Fic: Sweet as Sugar Chapter 42 (Rose/Ten)
http://tv.adultfanfiction.net/story.php?no=544190551
Sweet as Sugar Chapter Forty Two
Disclaimers Apply
A/N Foxfeather is a Goddess. Thanks everyone for reading and reviewing my admittedly erratic posts of this fic! I really appreciate it like you wouldn’t believe. Spoilers for the entire series this far, rated M for mature themes.
Bara inhaled deeply and imagined the cool waters of home, the darkness that swallowed him when he dove deep, wrapping him in blessings. Water was never silent, he knew, not even at the greatest depth a being like him could reach. It throbbed, it moved, it hissed and gurgled and bubbled and strained. He frowned, the dull ache in his head growing sharper, more pronounced, as the throbbing continued to muffle his hearing. That was, he realized after a long moment, his own heart pounding. He was hearing his pulse, feeling the blood moving in his veins. Where *was* he?
“Do not move,” a soft female voice ordered him. “We’re almost there.”
“Where?” he breathed, his throat raw and tongue thick. “Where are we going? Am I to finally die?”
The Acolyte pulling the float pallet snorted delicately. “That is not for me to decide, Lord Bara.”
He blinked muzzily, his vision clearing more with each passing moment. They were in the dark passageways beneath the Domes, the places hidden from tourists’ sight, places where only the Lady and her Acolytes might pass. He recognized them due to their unfamiliarity. “You have already made decisions that outstrip your rank as an Acolyte,” he noted, careful not to move and overset the small transport on which he was precariously balanced. “You rendered me unconscious, you have stolen a pallet reserved for municipal use, you are apparently trying to stop the Lady…” He trailed off, aware of the stiff set of the Acolyte’s shoulders, her suddenly increased pace. “Who were you, before? You were someone powerful, weren’t you, to be so confident in your decisions, in your defiance…”
She did not slow down or even glance over her shoulder at him as she spoke, her tone clipped but soft. “I am of no importance, Lord Bara. I serve the Lady. It is my duty and calling to serve her as best as I am able and this…defiance, as you call it… is the best thing for Her. For all of us.” She swallowed back further commentary and slowed as they reached a junction in the tunnels. “Silence now. Let me speak and you do not move, no matter what occurs. Is that understood?”
He raised a brow but did not comment, merely murmured assent. She was, he knew in his heart of hearts, someone used to giving orders, someone used to being obeyed, more so than the obedience she received as a chief Acolyte. Bara closed his eyes again and slowed his breathing until it was almost nonexistent, letting his body slip a still state of awareness. He could smell metal and ozone, bitter oil and dry dust. Storage, he realized; there was no sound other than the hum of the pallet and the soft slap of the Acolyte’s bare feet on the hard, synthetic stone floors. If it had been a workshop or maintenance, there would be mechanical sounds… The Acolyte swore softly under her breath and rattled at something that sounded like wood on metal. Bara chanced it and opened one eye to a bare slit. All he could see was blue. The Acolyte towing him rattled the thing again and this time threw in a fluent swear session in a dialect Bara recognized as native Venusian. She rattled the thing one final time and he felt a blast of cool air as whatever it was opened. The scent of Earth honey and something acrid but not unpleasant assailed his senses as the pallet was towed over a rise. “Little one,” he murmured, barely giving voice to his words. “Where are we?”
“I said do not speak,” she hissed. “We’re in your friend’s conveyance but we are not alone.” She settled the pallet and turned off the controls, letting it hit the floor with a thump. “There is another on this…vessel…”
Bara felt rather than saw her move away from the pallet, giving him the chance to open both eyes and look around. They were in the device the Doctor and Jack had referred to as the TARDIS. It seemed empty enough to his sight but he, too, felt the other with them, something moving and watching as he lay still on the pallet, as the Acolyte made a slow circuit of the space. “Why did you bring me here?”
“For help,” she said, nodding to herself as if affirming that her choice had been a good one. “You need help. I…I need help. The Lady has…become intolerable. We are slaves now, not here from choice. We are fodder for her desires.” She swallowed hard and dropped to her knees, bringing herself to Bara’s eye level. “She kills us all, one by one, looking at us, making notes, using us as if we were broken conveyances and putting our innards into these…machines!”
Bara reached out and laid a massive hand on her slender arm. “Shhhhhh…” The Acolyte was shaking, her body barely held in check against the panic so obviously rising. “We will figure something out. The Doctor…Jack… they will be able to get you away from the Lady.”
“And you?”
