves to the sofa. "You want to hear a story, Ashley?"
The girl eyes her warily. "What's it about?"
"My best mate. You've had mates, yeah?"
"Used to. They aren't around here anymore." Martha isn't sure if that's a euphemism for death, or if they escaped to the Outback, like so many did when the Master took over. She hasn't been to meet the refugees there yet, but the underground resistance is full of stories about them - not all of them good. "What happened to yours?"
Martha's taken aback by this question - it's not one she's been asked often. "He's...with my family. The Master's got them. But this story isn't about that. It's about happier times."
Ashley - and her mother - don't look convinced, but Martha continues anyway.
"His name's the Doctor."
There's a yelp from the corner, and Martha glances over to make sure Tegan's all right. The woman is looking straight at her, fear in her dark brown eyes. Martha wonders if she was on the Valiant when the Master had her, if she saw the Doctor, but she forces herself to go on. "I've only known him for a little while, but he's my best mate. No, he's more than that - he's everything to me. I've seen him do things you could only dream of, Ashley - saving worlds, changing history like other people change clothing, freeing entire races from slavery." It sounds like Tegan's creeping closer to hear her story, but Martha doesn't turn her head to look at her again. "But some of the time, he's just a regular bloke. He practically trips over his own two feet sometimes, can be thicker than should be possible for someone so brilliant, and he has this weird obsession with bananas. Anyway, thing is, he's going to save all of us - he's saved all of us already, so many times, and you don't even know it. Me, you, your mum, your Auntie Tegan, the whole universe. He's bigger than all of us, and you just need to believe in him."
Beth snorts. "You sound like her." She jerks her head in Tegan's direction. "Going on about some wonderful bloke who does impossible things. Well, where was he when the Master came for her? Where was he then?"
Martha bites her lower lip for a moment, ignoring her, and looks at Ashley. "There was this one time, we were on the seventh moon of Sarandis, yeah? They'd turned it into this pleasure garden, plants from all over the galaxy everywhere. There were these tame birds that would eat from your hand, and if you petted them, they'd sing duets with themselves. Ahd every night, you could see the planetrise through the domes, and everything would glow the most vibrant shade of green you've seen in your entire life, and all the birds would start singing.
"Except," she continues, "the birds were actually a sentient race descended from two pairs of birds who'd been given to the ruler of Sarandis centuries ago, yeah? They were being held there, waiting for a god to set them free, but nobody knew what was going on, because they couldn't understand their song. They just thought the birds were perfectly happy, like a load of tame budgies. Till the Doctor came along. He knew what they were saying, and he deactivated their control chips and gathered the whole huge flock in his TARDIS - and you should've seen the mess later! He took them back to their home planet and set them free, and, oh, their rainbow wings glittered in the sunlight as they flew away, singing their happiness and praising their god. And that's what he's going to do for all of us. So when the time comes, you just think of that. Think of me and the birds, and most of all, think of the Doctor."
"Doctor," Tegan echoes in her broken, strangled voice, and this time Martha does look over at her, and sees the tears running down her face, even as the light of hope glitters in her eyes, and she knows, and she swears silently that when the time comes, she'll make sure everything happens just right - for Tegan's sake, and for all the other friends the Doctor has out there, the ones the Master's found and the ones he hasn't.