Chapter Text
I sat quietly in the eloquent-looking office. My eyes looked to the window looking out onto the mansion's expansive outside facilities where young children of varying ages played happily under the supervision of elder children. I wanted to keep my gaze there. But I couldn't help my curiosity.
I looked back to Korra. She was sitting in a comfortable chair with her eyes closed and a minor expression of focus on her face. Psychic therapy for her mental blocks was a new approach we were taking. It was certainly not something I could do, so that meant getting experts.
Professor Charles Xavier showed more focus on his expression although he was seated comfortably in his personal wheelchair. The gentlemanly telepath's mouth did not move but I did see it twitch. They were in the middle of a session.
The session had remained quiet for a time. This ended when Korra sat up straight and cried out, reaching for her head. Xavier's eyes opened slowly. He extended a hand. "I can't do this for you," he said softly. "You have to face this."
"I'm trying," she protested. "But I can't get past it!"
"You need to be patient with your block. It's...."
"Patient?! Patient?! That's all anyone ever says! 'Be patient'! I'm tired of being patient! I'm tired of dealing with this!" Korra stood to her feet. "And if that's all you're going to say, I'm not going to bother!"
"Korra, please...."
Despite Xavier's plea, she stormed out of the office. He sighed and looked toward me. "The trauma is a severe one," he explained. "And it won't get better until she learns to face it."
"That's what I've been trying to help her with," I explained, giving my own sigh in the process. "But it's not easy. Do you have any ideas for what's keeping the block in place?"
"This is more art than science, Doctor, as you well know," Xavier pointed out. He wheeled himself back to his desk. "There are any number of factors that could be causing it."
"I know. But it is..." I sighed. "I'm worried about her, Charles. Her spirit suffocates and everything I've tried has failed to break the block. I can make her feel better sometimes, take her places to get her mind off of it, but that's all."
"It is possible that you are doing too much to help her," Xavier remarked. "This is something she will need to deal with herself."
I had no reply to that since it seemed a waste of breath to agree.
"From where I sit, she's not the only one who needs to get over a block." Xavier steepled his hands. "I have noticed your sudden dislike of the name you used when you first came here."
"It's because it wasn't my name. It was a name I took. One I should have stayed away from," I answered. "I want to get away from it. But it seems that every time I try..."
"I wish I could have helped you." He shook his head. "If the risk was not so great I imagine getting your old life's memories back would go a long way to helping with your current crisis of confidence."
I nodded. Long ago, back when my journeys were still relatively new, I had consulted with Professor Xavier on the mental block in my head. His prognosis was the same as Bob the Skull and J'onn J'onnz and T'Pau and Alisa Beldon and so many other telepathy and psychic experts I'd consulted over the years. The block was too strong and too rooted and breaking it open would inflict grievous damage on my mind. I would tip over from my current mentally-damaged, slightly-mad Time Lord status to full blown reality-makes-no-sense insanity. And I was not going to do that, especially not now. I'd gone mad once already and that had been a fairly controlled madness.
With nothing more to say, I picked up my coat from the coat hanger. "Thank you for the assistance, Charles. My best to the others."
"If you need any further assistance, you know where to find us," Xavier said.
Korra was waiting at the TARDIS for me. She didn't say anything until we were inside. "I'm sorry."
"Hrm?" I flipped a couple switches. "Sorry about what?"
"That I yelled at the Professor like that. I know he wants to help, but whenever I hear that..."
"...it makes you think of Tenzin and his constant refrain about patience," I finished for her. I gave her an amused smile. "And you're not usually one for patience."
"Yeah." She crossed her arms. "But I need to learn it."
"Well, you will. Over time. It's how it works. So, first things first..." I pulled back the TARDIS lever and went to the door the moment the VWORP ceased. I opened it and entered an engineering lab of sorts.
Asami was looking over a fancy-looking metal gauntlet. "So electro-magnetism?"
"Uh... that would be a very crude start, yeah." Tony Stark took the gauntlet from her and tinkered with the repulsor emitter in the palm. "Very crude. Like a stone wheel on an old cart being compared to the a turbine." He looked over and noticed me. "Ah. Welcome back. Everything going well?"
"About as well as I could expect." I looked to Asami who seemed rather breathless. "I take it you've given quite the tour."