He smiled thinly. “I don’t know how to work this device. Let us find this other and see if we can convince it not to kill us…”
Sweet as Sugar Chapter Forty Two
Disclaimers Apply
A/N Foxfeather is a Goddess. Thanks everyone for reading and reviewing my admittedly erratic posts of this fic! I really appreciate it like you wouldn’t believe. Spoilers for the entire series this far, rated M for mature themes.
Bara inhaled deeply and imagined the cool waters of home, the darkness that swallowed him when he dove deep, wrapping him in blessings. Water was never silent, he knew, not even at the greatest depth a being like him could reach. It throbbed, it moved, it hissed and gurgled and bubbled and strained. He frowned, the dull ache in his head growing sharper, more pronounced, as the throbbing continued to muffle his hearing. That was, he realized after a long moment, his own heart pounding. He was hearing his pulse, feeling the blood moving in his veins. Where *was* he?
“Do not move,” a soft female voice ordered him. “We’re almost there.”
“Where?” he breathed, his throat raw and tongue thick. “Where are we going? Am I to finally die?”
The Acolyte pulling the float pallet snorted delicately. “That is not for me to decide, Lord Bara.”
He blinked muzzily, his vision clearing more with each passing moment. They were in the dark passageways beneath the Domes, the places hidden from tourists’ sight, places where only the Lady and her Acolytes might pass. He recognized them due to their unfamiliarity. “You have already made decisions that outstrip your rank as an Acolyte,” he noted, careful not to move and overset the small transport on which he was precariously balanced. “You rendered me unconscious, you have stolen a pallet reserved for municipal use, you are apparently trying to stop the Lady…” He trailed off, aware of the stiff set of the Acolyte’s shoulders, her suddenly increased pace. “Who were you, before? You were someone powerful, weren’t you, to be so confident in your decisions, in your defiance…”
She did not slow down or even glance over her shoulder at him as she spoke, her tone clipped but soft. “I am of no importance, Lord Bara. I serve the Lady. It is my duty and calling to serve her as best as I am able and this…defiance, as you call it… is the best thing for Her. For all of us.” She swallowed back further commentary and slowed as they reached a junction in the tunnels. “Silence now. Let me speak and you do not move, no matter what occurs. Is that understood?”
He raised a brow but did not comment, merely murmured assent. She was, he knew in his heart of hearts, someone used to giving orders, someone used to being obeyed, more so than the obedience she received as a chief Acolyte. Bara closed his eyes again and slowed his breathing until it was almost nonexistent, letting his body slip a still state of awareness. He could smell metal and ozone, bitter oil and dry dust. Storage, he realized; there was no sound other than the hum of the pallet and the soft slap of the Acolyte’s bare feet on the hard, synthetic stone floors. If it had been a workshop or maintenance, there would be mechanical sounds… The Acolyte swore softly under her breath and rattled at something that sounded like wood on metal. Bara chanced it and opened one eye to a bare slit. All he could see was blue. The Acolyte towing him rattled the thing again and this time threw in a fluent swear session in a dialect Bara recognized as native Venusian. She rattled the thing one final time and he felt a blast of cool air as whatever it was opened. The scent of Earth honey and something acrid but not unpleasant assailed his senses as the pallet was towed over a rise. “Little one,” he murmured, barely giving voice to his words. “Where are we?”
“I said do not speak,” she hissed. “We’re in your friend’s conveyance but we are not alone.” She settled the pallet and turned off the controls, letting it hit the floor with a thump. “There is another on this…vessel…”
Bara felt rather than saw her move away from the pallet, giving him the chance to open both eyes and look around. They were in the device the Doctor and Jack had referred to as the TARDIS. It seemed empty enough to his sight but he, too, felt the other with them, something moving and watching as he lay still on the pallet, as the Acolyte made a slow circuit of the space. “Why did you bring me here?”
“For help,” she said, nodding to herself as if affirming that her choice had been a good one. “You need help. I…I need help. The Lady has…become intolerable. We are slaves now, not here from choice. We are fodder for her desires.” She swallowed hard and dropped to her knees, bringing herself to Bara’s eye level. “She kills us all, one by one, looking at us, making notes, using us as if we were broken conveyances and putting our innards into these…machines!”
Bara reached out and laid a massive hand on her slender arm. “Shhhhhh…” The Acolyte was shaking, her body barely held in check against the panic so obviously rising. “We will figure something out. The Doctor…Jack… they will be able to get you away from the Lady.”
“And you?”
He smiled thinly. “I don’t know how to work this device. Let us find this other and see if we can convince it not to kill us…”