Fic: Rewriting the Past
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clocketpatchIt's funny how things can expand; balloons, fics, friendships. Balloons have a point where they stop expanding and explode. Fics and friendships can go on forever (though, I'd rather wish the fics wouldn't). abbyromana and I started co-writing this story something like two years ago. She's been incredibly patient with me since I'm probably the absolute worst co-author you could think of; I /never/ get things done for deadline.
Anyways, in an attempt to job ourselves into finishing and properly editing this story I'm going to be posting it up here. Enjoy.
Title: Rewriting the Past
Characters: Eight, the Rani
This Chapter Word Count: 3596
Chapter 1: Captive Audience
"You may ask why of all the places in this vast and fleeting universe I chose here to hide and to continue my research," the Rani muttered, turning her head partially to her right. "And I'd tell you, I didn't!"
For a brief few moments her heavy breathing was the only sound filling the space around her. She stood in one of the three observation rooms left in the ruined military base she had taken over for her operations. The structure still stood only because it was built into a mountain and been sealed long before the beginning of the nuclear fallout. A wall-sized, space-glass window stretched before her.
"Of all the worlds and times I could have hid… from him… and from them, this was not my first choice. I wouldn't have come to this primitive, decaying world of my own volition," the Rani spat, venom sizzling in her teal coloured eyes. She crossed her arms over her chest. "Earth… a worthless planet, if any was so labelled."
Her eyes narrowed and locked on the desolate sight on the other side of the fogged glass. What remained of the planet was a searing wasteland. Between the cracks in the crimson crust, the Rani could see small heat vents spewing noxious gases and high-pressure steam. Across the top of the splintering terrain a callus, dry wind brushed aside the loosened earth. It was a naked land burned to death from within and without.
"It is fitting that this should end here and now, while his precious Earth wastes away around him," the Rani declared, a devilish smirk curving her lips. She turned a glance over her shoulder. "Of course, he won't die right away… not until he's no longer useful to me. So don't fret yet, TARDIS."
The Rani's piercing gaze locked on the battered blue box to her right. It stood tall and imposing as ever, but still she laughed at it. "Enjoy the thoughts of your dear Doctor a bit longer,” she told the ancient time capsule before turning toward it completely. "But when the time comes, you and he can go down in flames together. Just like… <i>he</i> would want."
There was a moment of silence as her eyes washed once more over the blue box. Sniffing in antipathy, the Rani snapped around and moved toward a large curved door. She had wasted enough time with the old relic. There was someone far more interesting to toy with now. She really shouldn’t keep him waiting. He hated that.
Through the large arching doorway, the Rani entered her hidden laboratory. Her gaze was momentarily focused forward as she purposefully made her way across the expansive metal room. Past massive and lifeless machines the Time Lady walked, not giving the scientific equipment a second look. They were not important at the moment, perhaps later, depending on how many regenerations the Doctor had left to spend.
Most of the computers and machines the Rani had gathered, stolen, or built were silent; except for four. Two of which were in the Rani's hands. They were small bulky devices that resembled giant lug nuts. The hexagon exterior had six fixed red lights on it that were flashing rhythmically. The one on her wrist flickered in time to the beats of her hearts.
"The bio-bands are fully functional. Perfect! Everything is going according to my plan," the Rani smirked, shifting her sights toward the other wrist device.
The gloved fingers of the Rani's free hand tapped lightly at a point on the unattached bio-band. Immediately a small hidden compartment opened up, revealing a small keypad of purple coloured buttons. She continued to smile to herself as she started to input commands into the wrist device.
"Subject…" she unconsciously said as her fingers translated her words to the bio-band. “Time Lord… male… over 1,000 years old. Current physical age…" Her eyes rose to the subject in question. "About 35 years old."
The Rani stopped momentarily inputting as she stepped on to a raised insulated surface. This rubber-surfaced pedestal was the base of the third active machine in her lab. Just the sight of its now complete form brought a pleased sneer to her lips.
“My beautiful Two-way Exploratory Cerebral Amplifier,” she said. “You are perfect, aren’t you TECA.” she said fondly as her eyes washed over the pyramid shaped machine. It stood only slightly taller than her, but was nearly four times the length of a normal adult human. Of course, technically it was not a pyramid since the top sixth of its peak was missing and one side was flat.
The square top held a rotating antenna at each of the four corners. On the flat side of the partial pyramid were all sorts controls, two monitors and two attached seats. Following down from two other sides, were duplicate inclined beds. There was a humanoid indention on the slanted surfaces of both. Slowly the Rani stepped around the machine toward one of the inclined beds. Her teal coloured eyes were locked on the indented area. In it was a mostly motionless form of a man. His partially opened, aqua coloured eyes were looking at her accusingly.