"Oh yes," he answered. "Bright girl. For someone from a technological paradigm about ninety years out of date, Miss Sato is quick to grasp our technology."
"I've exposed her to a bit of advanced tech over the past few months," I answered. I looked to where Asami was eyeing the boot of an Iron Man suit. "This is... Mark 50 for you?"
"Mark 52," Stark corrected. "52B, actually, had to put in a few refinements, didn't think it merited a Mark 53."
"Well, I'm thankful for your hospitality for Asami, I know it must have taken up some critical time."
"Oh, not at all," Stark said. He looked at Asami and winked. "She got to see Stark Tower, you got your stuff done, and I got to hang out with a beautiful young woman all day. Everyone wins if you ask me."
Asami blushed lightly and turned toward me. "Are you ready?"
"Session's over," I answered. "It's time we're off."
"Alright." She gave a longing look to Stark's lab and I yet again questioned just how much I was altering her world's future by exposing her to future technology. I smacked myself in the head mentally; such thoughts were grossly unfair to Asami. It was akin to not trusting her judgement on what to use that knowledge for.
Stark smiled at her and waved before I closed the TARDIS door behind her.
With everyone in the TARDIS I went to the controls. "So..." I clapped my hands together. "I'm thinking somewhere... quiet. A quick stop to a lovely little civilization I ran into some time ago. Nice people, very good toward guests, and they make these little corn snacks that are... well, you'll find out." I turned dials and knobs and tapped things in to direct the TARDIS to my chosen locale.
"A break wouldn't be bad," Korra said. I could sense the irritation in her voice at the failure of the session to fix her mental block. I would have to work with her on that. Well, presuming Xavier didn't have a point about her having to deal with it herself. Asami could too and nodded a gantle assent.
"Alright then." I pulled back the TARDIS lever.
The moment I opened the door, I frowned. I had been expecting rolling land with visible forests and the traces of habitation. Instead it was a city of some sort. Stone and wood construction. Pre-industrial, definitely. We were near one of the walls. Given the sun's position and the apparent season... definitely the western wall. I sighed and used the sonic to check my coordinates remotely. "Fifteen thousand years off," I mumbled. "I know I carried that blasted two..."
"Where are we?", Korra asked.
"Oh, a city of some sort. Not sure. Definitely not the architecture of the Nasgrati," I answered. "Unless they had a major cultural shift in those ten thousand years."
"What I'm worried about is where the people have gone off to," Asami said.
I looked at her and then around the city. The sun was low in the sky; it would be dark soon. But the streets were deserted. There was only a series of warbling calls in the air and from the distance. In the city, definitely.
And as my eyes settled on the walls, they noticed something else.
They were starting to glow green.
A substance that I didn't recognize visually was coating the stone. I walked over to it and ran the sonic over it. The girls followed. "What is that stuff?", Korra asked.
"An organic material of some sort. It's growing over the wall bit by bit. Looks like it acts as nutrients for some life form. I've... seen this thing before." I waited for the readings to confirm what I saw. "This is... it's not, but it's like...." I swallowed. "...Blight?"
"What?", Asami asked.
"Blight," I said. "It's like Zerg Blight. Similar organic structure, similar DNA profile. It's not, I mean, this isn't Zerg, but it's in the neighborhood." I scratched at my chin. "Curious."
Not just curious. A moment later the ramifications sunk in. "Okay, not just curious, but bad news," I continued. "If there are life forms like Zerg around, then..."
One warbling cry drew close. Too close. We looked up in time for a four-legged insect the size of a human - well, two humans perhaps - to descent to the ground beside us. It drew up razor sharp appendages and shrieked angrily at us.
Worst part was... it landed between us and the TARDIS.
Korra swallowed and made a gesture, sending flame at it. It recoiled slightly but did not free. She followed up with a motion to rip stone mortar from the ground beneath us and propelled it to the thing's head with a kicking motion. It shrieked in protest and charged. I grabbed their hands and ran along the wall. "This way! Time to run!"
We ran from the insectoid beastie and saw it pursue. Other shapes were appearing in the sky. "They're after us!", Asami shouted.
"Noticed!", I answered. I released her hand and pulled out the sonic. A quick scan, just to see if there was some cover nearby. "This way!"
