Sci-Fi Big Bang - Children Through Time - Elizabeth's Book
Title: Children Through Time - The Book of Elizabeth
Chapter: 3
Rating: R
Warning: Violence against a pregnant woman in this chapter.
Characters: Team Torchwood, Elizabeth Murphy, David Ortiz, OC's
Spoilers: Children of Earth
Disclaimers: I do not own Torchwood or the characters therein, they belong to the BBC and RTD. Any original characters and places are my property.
Author's Notes: The series of events in Children Through Time take place after Children in Time. It is not necessary to read Children in Time but it can be found here.
Special Thanks: To my awesome beta faithharkness, and to my artist laura_guerin, and great cheerleading from knitchick1979, chicago_girl_07 and all the others. It was rough going this time, but we did it.
Chapter 3
Elizabeth silently cried, tears streaming down her face as she laid curled up in the foetal position, her hand smacking the cold floor in defeat. The pain had subsided a bit, but instead, the feeling of life inside her stomach was replaced by a numbing cold. All Elizabeth wanted to do was give up, but the thought of saving James kept her from just dying right there.
She didn’t know how she had made it to the corner by the creature, a trail of blood behind her, leading across the floor straight to her. The creature had both of its hands on her. The one hand was under her shirt, the suction cups on its fingers against her swollen belly, and the other on her temple. She should really find out its name - that would only be fair.
“A lot of species, my touch, it hurts badly or does not make them move anymore, but not you.”
“Lucky I’m human I guess,” Elizabeth mumbled, rubbing her nose with her hand. “Why me?”
“I am surprised you are only one,” the creature said. “Galatans always have many, at least a couple. Did the others die?”
“I don’t know who the others are,” Elizabeth muttered. A thought came to her and she meandered her hand down to her pocket and pushed it in, only to find the pocket empty, not even James’ red cap to comfort her.
“You do,” the creature stated.
Elizabeth wanted to turn around and smack the creature for all it said without being able to help. “No, I don’t. All I know is that I am dying, my child is dead and according to you they want to kill my other child.” The tears started anew, the last bits of the sentence not nearly understandable.
“When they took me from my planet, there were 20 of us, including my two… siblings they call them. We have families of many where I am from.” Elizabeth sucked in the cool air as the creature continued to talk. At least the voice was soothing. “They put all of us in here. I was the most different. They saved me. The Cleaners killed the others. That red liquid,” as the creature said that, Elizabeth’s eyes looked upwards where the liquid was almost falling from the tubes. Any minute now. “That liquid is very bad. That liquid kills.”
Elizabeth’s mind immediately thought of the concentration camps and a sob choked out of her. She tried to think of anything else except what was about to happen. There was no way to escape, the walls were perfectly smooth. Not even a vent, just small tubes. She went back to the creature’s conversation.
“You were different because you can communicate with other species by stealing their language?” She took a couple of deep breaths to make her voice seem strong enough.
“No,” the creature said. “All my people can do that. It was because my touch made others hurt. They used me to hurt others to find out about the Galatans.”
She couldn’t believe what gall these Cleaners had. Elizabeth felt so sorry for the creature. She turned onto her back to look the creature in its face. One hand went up and stroked its chin. It pulled away from her touch.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said. “Did I offend you?”
“No,” the creature said, still not looking at her. “For my people that is a sign of love.”
“Oh,” Elizabeth said. She tried to change the subject. “Do you have a name?”
“You would say, K-u-j-p.”
“Coop? Does that work?”
“It will do. Yes, yes, yes,” the creature said as it finally looked back at her.
“My name is… You can call me Beth,” Elizabeth said as she put her hand over the creature’s hand on her belly.
Before either one could say anything else, Elizabeth’s face wrinkled as a new wave of pain surged through her body. The creature looked up and pulled itself away from Elizabeth, making all the aches and nausea it had been keeping at bay slam back into her. She cried out, clutching at her stomach. She looked to Coop to ask why when he suddenly was lifted above her.
Rolling onto her side, Elizabeth looked for where Coop had gone, and her breath stopped in her throat. Coop dangled in the air above her, hanging from the hands of this hideous monster. It was dark, nearly black in colour. Half of its face seemed to be a puddle of midnight. It looked down on her with its one good eye, and she felt empty inside, as if she were looking into the heart of a black hole. No hair, or fur, or clothing of any kind covered its body, and it was close to humanoid and male. It had a razor-like fin going up its back, and the hand it clutched Coop with had four fingers, a long claw like nail protruding from the end of each finger.
