Held in Trust: Chapter 21
Title: Held in Trust (21/?)
Characters/Pairings: Duplicate Tenth Doctor/Rose, alt!Donna, various Tylers and Motts, and several OCs
Rating: Teen
Series: Part of the Morris Minor 'Verse
Beta: ladychi , fastest beta in the west!
Summary: An Alt!Ten, Rose and Alt!Donna Adventure! Join our heroes as they investigate a mysterious man from the future, an apocalyptic death cult, and the wonders of the internal combustion engine. Romance, action, adventure, sci fi, occasional smut, Donna being awesome, as usual all par for the course.
A/N: Sequel to The One True Free Life. It's not entirely necessary to have read that, but if you're finding yourself at any point going, "Huh?" it's just probably something that was explained in that story.
Previous Chapters: Prologue | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 | Chapter 14 | Chapter 15 | Chapter 16 | Chapter 17 | Chapter 18 | Chapter 19 | Chapter 20
The scream came again, and the sounds of some sort of fight.
Making their careful way to the top of a small hill, the Doctor and Crede found themselves looking down over a shallow depression, which contained the squat pre-fab buildings of work unit number thirty-two. A ring of floodlights circled the exterior-still turned on, though dawn was breaking on both horizons and the sky was already a pale, creamy orange.
The source of the cry they'd just heard was immediately apparent, as four or five tall figures were embroiled in a scuffle of some sort near the open front gates to the compound. The Doctor found himself feeling quite exposed on the hill, and lowered himself to the ground, pulling on Crede's trouser-leg to signal that he should do so as well.
It took the Doctor a short moment to register that Crede's trouser-leg, and indeed the rest of him as well, hadn't also taken cover, but was instead a rapidly-moving figure, hunched over in an attempt to avoid notice, and making a bee-line for the shadows cast by the buildings around the compound perimeter.
"Wait," the Doctor hissed. "Where are you--"
But the boy was too far away for whispers to do any good now, and until it became completely clear that Crede was running towards the altercation rather than away, the Doctor had a fleeting notion that perhaps the boy had just now realised what life with him was like and had opted to flee instead. Chiding himself for thinking such terrible thoughts, the Doctor raised himself up in to a crouch as well and followed Crede's path towards the front entrance. As he got closer, he saw that the apparent fight was in fact a rather leisurely beating being administered to a slight, feathered humanoid girl by four guards in blue boilersuits. Her cries had become soft whimpers, but the guards continued to deliver blows in such a way as to make it clear that they were in no hurry to stop. They seemed, in fact, to be taking their time, as if they were merely doing some routine paperwork.
The Doctor was naturally horrified, and his mind began to spin in contemplation of how to effect a rescue when he remembered Crede again with a jolt, just in time to spy a tall sandy-haired figure slipping into the guard house that sat next to the wide open front gates.
Pressing himself down to the ground again, behind a shimmering silver tussock, the sound of each kick and open-handed smack just served to highlight his impotence and made his heart contract with a useless anger. He was close enough now to hear the guards talking amongst themselves, and taunting the girl.
"Maybe this is what you felt coming, eh, sixer?" one laughed.
"No, it's out there," the girl choked out, weakly but defiantly in a voice that might under better circumstances be described as bell-like. "You don't understand. You never understand."
This earned her another kick and she tried to curl in to a tight ball to protect her head.
The next sounds that the Doctor heard were the small communicators that each guard wore crackling to life.
"Code delta-nine at the...the supply house," came a strangely familiar voice.
The guards stopped their taunting as a unit and looked at one another before one of them brought the radio to his lips and replied, "Acknowledged. On our way." Three of the guards nodded to a fourth and then took off at a jog across the compound, rounding the corner of a building and leaving their single comrade alone with the girl.
The guard looked down at the plumed figure curled in to a foetal position in the dust and shook his head. "Third time this week," he sighed, like a disappointed parent.