I took us a street down and then right into an abandoned abode. The home looked decent. There was a clear lack of certain things in it, the kind of personal items one would take when fleeing, but it was nice enough. I followed the sonic's scans into a back storage room and to the floor. "Down here, quickly! It's a solid stone portal, if you bend it this way it should reveal an exit!"
Korra nodded. With a motion of her arms the stone skidded away and revealed a dark tunnel underneath. Asami went in, then Korra, and I took up the rear. I could hear more warbling around the structure and got the impression they were preparing to go inside. I nodded to Korra and she sealed it behind us, plunging us into darkness. I lit up the sonic screwdriver and gripped my disruptor with the other hand. Korra generated a flame with her hand to provide more light. "Underground tunnels of some sort," I remarked. "Here, let's get away from the surface just to be safe."
We walked deeper into the tunnel. Our first turn put us in the direction of the wall. Once we were under it I took a moment. "This is Human," I said. "The construction, I mean. Definitely European."
"It shouldn't be?", Asami asked.
"No, it shouldn't. This world didn't have Humans. Well, not full ones, there was this race of nomads to the east I took note of when Katherine and I were exploring the planet ten thousand years ago." I furrowed my brow and led them further down. "Let's get a bit more distance and then I'll...."
And then I stopped. I narrowed my eyes and took in a breath. I could feel... something. My Time Lord senses felt a subtle shift in the air of the tunnel.
There was something here with us.
I quietly brought up the sonic and nonchalantly moved it around. "There's something dreadfully wrong here," I said quietly. "I don't like this. Not at all." I gave the girls a look. Korra and Asami knew my "ready for trouble" face well enough that they tensed up.
Chaos erupted. In the manner of an instant two figures appeared amidst us. One, a man with hair of at least medium shade - I couldn't quite make it out in the dark - lunged for me. Another figure, barely determinable as a woman, went for Asami. Asami dodged an attack and tried a martial arts throw, but her opponent twisted out of it.
My opponent lunged at me in the near dark and made me side-step it. Time Lord reflexes gave me an unfair advantage which I used fully. I slipped an arm around his arm, made a twist, and soon enough had him in an arm lock that made him drop his blade.
Flames zipped in the air as Korra made several firebending punches and kicks at the woman. She dodged with precision. It wasn't perfect and I saw a strand of lighter-hued hair get singed. But she avoided a direct hit. Her foot came up and struck Asami in the chin, knocking her down on her back.
I couldn't keep looking. My attacker had twisted out of my grip and went for his blade. I grabbed him from behind, wrestling with him to keep him from the glint of metal on the ground. Despite my efforts he almost got to it. My foot struck out and sent it skidding along the ground out of reach. I shifted my posture and my grip to gain leverage so that,, combined with my Time Lord strength, I could hold him in place. I fought to bring my sonic up so I could stun him.
"Put it down!", the woman cried out.
I turned and saw she had gotten close enough to Korra to grapple. Ordinarily Korra would have been a terrible choice to grapple with given her strength and skill, but given her mindset of late.... unfortunately this woman was skilled enough to get the better of her. She had a knife pressed to Korra's throat. "Let him go now!", the woman shouted.
"How do I know you won't try to kill us?", I said. "You lot haven't been very hospitable."
"I could say the same to you," the woman answered. There was something about her voice and accent that made me think it was somewhat Mediterranean. "I won't ask again. Let. Him. Go."
There was something in her posture, something in her voice, that told me I was pinching a raw emotional nerve holding the man hostage. Whomever they were, they meant a lot to each other. "How about we both let go?", I asked. "And we talk like the civilized beings I know I am and that you should be."
"I don't trust you."
"I figured that given your sneaking about, but..."
And that was when Asami struck.
Asami was smart enough to go for the knife arm. She grabbed it and forced it to straight for a moment. Just a moment. The angle wasn't good to do more. But it didn't have to.
Korra twisted out of the woman's grip and moved her arms. Air whipped around the woman's legs and knocked her off her feet. She fell backward, recovered...
....and a gust of air struck Korra in the chest, catching her by surprise and sending her flying back.
Asami tried to get a punch in but the woman was quick. She moved and the air currents shifted. Another gust of air caught her and threw her backward.