Two fingers wrapped around Coop’s neck. Elizabeth gave a start, scurrying back into the corner as the other two claws plunged into Coop’s back. He screamed a keening cry, blubbering in some alien language. Her one hand covered her mouth to keep Elizabeth from crying out herself, and then it slammed down to the metal ground, trying to dig her nails into the floor as another kick of pain hit her stomach.
“No, no, no,” Coop moaned, his head dropping down to his chest.
The hideous monster looked at Coop and then kinked its head, craning it towards Elizabeth. She choked on her tears. It strode towards her, Coop hanging in its hand like a rag doll, limbs swinging freely. With its free hand, the monster wrapped its claws around Elizabeth’s neck, pulling her up. She tore at its hand with her own. Elizabeth’s nails became bloody in her attempts, but she didn’t care. The back of her head nearly split in two as the monster slammed her body back against the wall.
“Please, oh God, please,” Elizabeth begged as her feet dangled in the air below her. The monster held her tight against the wall, nearly crushing her windpipe. “Please, let me go, please!” She could barely breathe.
The monster, probably one of the Cleaners, stared at her, its eye never blinking, never wavering. It brought Coop’s body up, until Elizabeth and he would have been face-to-face. Slowly Coop’s head rose up, the skin covering his eyes. He began to talk, but his voice sounded far away despite the fact that it was coming from Coop’s mouth.
“Where are the others?”
“What others? What are you talking about?” Elizabeth moaned. This could not be it.
“Galatans’ records show five. You are one. Where are the four?” The monster kept staring through Elizabeth.
Her hands tried holding on to the wrist of the thing that held her. It felt so dry, so hard. “I don’t know who you are talking about!” Remembering what Coop had said earlier, she yelled at the monster. “And I am not wrong!”
There was a long pause, the only sound in the room Elizabeth’s cries of struggle. Finally, the monster/Coop thing spoke again. “We are all wrong. You are wrong. We are wrong. When we are done destroying the Galatans’ mistakes we will take care of us as well.”
“Why don’t you just go take care of yourself right now then!” Elizabeth hung there a moment. She didn’t cry, couldn’t cry anymore.
Resting her chin against the monster’s wrist, Elizabeth took a deep breath, thinking on the family she had lost, her children, David, and her other friends. Slowly, Elizabeth pulled her knees up to her chest as another wave of pain cascaded through her stomach. Taking another deep breath, she pushed out with her feet, kicking the monster in its stomach and male part, connecting with both feet.
Falling to the ground with a loud thud, Elizabeth heard a crack under her as her ankle snapped. She screamed, falling forward on her hands. The monster threw Coop to the side, small rivers of green blood oozing from his back and his mouth. Elizabeth tried to breathe, pushing herself up to her knees. Like hell was she dying like this.
The monster grabbed her by the shoulders and dragged her to her feet, her ankle at an awkward angle. Elizabeth held on to its arms, supporting her weight, working through the pain. It opened its mouth, an inhuman cry echoing from deep within. With her last ounce of strength, Elizabeth brought the knee of the bad ankle up and into the monster’s male organs again, smashing them in. As the monster’s head dropped forward, she slammed her head against its skull.
She didn’t know if she had caused it pain, or if she had just taken the monster by surprise, but it let Elizabeth go. Falling back against the wall, her body slid down it, hitting her arse hard. Elizabeth felt something warm and mushy under her hand and looked down to see Coop’s eyes open and looking up at her, a trickle of green from the corners of his mouth.
“Oh God,” Elizabeth muttered, looking down. She pulled Coop up by the shoulders, his hand reached up and his finger made contact with her face.
The monster let out a cry, making Elizabeth’s head snap upwards, looking in horror as it ran for her. Elizabeth was spent. Despite the fight left in her, her body had been through too much. All of a sudden, a gunshot echoed off the walls, and the monster stopped midstride. It spun around to look at its new attacker, when another gunshot went off, the bullet imbedding itself in the wall above Elizabeth, splattering her and Coop with dark, black blood from the monster.
There was another sound, like the whine of an engine or something and then the middle of the monster was blue, and the light spread throughout its body, engulfing the monster. The monster glowed blue for a second and then the body disappeared, some ash and smoke in its wake. Silhouetted in the doorway was what looked like a female human with long hair.
Elizabeth was choked up and couldn’t say a word. She heard a gasp from Coop and looked down at him. His body looked ashen, and more green blood was oozing from him.