The girl remained silent and the Doctor saw the next few minutes unfold in his mind fully formed before they actually happened.
He would pick up a rock...
His hand brushed against a perfect cricket-ball sized stone and grasped it tightly.
He would come in to a low crouch...
He arranged his slight frame behind a bit of shrubbery to his left, cursing the royal blue of his suit and how ill-suited to camouflage it was.
He would throw that stone as hard as he could, aiming for the roof of a small shed around the corner from the guard and the injured girl...
The rock went flying through the air, in a high arc that easily cleared the top of the fence and struck the metal roof of the shed with a clatter. The guard startled at the sound and muttered what were perhaps a few untranslatable curse words before turning his back on the girl to investigate the noise.
The Doctor ran forward as quietly as he could-though his footfalls on the gravel around the immediate vicinity of the front gates were distressingly loud-and scooped the girl up in his arms, not stopping to so much as introduce himself before turning and running out again across the moors, catching sight of Crede exiting the guard house and following out of the corner of his eye.
He didn't keep track of how far they ran, but it felt as if the future and the present were rushing up to meet one another. The girl was alarmingly light, even for her small stature, and her wide slate-grey eyes never left the Doctor's face as he carried her. How she had withstood such a pummelling while weighing no more than a small human child was a miracle in and of itself, though one that the Doctor didn't care to dwell on with too much scrutiny.
Crede had easily overtaken him in their dash across the low hills and hollows outside the work unit and the Doctor saw him slow to a stop several yards ahead of him. Sweat glistened on his brow and his narrow shoulders heaved as he panted and caught his breath. The Doctor came to a stop next to him and carefully placed the girl on the ground before collapsing himself to lay in the grass and spend a few moments staring up at the cloudless orange sky and thinking no thoughts beyond those required to deal with his aching lungs and legs.
The first words spoken were in that quiet clear voice the Doctor had heard filled with such defiance before, though now softened at the edges.
"Thank you," she said simply.
Her entire body seemed to be covered in fine, downy feathers, which appeared to change colour from white to silver to grey depending on the light and shadow around her. She wore the sleeveless, dun-coloured coveralls that identified her as a non-human slave, though they were covered with dirt and even a few discernible boot-prints left by her assailants.
"Don't mention it," the Doctor panted, sitting up again and rubbing his knees with his palms in an attempt to erase the sharp pain created by an apparently middle-aged human running several hundred-yard-dashes in a row.
"I knew something would come," she continued. "I just never thought it would be a Proprietor and his indenture."
"Excuse me," Crede piped up with irritation, sitting on the ground along side them. "I'm not his indenture, and he's not a Proprietor."
The girl's plumed head swivelled around to look intently at Crede, and then back to the Doctor. She had seemed up to that point quite calm for someone who had first been beaten and then rescued by a pair of fugitives, but this new information made her eyes narrow in thought.
"Too true," the Doctor chirped, recovering a bit of cheek along with catching his breath. "I'm afraid you've fallen in with quite a bad element."
"Can't be any worse of an element than I already am," she replied, not missing a beat.
"Oh?" The Doctor raised his eyebrows, but couldn't help smiling.
"It's practically in the manual for new labourers: Stay away from Elpis. Makes it very hard to make any friends," she said, deadpan, and then grinned, displaying tiny pearl-like white teeth.
"Elpis," the Doctor repeated, sticking out a hand. "Good to meet you."
"I'm not sure this is really a meeting. More like a collision!"
When she shook his hand, the Doctor noted that the skin under her arms was free of feathers, and heavily scarred.
"This is Crede," the Doctor said hopefully, waiting for the boy to pick up the hint and introduce himself further. "Crede would love to shake your hand...wouldn't you Crede?" The Doctor practically placed her hand in Crede's and stood back with an encouraging smile pasted to his face.
"Crede," Elpis mumbled, the sprightly lilt of her voice flattened.