Stepping up before him, the Rani asked sarcastically, "And how are we feeling now, Doctor?"
"Rani," the Doctor growled, trying to move his restrained wrist. "Whatever you're planning on doing, I want you to stop it right now!"
The Time Lady chuckled as she leisurely strolled up toward him. "And why should I do that, Doctor?" the Rani inquired pointedly, leaning over him. She looked deep into his aqua coloured eyes. They still seemed slightly unfocused. For a brief moment she just studied him, waiting for his heroic reply. When the only response she got was the drooping of his eyelids, she reached a hand toward his exposed neck.
Immediately the Doctor's eyes flew open again, a bit more focused than before. He cringed back from her, recoiling from her icy touch.
"Because… because you have no idea what damage you'll cause."
A snort of laughter fell from her lips as the Rani checked the Doctor's pulses. "Hmm, 180 bpm. We are feeling a bit nervous, aren't we, Doctor?" Once again she entered the information. "Looks like I can still shake you up."
"It's not just me I’m worried about," he told her worriedly, giving her a pointed stare. "Do you have any idea what effect your experimentation could have on the Earth? The future of this planet?!"
She scoffed, "This is a dead world, Doctor! Your precious humans left it decades ago." Her hand rose toward his forehead. Above his head there was a raised, clear dome of glass. Carefully, she pulled it down over his face, like a shield. As it locked into place, her eyes met his heated gaze.
"Renewal, Rani!" the Doctor pointed out, glaring at her. There was conviction in his tone. "Renewal. A world goes through cycle like everything else in the universe. Now it may be dead, but it will rejuvenate. Our people know better than anyone about that. Rebirth… a second chance will transpire. This world will regain its potential and the humans will return… one day!"
The Rani looked at him perplexed and irritated. Leaning away from the Doctor, she watched the plea in his eyes.
"I know what I'm talking about, Rani. I've seen it," he stated with fervour. "If you plan on doing any further harm, I swear I will…."
Her brow furrowed and her lips curled into a snarl. "I have done nothing!" she hissed. "For once, Doctor, I have actually left your favourite planet alone. I've let it develop or collapse, as it were, without interference. You of all people should be happy about that."
“What?” The idea didn’t seem to compute. He stared at her, distrust oozing off of him like a bad smell. She stared back, locking them into a battle of eyes. He couldn’t sustain it, and he couldn’t avert his head because of the restraints. He ended up giving a long blink.
The Rani felt a mild flutter of pleasure at her win, but it was quickly squashed by the pathetic state of the loser. He looked dishevelled and powerless. His suit was crumpled and his tangled hair was draped down one side of his face. Trapped in TECA, he looked even more the part of her prisoner. Yet he was smiling.
Tucking away her emotions, she bent over to check his restraints, perhaps tightening a few which could have been left alone. The action brought her face to face with him again. She could feel his breath on her cheek.
"I don’t believe you,” he said firmly, baiting her, and like a fool she grabbed on to it.
"You really think I would mess about with a set timeline?” she hissed into his ear. “What possible reason could I have to do that? I have nothing to gain: no knowledge or power. It would be a waste of my resources and time. I don't spend hours researching and planning my experiments for fun, and I most certainly don't risk my own life needlessly. Pfft!"
She bit back her temper, reluctant to admit the effect he was having on her.
“If you believe I would, then you really don’t know me anymore, Doctor." she said, trying to save face. "But then you never did, did you?"
Not waiting for his reply, the Rani stormed away from him toward the computer panel side of TECA. Sitting down on one of the two seats in front of the console portion, she took down the rest of the Doctor's biological information.
“You’re right,” he said softly, and the Rani could feel her shoulders hunching involuntarily. She pressed her lips together, searching for self control, and concentrated all of her attention on the statistics flying across the screen before her.
“I don’t know you anymore, but I did once. What happened to you Rani? You were so beautiful and keen. You wanted to help people not – this. It’s not too late you know, it never is, you could let me go. I wouldn’t tell the Time Lords…”
On and on he went.
<i>Help people,</i> he was so naïve, thinking people wanted to be helped, could be helped. She wanted to turn and tell him all the reasons his fool-hardy hero routine was a waste of time. Now more than ever his words were pointless; this experiment would be one of the last things he ever did. He had no chance of escape.
As for his threat of summoning the Time Lords… It was laughable. Even if he had the means; he wouldn’t, and even if he could; they wouldn’t come. Not for him.