“I am not wrong,” she heard inside her head, for his lips had not moved. In Elizabeth’s mind, she saw a brief flash of a planet full of others just like Coop, with red mountains and purple ice caps, but they were together. A crimson sun shone in the sky, next to two moons. It was not Earth, but it was beautiful.
“I’m sorry,” Elizabeth whispered.
“Your answer, the answer, the answer is Torchwood,” Coop told her mind, even his mental voice fading away. His finger fell from her face and his body lay slack against her. Elizabeth should have cried for him, but couldn’t. It was better this way.
“Can you stand up? Can you move?” The woman asked from somewhere above Elizabeth. This new woman moved Coop from Elizabeth, laying him to the side.
“I don’t kno-“ Elizabeth’s voice broke as her belly rippled in excruciating pain. Her daughter! A cry tumbled forth as Elizabeth doubled over, clutching her stomach.
“Shit,” the woman in black said.
Elizabeth looked up at the woman all in black, even black boots, and long dark hair tied back. Where had this saviour come from? Would it be too late? She pleaded with the woman with her eyes. The woman crouched down and grabbed Elizabeth under the arms, heaving her upwards. Elizabeth was face-to-face with the woman, grasping at her arms, holding on for dear life.
Caron’s lower lip trembled as she stared at the woman who was glaring at Akira. She wanted her Da and her Mum and Rhys. She wanted to know why things outside went boom. The woman turned to Caron, her eyes dark. Caron shrunk back in her car seat, eyes wide. She didn’t like this woman. She didn’t trust this woman.
“I need you to trust me and I will get you out of here,” the woman said to Elizabeth. The woman ducked under Elizabeth, supporting most of her weight. “Fight the urge to cry or scream. We don’t know if any of the others are still alive. You need to keep quiet and do whatever I tell you. Is that understood?”
Elizabeth meekly nodded her head yes. It was the woman or the monsters. The two of them inched towards the main door. The woman then propped Elizabeth against the wall by the door as she pulled out a weapon and checked the hallway. The woman nearly dragged Elizabeth into the hall. It was then that Elizabeth saw the red liquid from the pipes drop down in a soft cascade. A couple of drops hit Coop’s body and it started to smoke, a sour smell filling the air.
Burying her head against the woman’s shoulder, Elizabeth felt the urge to cry out. It was then that her water broke all over their feet, blood mixing with it. The woman looked down at the floor and then up at Elizabeth in shock. Elizabeth fought the urge to black out.
Chapter: 3
Rating: R
Warning: Violence against a pregnant woman in this chapter.
Characters: Team Torchwood, Elizabeth Murphy, David Ortiz, OC's
Spoilers: Children of Earth
Disclaimers: I do not own Torchwood or the characters therein, they belong to the BBC and RTD. Any original characters and places are my property.
Author's Notes: The series of events in Children Through Time take place after Children in Time. It is not necessary to read Children in Time but it can be found here.
Special Thanks: To my awesome beta faithharkness, and to my artist laura_guerin, and great cheerleading from knitchick1979, chicago_girl_07 and all the others. It was rough going this time, but we did it.
Chapter 3
Elizabeth silently cried, tears streaming down her face as she laid curled up in the foetal position, her hand smacking the cold floor in defeat. The pain had subsided a bit, but instead, the feeling of life inside her stomach was replaced by a numbing cold. All Elizabeth wanted to do was give up, but the thought of saving James kept her from just dying right there.
She didn’t know how she had made it to the corner by the creature, a trail of blood behind her, leading across the floor straight to her. The creature had both of its hands on her. The one hand was under her shirt, the suction cups on its fingers against her swollen belly, and the other on her temple. She should really find out its name - that would only be fair.
“A lot of species, my touch, it hurts badly or does not make them move anymore, but not you.”
“Lucky I’m human I guess,” Elizabeth mumbled, rubbing her nose with her hand. “Why me?”
“I am surprised you are only one,” the creature said. “Galatans always have many, at least a couple. Did the others die?”
“I don’t know who the others are,” Elizabeth muttered. A thought came to her and she meandered her hand down to her pocket and pushed it in, only to find the pocket empty, not even James’ red cap to comfort her.
“You do,” the creature stated.
Elizabeth wanted to turn around and smack the creature for all it said without being able to help. “No, I don’t. All I know is that I am dying, my child is dead and according to you they want to kill my other child.” The tears started anew, the last bits of the sentence not nearly understandable.
“When they took me from my planet, there were 20 of us, including my two… siblings they call them. We have families of many where I am from.” Elizabeth sucked in the cool air as the creature continued to talk. At least the voice was soothing. “They put all of us in here. I was the most different. They saved me. The Cleaners killed the others. That red liquid,” as the creature said that, Elizabeth’s eyes looked upwards where the liquid was almost falling from the tubes. Any minute now. “That liquid is very bad. That liquid kills.”