I blinked. Was it telekinesis? Actual Airbending? I couldn't be sure.
Since neither Korra nor Asami were directly threatened, I decided to divest myself of my hostage. I threw him forward toward the woman and freed my arm to get my sonic disruptor from my belt. The throw was enough to knock him into her. They fell together in the tangle. By the time they got untangled I had the sonic disruptor up. "Now, I don't want to hurt anyone, I just want answers. A show of trust, first." I gestured to Korra and Asami. "Stay back. No more fighting. We've got bug things over our heads as it is."
Then I lowered the sonic disruptor.
It seemed to have the desired effect. The tension in the duo lessened visibly, going from active fight readiness to caution. "Who are you?", the man asked.
"I'm a Time Lord, a traveler, I travel through multiple worlds and times as my sonic screwdriver may explain adequately." I swallowed. "You may refer to me as 'Doc' if you must, my young friends love to." I gave them a look. Korra was on her back foot, ready to resume the defensive, a flame in her hand to provide light. "These are my Companions, Korra and Asami. My friends and I wound up in this city by mistake and were attacked by a giant insect, so we took shelter down here. Now, if I may have the pleasure of your names, nationality or clan or tribe or whatever, and perhaps a bit of knowledge on just where we are?"
They looked at each other. There was a long silence. In the light of Korra's flame I could see the full nature of his beard, which matched the brown hair on his head. He was well-built, likely in his early middle age at the most. The woman was younger, no more than thirty I imagined and as young as twenty-five, with golden blonde hair and a light-tanned complexion to match. Brown eyes looked warily at us.
After several exchanges of whispers they seemed to come to an agreement. They looked at me.
"I am Bernard, Count of Calderon, of the Realm of Alera," the man announced. "And this is my wife Amara."
Chapter 2
Summary:
Our narrator enacts his plan to rescue the Alerans in Ceres from enslavement by the Vord.
Chapter Text
I decided on the direct approach. I found Rook further in and said I wanted to be taken to her superior, as close to the Vord as I could get in fact. She gave me a concerned look but nodded. She didn't ask why Amara wasn't with me. And I didn't tell her.
We emerged into a building that had a warehouse feel for it. Given the layouts, well, I regret I had seen slave warehouses before and saw - and smelled - that it fit the pattern. I said nothing, though, and Rook led me out of that building and across an alleyway into a former residence. There were windows present that would give me a vantage point, one of which was smashed open with dried blood still present upon the stained glass.
There were dozens of the Vord flanking the square outside. They were low-bodied versions but still looked rather mean and quite capable of intense physical violence. Understandable that the controlled every way in or out of the market courtyard. As for the courtyard itself, it was filled with cages. Cages suspended in the air, cages made entirely of stone save for some small airholes barely visible, cages of solid timber beams far across from those made of metal beams. "I never realized how widespread your people's abilities were," I murmured to Rook.
"Every Aleran has at least one element they can call upon with their furies," Rook explained quietly. "We come into those bonds by the time we leave adolescence. In all my life I've only ever seen one boy reach adulthood without having a fury."
"I imagine that one had a particularly rough time of it," I remarked.
"He did, at least at one time." I could see a flash of amusement on her face. "Although he has enjoyed a change of fortune as of late."
I looked out again. I took in the postures of the caged people. Dull and slow... in other words, they were being drugged. Similar seemed to apply to the Alerans outside of the cages. They had different clothing, different looks, everything, but one thing was constant; the gleam of the metal collar around their necks. I felt a familiar boiling sensation in my blood at the atrocity each discipline collar represented.
A young man was pulled from the enclosed stone pen. Getting a better look I could see he was more of a boy than a man as I watched him dragged to the auction stage. Another young man came to the steps; well dressed, curly black hair, and a particularly haughty demeanor that didn't seem concerned by the silver band around his own throat - he had been enslaved as well. This one liked whatever power he was allowed to grasp. A petty tyrant. "He would be?"
Rook looked at me with surprise. "You really don't know anything about Alera, do you?"
"Nothing of the last ten thousand years," I said, unable to keep the bitterness out of my voice.
"He is Kalarus Brencis Minoris," Rook explained. "The son of the late High Lord Kalarus. His father created the discipline collars."