It was all a foolish attempt to rile her up again, but she was not like the egotistic Master, so easily pushed into irrational action. She might be pulled into an occasional argument, but nothing more. It would take more than <i>words</i> to goad her into error, and probably the Doctor knew that too.
The Rani recognized that there was more to his talk than simple needling; he was in pain and struggling to keep conscious. Her medical scans had detected several bruised ribs, a sprained wrist, a concession, and a hairline fracture across his scalp. All due to the crash landing of his TARDIS which she had precipitated – she really needed to fix her traction beam.
The injuries didn’t matter to her (though she was glad he hadn’t regenerated). They wouldn’t interfere with her experiments. Possibly, they would make them easier to conduct: making it harder for him to think and fight back: easier for her to seize control.
If only he would stop jabbering on!
He kept trying to call her back from the computer panel. The Rani could feel her own pulses speeding up, the lights on her wrist device reflecting them. She had to pause momentarily and concentrate on normalizing her hearts’ rhythms. She was a scientist: cool and composed. He was only the subject; a scared, little rodent cringing away from the inevitable.
He knew what was coming and was trying to talk back the darkness. She had felt it in his pulses. She had seen it in his eyes.
It wouldn’t work. She’d have none of it.
The Rani knew the Doctor's methods. She knew them quite well, in fact. So she continued to pay no heed to him, until she was ready. Double checking that all the needed biological data had been entered into the bio-band, the Rani shut the hidden compartment. The bio-band chirped and all lights flashed green twice. Sighing happily, she rose from her seat and walked back to the Doctor.
"Now let's see if my little present fits, shall we?" she sarcastically asked. With the slightest of pressure on two of the red lights, one side of the ring split. She paused momentarily when she leaned over him. Returning to look at his glazed eyes, she asked,
"Oh, I almost forgot to ask, how many regeneration do you have left?
The Doctor looked momentarily perplexed and he asked back, "Why?"
"I just want to check how many tries I have on gathering the some usable results before you…'kick the bucket' as your humans use to say," she answered with a devious smile. She reached for left wrist and started pushing up the sleeve of his coat. Her eyes flickered up toward his briefly. She saw fear lurking there.
"Considering that I seem to be rather restrained at the moment I don't think there's much chance of me kicking away thing," said the Doctor, forcing a smile. He made yet another ineffectual attempt to loosen his restraints. "However, if you would be so kind as to let me up, I'd be willing to nip to the nearest movie store, pick up a nice old Earth classic and we can sort up our problems over a bag of popcorn. What do you think? I'll let you choose the –"
Once again the Rani wickedly laughed at his protests, "Oh, Doctor. Now… let’s not start acting like an Academy newbie. It’s just a few experiments, like the old times! And you use to love helping me, don't you remember?"
"Not fondly, actually," he grunted as the Rani shoved his coat sleeve up and started to unbutton his shirt's sleeve.
"Now see that's where we disagree. I remember," she teased, rolling back his final layer of his arm's protection. What she revealed was badly swollen. Encircling the Doctor’s tender wrist with the device, she continued, "You were always the first to jump at the chance. Well you and the Master." Her teal coloured eyes meet his aqua ones again. She smiled warmly at him. "Of course, you were always better at 'assisting.'"
The Doctor's eyes widened. There was a brief flicker of recall mixed with a bit of disbelief at her choice of words. But before he could manage to reply, Rani closed the device around his wrist. He squeezed his eyes shut and hissed in pain. "Ugh!" he loudly complained. "It's a bit tight, Rani."
"Oh," she stated with mocking hurt in her dark eyes. "And here I thought it was a one size fits all." The Rani smiled wickedly at him and pressed his wrist and the attached device down. “Somebody is getting chubby in his later regenerations.” There was a loud click as the bio-band fit into its slot in the machine. A distinct beeping noise sounded from the computer panel. "Well, at least it still works."
The Rani stepped back from the Doctor. As the Rani returned to the computer panel, the Doctor struggled to dislodge the wrist device. Rani smiled at his vain attempts. <i> He wouldn't be the Doctor if he didn't try. And I'd be insulted if he didn't.</i>
Turning her gaze back to the monitor closest to the Doctor’s side, the Rani noted it was flashing an inquiry:
[Activate Cranium Image Scanner (CIS)?]
"Yes," the Rani cheerfully replied as she typed her reply into the computer. There was a buzzing noise from both sides of TECA.