Elizabeth’s mind immediately thought of the concentration camps and a sob choked out of her. She tried to think of anything else except what was about to happen. There was no way to escape, the walls were perfectly smooth. Not even a vent, just small tubes. She went back to the creature’s conversation.
“You were different because you can communicate with other species by stealing their language?” She took a couple of deep breaths to make her voice seem strong enough.
“No,” the creature said. “All my people can do that. It was because my touch made others hurt. They used me to hurt others to find out about the Galatans.”
She couldn’t believe what gall these Cleaners had. Elizabeth felt so sorry for the creature. She turned onto her back to look the creature in its face. One hand went up and stroked its chin. It pulled away from her touch.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said. “Did I offend you?”
“No,” the creature said, still not looking at her. “For my people that is a sign of love.”
“Oh,” Elizabeth said. She tried to change the subject. “Do you have a name?”
“You would say, K-u-j-p.”
“Coop? Does that work?”
“It will do. Yes, yes, yes,” the creature said as it finally looked back at her.
“My name is… You can call me Beth,” Elizabeth said as she put her hand over the creature’s hand on her belly.
Before either one could say anything else, Elizabeth’s face wrinkled as a new wave of pain surged through her body. The creature looked up and pulled itself away from Elizabeth, making all the aches and nausea it had been keeping at bay slam back into her. She cried out, clutching at her stomach. She looked to Coop to ask why when he suddenly was lifted above her.
Rolling onto her side, Elizabeth looked for where Coop had gone, and her breath stopped in her throat. Coop dangled in the air above her, hanging from the hands of this hideous monster. It was dark, nearly black in colour. Half of its face seemed to be a puddle of midnight. It looked down on her with its one good eye, and she felt empty inside, as if she were looking into the heart of a black hole. No hair, or fur, or clothing of any kind covered its body, and it was close to humanoid and male. It had a razor-like fin going up its back, and the hand it clutched Coop with had four fingers, a long claw like nail protruding from the end of each finger.
Two fingers wrapped around Coop’s neck. Elizabeth gave a start, scurrying back into the corner as the other two claws plunged into Coop’s back. He screamed a keening cry, blubbering in some alien language. Her one hand covered her mouth to keep Elizabeth from crying out herself, and then it slammed down to the metal ground, trying to dig her nails into the floor as another kick of pain hit her stomach.
“No, no, no,” Coop moaned, his head dropping down to his chest.
The hideous monster looked at Coop and then kinked its head, craning it towards Elizabeth. She choked on her tears. It strode towards her, Coop hanging in its hand like a rag doll, limbs swinging freely. With its free hand, the monster wrapped its claws around Elizabeth’s neck, pulling her up. She tore at its hand with her own. Elizabeth’s nails became bloody in her attempts, but she didn’t care. The back of her head nearly split in two as the monster slammed her body back against the wall.
“Please, oh God, please,” Elizabeth begged as her feet dangled in the air below her. The monster held her tight against the wall, nearly crushing her windpipe. “Please, let me go, please!” She could barely breathe.
The monster, probably one of the Cleaners, stared at her, its eye never blinking, never wavering. It brought Coop’s body up, until Elizabeth and he would have been face-to-face. Slowly Coop’s head rose up, the skin covering his eyes. He began to talk, but his voice sounded far away despite the fact that it was coming from Coop’s mouth.
“Where are the others?”
“What others? What are you talking about?” Elizabeth moaned. This could not be it.
“Galatans’ records show five. You are one. Where are the four?” The monster kept staring through Elizabeth.
Her hands tried holding on to the wrist of the thing that held her. It felt so dry, so hard. “I don’t know who you are talking about!” Remembering what Coop had said earlier, she yelled at the monster. “And I am not wrong!”
There was a long pause, the only sound in the room Elizabeth’s cries of struggle. Finally, the monster/Coop thing spoke again. “We are all wrong. You are wrong. We are wrong. When we are done destroying the Galatans’ mistakes we will take care of us as well.”
“Why don’t you just go take care of yourself right now then!” Elizabeth hung there a moment. She didn’t cry, couldn’t cry anymore.
Resting her chin against the monster’s wrist, Elizabeth took a deep breath, thinking on the family she had lost, her children, David, and her other friends. Slowly, Elizabeth pulled her knees up to her chest as another wave of pain cascaded through her stomach. Taking another deep breath, she pushed out with her feet, kicking the monster in its stomach and male part, connecting with both feet.