"I see." I looked at her with concern. Pain was showing on her features. "You're not allowed to speak of this?"
"No, I... I am simply seeing what I can say," she gasped. "The very thought..."
"Don't. Don't harm yourself until necessary, you'll need your strength," I insisted.
Outside the boy was, well, as disgusting as the little ritual was where Brentis Junior put the discipline collar on him, the drugged lad was undoubtedly feeling differently given the scantily-clad women pawing over him and the drugs coursing through his system. When all was said and done he had the collar on his neck and was led aside. I couldn't keep the scowl off my face. "He collars everyone?", I asked.
Rook nodded.
A female cry came from one of the cages. "Brentis, we were betrothed," the young woman wailed.
"It's funny, life's little twists and turns..." He looked at the cage containing his, well, former fiancee and continued on.
I focused instead on Rook. "How did you wind up here?", I asked. "I know you work for the same ruler as Amara. But why subject yourself to this?"
The woman showed no hesitation. "He took my daughter Masha to safety," Rook answered. "To the safest place in the Realm right now."
"Your daughter." I frowned. "He used your daughter's life as blackmail."
Rook said nothing. I thought she nodded slightly, though.
The frown on my face deepened. I had a feeling that if I were to ever meet this High Lord Gaius Sextus, he and I might have... words.
"I will do anything for her." She looked out at Brencis. "Anything."
I could see, then, just how Rook was dealing with Brencis. Whatever indignities he heaped upon her, whatever pain she took at each rebellious thought, she would endure them for her little girl.
"Where is she?", I asked. "Do you know where....?"
"Calderon Valley," Rook answered.
"Ah. Bernard's... holding, is it?"
"Yes. He's been warning people about the Vord for years and I believed his defenses would have been built up to fight them. His home is the safest place for her."
"I see."
Rook looked at me intently. "How did you get into the city? Where do you come from?"
"My species comes from a world called Gallifrey," I answered. Whatever my thoughts on my origins being Human or not, brevity was the better choice anyway. "As for how I get about..." I shook my head. "Rook, whatever I tell you, you may be compelled to tell...." At seeing the solid look on her face I realized the purpose of the question. I exhaled. "Yes. Yes, I can take your daughter away from here. I can take her to worlds where she will grow up happy and alive."
Rook nodded. She looked back up at the window. "I'm overdue."
"Just a moment." I raised my right hand toward her. "Let me touch your face for a moment, please."
She looked confused, but given what she had already endured she didn't oppose me. I settled my fingers in the right spots and closed my eyes. "Think of Masha," I said. "Let me see her face."
Understanding my intent now, she did so. I saw her thoughts of her little girl and her memories. That little girl meant the world to this woman, meant everything, and I knew now that there was nothing she would not endure to secure her child's well-being. "You daughter will be safe," I murmured. "Whatever happens, I promise you that."
"Thank you," was her reply. She stood to her feet and, with a final exchange of nods, she walked out.
As Rook went out to meet her overseer, I looked back into the house. "You can come out now."
Amara appeared into view. I admit I found it rather bizarre that manipulation of air - I still couldn't help but think of it as Airbending - allowed someone in this world to turn invisible like that. "This is why I left Gaius' service," she admitted to me. "He is not a bad ruler..."
"....but he is not a very nice one either," I finished for her. "Statesmanship is not easy, I suppose."
"This isn't your fight," Amara said. "You have no reason to stay here and risk your life for us."
I looked at Amara. "If I left here without doing something about... this." I swept my arm out toward the marketplace. "Well, that's not something I can do."
"What do you hope to accomplish?", Amara asked.
"Well... in short.... I want to get those bloody things off of everyone," I said succinctly. "And on top of that I'd like to find a way to give the bugs here a good kicking of some sort. Although I probably won't have time to do it well if we want to get everyone out."
"The only way to take a collar off is for the person who put it on to do so," Amara reminded me. "And if Brencis has one too, it's likely he has orders against doing it. He won't be able to remove them."
"I know. But I'm starting to get ideas here. First things first though." I held out my sonic screwdriver to her. "It's set to passive scan mode. Can you use your invisibility trick to get closer to the bugs? Just within, oh, fifteen feet maybe? Twenty might push it."
Amara looked uncertain for a moment before taking the screwdriver. "What is this...?"