Looking once again at the Doctor, the Rani saw that the glass dome over his face was no longer clear. Across it was displayed a four quadrant graph with a filled in circle at the zero point. She watched curiously as the Doctor's eyes followed a small square dot. It made its way from the zero mark up into the upper right quadrant, leaving a faded zigzag trail in its wake. Then the dot appeared in the upper left quadrant of the graph, making its wavering path back toward the zero point. He looked quite perplexed by the dot's movement, particularly as it started again.
Once she was satisfied that the CIS was functional, the Rani returned her sights to the control panel. There was another inquiry already waiting for her.
[Second subject input?]
Looking at the flashing green screen, her hand slowly drew back from the keyboard. The Rani just stared at the screen, a hint of fear lingering in her eyes. Her hesitance must have been somewhat obvious, because the Doctor noticed.
"Something wrong, Rani?" he chimed in. The sound of smugness was laced in his voice. It made her cringe and she refused to look at him.
"No… of course… of course not!" she angrily replied, only momentarily stuttering.
"Doesn't sound like from your voice," he contradicted. There was definitely an all-knowing quality to his words. "You know what I think? I think you afraid of this machine. And you have full right to… after what happened last time." His voice seemed to drop off as if he was recalling the event in question himself.
The Rani uncomfortably chuckled, "So you do remember my little TECA?"
"Yes," he solemnly replied. "How could I forget this… this blasted machine!? It was…" There was a hint of anger to his tone.
"A long time ago!" the Rani venomously spat, cutting him off. Her darkening eyes locked on him. She leapt from her seat and stomped back toward the Doctor. "History! Another life! That's it!"
"I see," he said blandly. A deep, heavy breath followed those words.
"Yes," she grumbled. "And I don't live in the past, unlike you! It's the future… the potential knowledge that will change everything. That’s all I think of, all I care about now." Her eyes were on fire as her jaw clenched. “Thanks to you!"
He sighed deeply and shook his head. "Oh Rani… Rani. To what end?" he questioned, trying to turn his head in the CIS. The Rani snapped her gaze from him to a 180 degree rotating lever next to him. As he babbled on, she instead counted off the 40 white tick marks along its horizontal axis. “What possible purpose can doing all this provide in the long run? Why, Rani? Why?
"Doesn't matter," she grumbled her chin shaking with fury. She reached out toward the lever. Her hand lingered there, squeezing the rubber handle.
But the Doctor would not quit in his persistent questions. "To whose benefit? What is the purpose of knowledge if you can't…?"
"Shut up!" she shouted before yanking the lever down to the twentieth tick mark. That ended the conversation. Immediately the Doctor's eyes slid shut and his body started to convulse. Surges of electricity ran through him. "At last! Peace and Quiet."
Once again leaving his side, the Rani returned to the control panel. She entered her reply to the screen's question and then left for the other side of TECA. Stepping in front of the other human sized indented bed, she looked at it uneasily.
"This is stupid! There's nothing wrong any more. The Master and I fixed it a long time ago. Stop proving the Doctor right," the Rani scolded herself before stepping into the indention.
The Rani leaned back in it, her long brown hair and the hood of her cloak being crushed below her. The indention fit her form perfectly. "I haven't changed a bit," she mused smugly. Through her nose she drew in a few deep and calming breaths. Some of the breaths came rushing out of her mouth a bit ragged as her sights looked up at the raised CIS. It was already displaying the same purple graphical design.
Taking a hold of it, the Rani pulled the dome shield over her face. When she saw the zero point directly in front of her nose, she knew it was in place. Then her sights dropped to her left wrist with the device. Slowly she pressed the bio-band into its slot. There the clicking noise and reaffirmed beeping from the console again.
"Everything is going to go to plan," she confidently told herself as her sights shifted right. Next to her bed there was a pull down lever just like the one next to the Doctor. "Nothing is going to go wrong." The Rani reached toward the lever. When her hand wrapped around it, she smiled, turning in the direction of the Doctor. "Now, Doctor, it's time to see what your mind is made of."
She yanked down the lever, but only part of the distance she had done for the Doctor. A second later, the Rani felt the surge of electricity race through her body. She gasped in a breath as her eyes slid shut. Soon she found herself consumed in another world. It was the mind of the Doctor.
To Be Continued…
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As CP said, I'm glad you are enjoying the story. There's plenty more to come, hopefully with twists and turns to tickle your fancy. ;)
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I also like the name of the machine . . . it's very reminiscent of a name the Master would come up with for a piece of technology.
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I'm glad so many are enjoying it. It makes me a bit more confident about the story overall.
Thank you to all those who've comment thus far. :)
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