"The Fate of the Rani" (Dr Who & Torchwood)
Title: Fate Of The Rani.
Word count:
#1: 373 words.
#2: 645 words.
#3: 430 words.
Summary:
#1: In 1894, Jack Harkness meets the prisoner of Torchwood.
#2: In Pete’s world, the Rani may at last have a way to escape. Can Mickey resist the temptation that is Rose?
#3: In the wake of the disasterous finale of series 2 Torchwood, Jack stops by to see the Rani. How far will he go to save his friends?
Fandom: Doctor Who, Torchwood.
Characters: Rani, Jack Harkness, Mickey, Guppy
Author: Keenir.
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Army of Ghosts, Doomsday. Torchwood s2 finale.
Author’s Note: The Doctor calls himself that, the Master uses the same name…so maybe it's part of training or something.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.
#1:
Jack’s brought to a deep cavern within the deepest, darkest part of Torchwood. Locked up behind locks and safeties and scores more locks, deadbolts, and shafts. Brought here by - she’d said her name was Guppy. She’s not the big boss, not the blonde; she’s the brunette. The one he usually gets sent out on missions with. Yeah, the cuter one.
“I thought you trusted me,” Jack said. “Trusted me at least enough to keep from locking me away down here.”
“This isn’t for you,” Guppy says, fingers playing with one more set of keys, another gear mechanism.
“Then who?”
“That’s what we’re hoping you can find out for us.” A shy smile. “Find out, Jack, and you can retire from Torchwood, drawing an annual stipend, a generous gift from Her Majesty.”
“Anything from you?”
“Maybe,” and only then opens the door.
Behind a clear barrier, there’s a cloven rectangular room, with only one chair on this half of it. And a raven-brown-haired woman sitting in that chair, watching, simply watching Jack and Guppy.
Standing alongside Guppy in the small corridor facing the prisoner’s cell, “Who is she?” Jack asked.
She smiles, then barks at the prisoner, “You there, answer him!”
Bored but infinitely patient, the prisoner answers, “John Smith.”
“She calls herself that every time we ask,” Guppy said. “So far as we can tell, this alien’s entirely woman, so we call her Jane.”
“After…?” Jack asks.
“The late Lady Jane Grey.”
“Jane Smith,” Jack said.
“Is there a point to this chatter,” asked the prisoner, asked the Rani, “or is this simply further gawking at your superior.”
“Be thankful we can’t kill you,” Guppy told her.
“You can’t?” Jack asked.
“There’s a personal shield on her person, no higher from her skin than our hairs can rise from our own skin. And it absorbs energy- and matter-based assaults with equal proficiency, with no indication where the material goes.”
“Sounds pretty handy. I can think of a few times I could’ve used something like that.”
“I can imagine.”
Maybe you can, Jack mused.
“Before I was recruited,” Guppy continued, “her cell was inundated with opium smoke.”
“A few laps at a leisurely pace,” Rani remarked idly, “and the air had been cleared.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#2:
Mickey took his by-now-usual seat facing the prisoner’s cell. “Hey.”
“’Hey,’” said the prisoner whose file said ‘Jane Smith’ because she refused to tell what her real - alien - name was.
He’d been coming down here ever since the Occurance (with all the Cybermen trying to take over) and the subsequent harnessing of Torchwood to the aims of Mickey, Mr. Tyler, and their fellow Republicans. After all, that was when they’d first found out that Torchwood had been keeping a person down here. If ‘person’ was the right word for someone who had been in captivity for over a century. “How’ve you been?”
“Within an unchanging environment, I too am unchanging,” and she sat in her chair on her side of the barrier. Waiting.
Most visits, Mickey would shoot the breeze with her - even if the conversation was rather one-sided. He’d talk about little things, insignifigant things that could never threaten England, the UK, or the planet. Mostly he’d talk about how he missed his chance, how he’d messed things up with Rose.
“Saw a Void Ship yesterday,” Mickey said after a long silence. What else was there to say? That Rose was moping and mourning somebody who wasn’t dead? No way I’m saying that.
“Such things are uncommon,” the Rani said with maddening casualness.
“Odd.”
“What?”
“The Doctor said they were just a theory.”
“You claim to have spoken with him?”
“Talked, argued, shot at Cybermen alongside. Yeah.”
“Impossible.”