"Yeah," Crede replied, almost a grunt, and they detached their hands as if they were burning one another.
The Doctor stood, tugging on his earlobe and looking back and forth between them. "Well," he stammered, "right. Anyway. Maybe you could tell us what it was that we just heroically plucked from the clutches of?"
"I was just trying to warn them," Elpis sighed. "There's something terrible coming and I can feel it, and...I think me knowing things they don't makes them angry. But I can't help it. The timelines..." She looked the Doctor dead in the eye with a steady, fearless gaze.
"They're in flux," the Doctor finished her sentence for her. "How do you know that?"
"I'm Campheline," she said, as if that explained it all. "But the thing of it is," she continued, business-like, "it's not just that they're in flux, it's that the cause of it is here-and I mean right here, under my nose. It's been driving me absolutely mad."
"You two should get along great, then," Crede muttered and then looked off towards the horizon again.
"Your friend, he's a bit of a misery, isn't he?" Elpis sneered.
"He saved your life," the Doctor retorted and then turned his eyes to Crede. "You saved her life," he said again.
Crede just shrugged, and the Doctor turned back to Elpis. "When you say right here, how right here is right here?"
The corner of Elpis's moth quirked up and she gave a little chuckle. "Close. That's the best I can do."
"I wish I could see in to your mind. Your locational abilities and my..." he trailed off in to a sigh. "No matter. Elpis, you've collided with the right people. We're here to find this...disturbance, correct it, and then free every last slave in the Empire."
Elpis shot a look at Crede, who returned a sympathetic raise of an eyebrow and indulgent nod towards the Doctor.
"Oi!" the Doctor protested. "I'll have you know that I've done a lot more impressive things than that in my time."
The two youngsters continued to exchange knowing glances while the Doctor spluttered something about the Titanic (whatever that was), the end of the Universe, curing every disease known to man, and a bunch of other bollocks that simply served to induce shared eye-rolls and snickers.
Inwardly, the Doctor smiled.
(To Chapter 22)
Characters/Pairings: Duplicate Tenth Doctor/Rose, alt!Donna, various Tylers and Motts, and several OCs
Rating: Teen
Series: Part of the Morris Minor 'Verse
Beta: ladychi , fastest beta in the west!
Summary: An Alt!Ten, Rose and Alt!Donna Adventure! Join our heroes as they investigate a mysterious man from the future, an apocalyptic death cult, and the wonders of the internal combustion engine. Romance, action, adventure, sci fi, occasional smut, Donna being awesome, as usual all par for the course.
A/N: Sequel to The One True Free Life. It's not entirely necessary to have read that, but if you're finding yourself at any point going, "Huh?" it's just probably something that was explained in that story.
Previous Chapters: Prologue | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 | Chapter 14 | Chapter 15 | Chapter 16 | Chapter 17 | Chapter 18 | Chapter 19 | Chapter 20
The scream came again, and the sounds of some sort of fight.
Making their careful way to the top of a small hill, the Doctor and Crede found themselves looking down over a shallow depression, which contained the squat pre-fab buildings of work unit number thirty-two. A ring of floodlights circled the exterior-still turned on, though dawn was breaking on both horizons and the sky was already a pale, creamy orange.
The source of the cry they'd just heard was immediately apparent, as four or five tall figures were embroiled in a scuffle of some sort near the open front gates to the compound. The Doctor found himself feeling quite exposed on the hill, and lowered himself to the ground, pulling on Crede's trouser-leg to signal that he should do so as well.
It took the Doctor a short moment to register that Crede's trouser-leg, and indeed the rest of him as well, hadn't also taken cover, but was instead a rapidly-moving figure, hunched over in an attempt to avoid notice, and making a bee-line for the shadows cast by the buildings around the compound perimeter.