Falling to the ground with a loud thud, Elizabeth heard a crack under her as her ankle snapped. She screamed, falling forward on her hands. The monster threw Coop to the side, small rivers of green blood oozing from his back and his mouth. Elizabeth tried to breathe, pushing herself up to her knees. Like hell was she dying like this.
The monster grabbed her by the shoulders and dragged her to her feet, her ankle at an awkward angle. Elizabeth held on to its arms, supporting her weight, working through the pain. It opened its mouth, an inhuman cry echoing from deep within. With her last ounce of strength, Elizabeth brought the knee of the bad ankle up and into the monster’s male organs again, smashing them in. As the monster’s head dropped forward, she slammed her head against its skull.
She didn’t know if she had caused it pain, or if she had just taken the monster by surprise, but it let Elizabeth go. Falling back against the wall, her body slid down it, hitting her arse hard. Elizabeth felt something warm and mushy under her hand and looked down to see Coop’s eyes open and looking up at her, a trickle of green from the corners of his mouth.
“Oh God,” Elizabeth muttered, looking down. She pulled Coop up by the shoulders, his hand reached up and his finger made contact with her face.
The monster let out a cry, making Elizabeth’s head snap upwards, looking in horror as it ran for her. Elizabeth was spent. Despite the fight left in her, her body had been through too much. All of a sudden, a gunshot echoed off the walls, and the monster stopped midstride. It spun around to look at its new attacker, when another gunshot went off, the bullet imbedding itself in the wall above Elizabeth, splattering her and Coop with dark, black blood from the monster.
There was another sound, like the whine of an engine or something and then the middle of the monster was blue, and the light spread throughout its body, engulfing the monster. The monster glowed blue for a second and then the body disappeared, some ash and smoke in its wake. Silhouetted in the doorway was what looked like a female human with long hair.
Elizabeth was choked up and couldn’t say a word. She heard a gasp from Coop and looked down at him. His body looked ashen, and more green blood was oozing from him.
“I am not wrong,” she heard inside her head, for his lips had not moved. In Elizabeth’s mind, she saw a brief flash of a planet full of others just like Coop, with red mountains and purple ice caps, but they were together. A crimson sun shone in the sky, next to two moons. It was not Earth, but it was beautiful.
“I’m sorry,” Elizabeth whispered.
“Your answer, the answer, the answer is Torchwood,” Coop told her mind, even his mental voice fading away. His finger fell from her face and his body lay slack against her. Elizabeth should have cried for him, but couldn’t. It was better this way.
“Can you stand up? Can you move?” The woman asked from somewhere above Elizabeth. This new woman moved Coop from Elizabeth, laying him to the side.
“I don’t kno-“ Elizabeth’s voice broke as her belly rippled in excruciating pain. Her daughter! A cry tumbled forth as Elizabeth doubled over, clutching her stomach.
“Shit,” the woman in black said.
Elizabeth looked up at the woman all in black, even black boots, and long dark hair tied back. Where had this saviour come from? Would it be too late? She pleaded with the woman with her eyes. The woman crouched down and grabbed Elizabeth under the arms, heaving her upwards. Elizabeth was face-to-face with the woman, grasping at her arms, holding on for dear life.
Caron’s lower lip trembled as she stared at the woman who was glaring at Akira. She wanted her Da and her Mum and Rhys. She wanted to know why things outside went boom. The woman turned to Caron, her eyes dark. Caron shrunk back in her car seat, eyes wide. She didn’t like this woman. She didn’t trust this woman.
“I need you to trust me and I will get you out of here,” the woman said to Elizabeth. The woman ducked under Elizabeth, supporting most of her weight. “Fight the urge to cry or scream. We don’t know if any of the others are still alive. You need to keep quiet and do whatever I tell you. Is that understood?”
Elizabeth meekly nodded her head yes. It was the woman or the monsters. The two of them inched towards the main door. The woman then propped Elizabeth against the wall by the door as she pulled out a weapon and checked the hallway. The woman nearly dragged Elizabeth into the hall. It was then that Elizabeth saw the red liquid from the pipes drop down in a soft cascade. A couple of drops hit Coop’s body and it started to smoke, a sour smell filling the air.
Burying her head against the woman’s shoulder, Elizabeth felt the urge to cry out. It was then that her water broke all over their feet, blood mixing with it. The woman looked down at the floor and then up at Elizabeth in shock. Elizabeth fought the urge to black out.