“Nope.”
“Impossible!” she insisted.
“Yeah? Why’s that?”
“We were at Acadia. There was…”
“This was during this Time War of yours?” Rose had mentioned it, and from what he’d overheard the Daleks saying… “What was Arcadia?”
“Acadia,” correcting him absently - lacking a secondary breathing system, humans were notoriously bad at pronouncing certain things in the proper way. “It was a designation, a place for rivals to convocate in safety.”
“Neutral ground,” Mickey said, “a place for treaties and stuff.”
“Yes. Coopted by a party during the War… their attempt to find a common ground for us both,” and shuddered at what that proposition had been. Even the Doctor had been horrified at it. If Acadia falls, there is only one solution remaining, she had told him.
The Doctor had nodded, hating that there was only one escape option. Then let’s keep this place standing.
Neither of them had foreseen the betrayal that unfolded. Her mediations thwarted, Susan had handed the enemy a full prison ship. Acadia fell shortly thereafter.
“I have been here,” Rani said, “since the fall of Acadia.”
“All alone,” Mickey said. “Except for the Doctor.”
“You insist that he is alive.” Isolation had produced one positive effect for the Rani: the sense that in most Time Lords could detect where and when other Time Lords are in relation to oneself, in her had hypertrophied, growing stronger and more powerful.
She had found two others; one in the present time and not far away from here, the other at the end of the universe.
Sally Sparrow. And one Professor Yana.
Time Lords, population three.
Four, if Mickey meant it when he said the Doctor was still about. But then why can I not sense him? I have detected even those encapsulated in a chameleon arch… was he present when I was not feeling time and space?
A plan crystallized in her mind. Yes. Yes, that would work. “Let me out,” the Rani said.
“I can’t do that.”
She smiled. “You can.” She didn’t bother with the offer of designing a fleet, a veritable armada for mankind to spread out from Earth with. No, she went for the emotional jugular: “Let me out, and I shall build you a TARDIS. Picture it, Mickey Smith, you can be the Doctor to - for your Rose.”
“I…I gotta go,” and he bolted from the corridor, slamming the door shut behind him.
He will be back, the Rani knew.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#3:
Jack stopped by for a visit. Both because he hadn’t been down here in a long while, and he’d rather visit her than tend to paperwork about now, and because he was hoping she could be of service.
For once.
“More dead,” she remarked once he’d sat down.
“What was your first clue?” Jack asked.
“You have a limited repatoire of facial expressions. And you never come here without a reason.”
“True.”
“You miss them.”
Blunt and to the point. “Yeah,” Jack said. “They were good people. They didn’t deserve to die.”
“An argument even a Dalek would make in favour of his compatriots.”
“They weren’t Daleks.”
“Then you missed my point.” Again, unsurprised.
“Oh I get your point. Believe me, I do. You want me to acknowledge that nobody thinks their friends should die. Well guess what, I agree with you. And you know what else? We don’t get to chose.”
“Except now.”
“How so?” Jack asked.
The Rani stood and walked along the inner wall of her cell, coming to a stop at the archway leading to her cot. “You know, Jack, you know perfectly well.”
He dragged it out of himself, knowing it would be neither easy, simple, or cheap. “Will you help me?”
“Help you with what?”
This is precisely why I hate the prospect of boredom - one gets far too good at toying with people. “You know with what.”
The Rani said nothing, did nothing.
“Will you help me bring back my friends?”
Now she turned around and smiled at him. Just like the Doctor, Rani had human-style smiles that reassured, and others which were, quite frankly, scary. This was the latter. “I’d love to, Jack Harkness. Only,” taking long strides towards him, “There remains a small matter,” and tapped her left knuckles against the clear barrier, twice, “in our way.” That smile again. “Do you expect me to treat them here - surely not.”
Nobody had ever let her out. Not in all the history of Torchwood. Jack knew this, knew it perfectly well. “I can’t let you go. You know it as well as I do.”
“Yes,” and was about to return to her chair when -
“Is there anything else? Something you’d like in exchange? Something doable.”
She pretended to think that over. “Yes,” at last. “When I am saving your friends, I will be out-doors. No skulking about through corridors and secret passages. Do you agree to abide by my terms, as I have the one?”
“Yeah,” Jack said. “Just one thing before I let you out. What’s your name, Jane Smith?”