"Wait," the Doctor hissed. "Where are you--"
But the boy was too far away for whispers to do any good now, and until it became completely clear that Crede was running towards the altercation rather than away, the Doctor had a fleeting notion that perhaps the boy had just now realised what life with him was like and had opted to flee instead. Chiding himself for thinking such terrible thoughts, the Doctor raised himself up in to a crouch as well and followed Crede's path towards the front entrance. As he got closer, he saw that the apparent fight was in fact a rather leisurely beating being administered to a slight, feathered humanoid girl by four guards in blue boilersuits. Her cries had become soft whimpers, but the guards continued to deliver blows in such a way as to make it clear that they were in no hurry to stop. They seemed, in fact, to be taking their time, as if they were merely doing some routine paperwork.
The Doctor was naturally horrified, and his mind began to spin in contemplation of how to effect a rescue when he remembered Crede again with a jolt, just in time to spy a tall sandy-haired figure slipping into the guard house that sat next to the wide open front gates.
Pressing himself down to the ground again, behind a shimmering silver tussock, the sound of each kick and open-handed smack just served to highlight his impotence and made his heart contract with a useless anger. He was close enough now to hear the guards talking amongst themselves, and taunting the girl.
"Maybe this is what you felt coming, eh, sixer?" one laughed.
"No, it's out there," the girl choked out, weakly but defiantly in a voice that might under better circumstances be described as bell-like. "You don't understand. You never understand."
This earned her another kick and she tried to curl in to a tight ball to protect her head.
The next sounds that the Doctor heard were the small communicators that each guard wore crackling to life.
"Code delta-nine at the...the supply house," came a strangely familiar voice.
The guards stopped their taunting as a unit and looked at one another before one of them brought the radio to his lips and replied, "Acknowledged. On our way." Three of the guards nodded to a fourth and then took off at a jog across the compound, rounding the corner of a building and leaving their single comrade alone with the girl.
The guard looked down at the plumed figure curled in to a foetal position in the dust and shook his head. "Third time this week," he sighed, like a disappointed parent.
The girl remained silent and the Doctor saw the next few minutes unfold in his mind fully formed before they actually happened.
He would pick up a rock...
His hand brushed against a perfect cricket-ball sized stone and grasped it tightly.
He would come in to a low crouch...
He arranged his slight frame behind a bit of shrubbery to his left, cursing the royal blue of his suit and how ill-suited to camouflage it was.
He would throw that stone as hard as he could, aiming for the roof of a small shed around the corner from the guard and the injured girl...
The rock went flying through the air, in a high arc that easily cleared the top of the fence and struck the metal roof of the shed with a clatter. The guard startled at the sound and muttered what were perhaps a few untranslatable curse words before turning his back on the girl to investigate the noise.
The Doctor ran forward as quietly as he could-though his footfalls on the gravel around the immediate vicinity of the front gates were distressingly loud-and scooped the girl up in his arms, not stopping to so much as introduce himself before turning and running out again across the moors, catching sight of Crede exiting the guard house and following out of the corner of his eye.
He didn't keep track of how far they ran, but it felt as if the future and the present were rushing up to meet one another. The girl was alarmingly light, even for her small stature, and her wide slate-grey eyes never left the Doctor's face as he carried her. How she had withstood such a pummelling while weighing no more than a small human child was a miracle in and of itself, though one that the Doctor didn't care to dwell on with too much scrutiny.
Crede had easily overtaken him in their dash across the low hills and hollows outside the work unit and the Doctor saw him slow to a stop several yards ahead of him. Sweat glistened on his brow and his narrow shoulders heaved as he panted and caught his breath. The Doctor came to a stop next to him and carefully placed the girl on the ground before collapsing himself to lay in the grass and spend a few moments staring up at the cloudless orange sky and thinking no thoughts beyond those required to deal with his aching lungs and legs.
The first words spoken were in that quiet clear voice the Doctor had heard filled with such defiance before, though now softened at the edges.
"Thank you," she said simply.