“Rani.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The End
Word count:
#1: 373 words.
#2: 645 words.
#3: 430 words.
Summary:
#1: In 1894, Jack Harkness meets the prisoner of Torchwood.
#2: In Pete’s world, the Rani may at last have a way to escape. Can Mickey resist the temptation that is Rose?
#3: In the wake of the disasterous finale of series 2 Torchwood, Jack stops by to see the Rani. How far will he go to save his friends?
Fandom: Doctor Who, Torchwood.
Characters: Rani, Jack Harkness, Mickey, Guppy
Author: Keenir.
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Army of Ghosts, Doomsday. Torchwood s2 finale.
Author’s Note: The Doctor calls himself that, the Master uses the same name…so maybe it's part of training or something.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.
#1:
Jack’s brought to a deep cavern within the deepest, darkest part of Torchwood. Locked up behind locks and safeties and scores more locks, deadbolts, and shafts. Brought here by - she’d said her name was Guppy. She’s not the big boss, not the blonde; she’s the brunette. The one he usually gets sent out on missions with. Yeah, the cuter one.
“I thought you trusted me,” Jack said. “Trusted me at least enough to keep from locking me away down here.”
“This isn’t for you,” Guppy says, fingers playing with one more set of keys, another gear mechanism.
“Then who?”
“That’s what we’re hoping you can find out for us.” A shy smile. “Find out, Jack, and you can retire from Torchwood, drawing an annual stipend, a generous gift from Her Majesty.”
“Anything from you?”
“Maybe,” and only then opens the door.
Behind a clear barrier, there’s a cloven rectangular room, with only one chair on this half of it. And a raven-brown-haired woman sitting in that chair, watching, simply watching Jack and Guppy.
Standing alongside Guppy in the small corridor facing the prisoner’s cell, “Who is she?” Jack asked.
She smiles, then barks at the prisoner, “You there, answer him!”
Bored but infinitely patient, the prisoner answers, “John Smith.”
“She calls herself that every time we ask,” Guppy said. “So far as we can tell, this alien’s entirely woman, so we call her Jane.”
“After…?” Jack asks.
“The late Lady Jane Grey.”
“Jane Smith,” Jack said.
“Is there a point to this chatter,” asked the prisoner, asked the Rani, “or is this simply further gawking at your superior.”
“Be thankful we can’t kill you,” Guppy told her.
“You can’t?” Jack asked.
“There’s a personal shield on her person, no higher from her skin than our hairs can rise from our own skin. And it absorbs energy- and matter-based assaults with equal proficiency, with no indication where the material goes.”
“Sounds pretty handy. I can think of a few times I could’ve used something like that.”
“I can imagine.”
Maybe you can, Jack mused.
“Before I was recruited,” Guppy continued, “her cell was inundated with opium smoke.”
“A few laps at a leisurely pace,” Rani remarked idly, “and the air had been cleared.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#2:
Mickey took his by-now-usual seat facing the prisoner’s cell. “Hey.”
“’Hey,’” said the prisoner whose file said ‘Jane Smith’ because she refused to tell what her real - alien - name was.
He’d been coming down here ever since the Occurance (with all the Cybermen trying to take over) and the subsequent harnessing of Torchwood to the aims of Mickey, Mr. Tyler, and their fellow Republicans. After all, that was when they’d first found out that Torchwood had been keeping a person down here. If ‘person’ was the right word for someone who had been in captivity for over a century. “How’ve you been?”
“Within an unchanging environment, I too am unchanging,” and she sat in her chair on her side of the barrier. Waiting.
Most visits, Mickey would shoot the breeze with her - even if the conversation was rather one-sided. He’d talk about little things, insignifigant things that could never threaten England, the UK, or the planet. Mostly he’d talk about how he missed his chance, how he’d messed things up with Rose.
“Saw a Void Ship yesterday,” Mickey said after a long silence. What else was there to say? That Rose was moping and mourning somebody who wasn’t dead? No way I’m saying that.
“Such things are uncommon,” the Rani said with maddening casualness.
“Odd.”
“What?”
“The Doctor said they were just a theory.”
“You claim to have spoken with him?”
“Talked, argued, shot at Cybermen alongside. Yeah.”
“Impossible.”
“Nope.”
“Impossible!” she insisted.
“Yeah? Why’s that?”
“We were at Acadia. There was…”
“This was during this Time War of yours?” Rose had mentioned it, and from what he’d overheard the Daleks saying… “What was Arcadia?”
“Acadia,” correcting him absently - lacking a secondary breathing system, humans were notoriously bad at pronouncing certain things in the proper way. “It was a designation, a place for rivals to convocate in safety.”
“Neutral ground,” Mickey said, “a place for treaties and stuff.”
“Yes. Coopted by a party during the War… their attempt to find a common ground for us both,” and shuddered at what that proposition had been. Even the Doctor had been horrified at it. If Acadia falls, there is only one solution remaining, she had told him.
The Doctor had nodded, hating that there was only one escape option. Then let’s keep this place standing.
Neither of them had foreseen the betrayal that unfolded. Her mediations thwarted, Susan had handed the enemy a full prison ship. Acadia fell shortly thereafter.
“I have been here,” Rani said, “since the fall of Acadia.”
“All alone,” Mickey said. “Except for the Doctor.”
“You insist that he is alive.” Isolation had produced one positive effect for the Rani: the sense that in most Time Lords could detect where and when other Time Lords are in relation to oneself, in her had hypertrophied, growing stronger and more powerful.
She had found two others; one in the present time and not far away from here, the other at the end of the universe.
Sally Sparrow. And one Professor Yana.
Time Lords, population three.
Four, if Mickey meant it when he said the Doctor was still about. But then why can I not sense him? I have detected even those encapsulated in a chameleon arch… was he present when I was not feeling time and space?
A plan crystallized in her mind. Yes. Yes, that would work. “Let me out,” the Rani said.
“I can’t do that.”
She smiled. “You can.” She didn’t bother with the offer of designing a fleet, a veritable armada for mankind to spread out from Earth with. No, she went for the emotional jugular: “Let me out, and I shall build you a TARDIS. Picture it, Mickey Smith, you can be the Doctor to - for your Rose.”
“I…I gotta go,” and he bolted from the corridor, slamming the door shut behind him.
He will be back, the Rani knew.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#3:
Jack stopped by for a visit. Both because he hadn’t been down here in a long while, and he’d rather visit her than tend to paperwork about now, and because he was hoping she could be of service.
For once.
“More dead,” she remarked once he’d sat down.
“What was your first clue?” Jack asked.
“You have a limited repatoire of facial expressions. And you never come here without a reason.”
“True.”
“You miss them.”
Blunt and to the point. “Yeah,” Jack said. “They were good people. They didn’t deserve to die.”
“An argument even a Dalek would make in favour of his compatriots.”
“They weren’t Daleks.”
“Then you missed my point.” Again, unsurprised.
“Oh I get your point. Believe me, I do. You want me to acknowledge that nobody thinks their friends should die. Well guess what, I agree with you. And you know what else? We don’t get to chose.”
“Except now.”
“How so?” Jack asked.
The Rani stood and walked along the inner wall of her cell, coming to a stop at the archway leading to her cot. “You know, Jack, you know perfectly well.”
He dragged it out of himself, knowing it would be neither easy, simple, or cheap. “Will you help me?”
“Help you with what?”
This is precisely why I hate the prospect of boredom - one gets far too good at toying with people. “You know with what.”
The Rani said nothing, did nothing.
“Will you help me bring back my friends?”
Now she turned around and smiled at him. Just like the Doctor, Rani had human-style smiles that reassured, and others which were, quite frankly, scary. This was the latter. “I’d love to, Jack Harkness. Only,” taking long strides towards him, “There remains a small matter,” and tapped her left knuckles against the clear barrier, twice, “in our way.” That smile again. “Do you expect me to treat them here - surely not.”
Nobody had ever let her out. Not in all the history of Torchwood. Jack knew this, knew it perfectly well. “I can’t let you go. You know it as well as I do.”
“Yes,” and was about to return to her chair when -
“Is there anything else? Something you’d like in exchange? Something doable.”
She pretended to think that over. “Yes,” at last. “When I am saving your friends, I will be out-doors. No skulking about through corridors and secret passages. Do you agree to abide by my terms, as I have the one?”
“Yeah,” Jack said. “Just one thing before I let you out. What’s your name, Jane Smith?”
“Rani.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The End