Her entire body seemed to be covered in fine, downy feathers, which appeared to change colour from white to silver to grey depending on the light and shadow around her. She wore the sleeveless, dun-coloured coveralls that identified her as a non-human slave, though they were covered with dirt and even a few discernible boot-prints left by her assailants.
"Don't mention it," the Doctor panted, sitting up again and rubbing his knees with his palms in an attempt to erase the sharp pain created by an apparently middle-aged human running several hundred-yard-dashes in a row.
"I knew something would come," she continued. "I just never thought it would be a Proprietor and his indenture."
"Excuse me," Crede piped up with irritation, sitting on the ground along side them. "I'm not his indenture, and he's not a Proprietor."
The girl's plumed head swivelled around to look intently at Crede, and then back to the Doctor. She had seemed up to that point quite calm for someone who had first been beaten and then rescued by a pair of fugitives, but this new information made her eyes narrow in thought.
"Too true," the Doctor chirped, recovering a bit of cheek along with catching his breath. "I'm afraid you've fallen in with quite a bad element."
"Can't be any worse of an element than I already am," she replied, not missing a beat.
"Oh?" The Doctor raised his eyebrows, but couldn't help smiling.
"It's practically in the manual for new labourers: Stay away from Elpis. Makes it very hard to make any friends," she said, deadpan, and then grinned, displaying tiny pearl-like white teeth.
"Elpis," the Doctor repeated, sticking out a hand. "Good to meet you."
"I'm not sure this is really a meeting. More like a collision!"
When she shook his hand, the Doctor noted that the skin under her arms was free of feathers, and heavily scarred.
"This is Crede," the Doctor said hopefully, waiting for the boy to pick up the hint and introduce himself further. "Crede would love to shake your hand...wouldn't you Crede?" The Doctor practically placed her hand in Crede's and stood back with an encouraging smile pasted to his face.
"Crede," Elpis mumbled, the sprightly lilt of her voice flattened.
"Yeah," Crede replied, almost a grunt, and they detached their hands as if they were burning one another.
The Doctor stood, tugging on his earlobe and looking back and forth between them. "Well," he stammered, "right. Anyway. Maybe you could tell us what it was that we just heroically plucked from the clutches of?"
"I was just trying to warn them," Elpis sighed. "There's something terrible coming and I can feel it, and...I think me knowing things they don't makes them angry. But I can't help it. The timelines..." She looked the Doctor dead in the eye with a steady, fearless gaze.
"They're in flux," the Doctor finished her sentence for her. "How do you know that?"
"I'm Campheline," she said, as if that explained it all. "But the thing of it is," she continued, business-like, "it's not just that they're in flux, it's that the cause of it is here-and I mean right here, under my nose. It's been driving me absolutely mad."
"You two should get along great, then," Crede muttered and then looked off towards the horizon again.
"Your friend, he's a bit of a misery, isn't he?" Elpis sneered.
"He saved your life," the Doctor retorted and then turned his eyes to Crede. "You saved her life," he said again.
Crede just shrugged, and the Doctor turned back to Elpis. "When you say right here, how right here is right here?"
The corner of Elpis's moth quirked up and she gave a little chuckle. "Close. That's the best I can do."
"I wish I could see in to your mind. Your locational abilities and my..." he trailed off in to a sigh. "No matter. Elpis, you've collided with the right people. We're here to find this...disturbance, correct it, and then free every last slave in the Empire."
Elpis shot a look at Crede, who returned a sympathetic raise of an eyebrow and indulgent nod towards the Doctor.
"Oi!" the Doctor protested. "I'll have you know that I've done a lot more impressive things than that in my time."
The two youngsters continued to exchange knowing glances while the Doctor spluttered something about the Titanic (whatever that was), the end of the Universe, curing every disease known to man, and a bunch of other bollocks that simply served to induce shared eye-rolls and snickers.
Inwardly, the Doctor smiled.
(To Chapter 22)