"It's a handy-dandy tool that no Time Lord should ever do without," I answered with a light grin. "If you absolutely must, point it toward an attacking Vord and press the button right... here." I indicated the key to her. "It should give the thing enough of a headache to buy you time to get away and hidden again."
She looked at the device skeptically but accepted it. "And what will you do?"
"Find a secluded bit of the underground for my part of the plan," I said while retrieving my TARDIS remote. "Let's get back here in, oh, say, an hour or so? Then I'll have a better idea of how to proceed."
The dim lights of the city were the only illumination when I returned to the building from the tunnels below. I felt a small breeze of air and Amara stepped up next to me. "How did it go?"
"I wasn't seen. I'm not sure if your tool worked as you planned." She handed it to me. "How does it work?"
"Energy manipulation and examination," I answered. "It's the epitome of a Swiss army knife tool... and yes, I know you're unfamiliar with that, I just couldn't help myself." I held up the sonic. It had indeed worked. The sonic had detected the background signals that formed the Vord hive mind, or at least something approximating a hive mind. It was probably more of a pyramid mind; the Queen at the top as a distinct entity giving orders to the Vord creatues beneath her. Although maybe it wasn't really a pyramid, just the Queen commanding each Vord as its own, no tiers or command structure. "I have a mystique to maintain as a traveling Time Lord, you see." I flipped the sonic in my hand and pocketed it. My mind was already calculating a plan for us all. "How quickly could you get us to Rook's side?"
Amara peeked out the window to where Rook was flanking Brencis Junior, talking to him. "In seconds. But there are so many Vord out there that we would be overwhelmed."
"No we won't," I answered. I felt in my jacket pocket and comforted myself by the presence of my sonic disruptor underneath and of the device I'd cobbled together. "We get to them and we take Curly prisoner."
"Take him prisoner?" Amara gave me a look. "You still think he will cooperate?"
"I'm sure he will," I answered. I looked at her. "That means no killing. Not unless you want to condemn every one of those poor people with a collar on their neck."
Amara stared at me in utter bewilderment. "You think you can accomplish what no metalcrafter, indeed no Aleran, has ever managed? Without a bit of crafting of your own?"
"Oh, I can craft easily," I countered. "Just not with those lovely little spirits you lot bind yourselves too. There's more to creation than what you know, Amara. Far more than you might imagine."
I could see the skepticism on her face. She said nothing however.
And then the chittering began.
The Vord in the courtyard suddenly erupted into a chorus of excitement. The airborne ones took the air and flew off. "Have they found us?", Amara asked, an admirably low amount of fear in her voice.
I had the sonic out. "No, it's not that," I murmured. "There's a massive spike in their hive communications. Something this big can only mean..."
Human fliers descended with those damnable collars upon them. They bore with them two figures. One was a human woman, clad in the black chitin of the Vord that showed a pleasing figure beneath its skin-tight surface. A bug was on the left side of her chest, its legs burrowed into her and its mandibles thrust into her... yes, her heart. The gentle pulsing of the creature revealed its purpose; an external artificial heart.
I saw Amara's eyes widen slightly in realization. I might have asked if she knew the woman but I was transfixed by her companion. This one was shorter. Very Human. Very, and I knew this because she was also very naked save her black cloak. Indeed she could have easily passed for Human if not for her insectoid eyes. Black, gold, and green showed on the facets of her compound eyes.
Of course. The Vord Queen. And at her sight the Alerans in the square prostrated themselves, face down, like she was a living goddess.
I pulled out my sonic and set it to its longest range scan. From this distance I doubt I'd get much, but it might be the data I needed to ensure success tonight. "You know the Queen's friend?"
"Invidia, the Lady Aquitaine," Amara hissed. "The former Lady. She has plotted against First Lord Gaius for years alongside her husband, High Lord Aquitaine. She's supposed to be dead."
"Clearly the Vord Queen had other plans for her," I replied.
"She might recognize Rook," Amara said quietly. "We worked together when Kalarus rebelled. Rook was with our team."
"Just pay attention and be ready to fly us there as quickly as you can."
"I won't be able to sustain my windcrafting with both of us for long," she warned.
"I just need to get in range," I assured her.
Brencis was on his knees, blood seeping from his nostrils, tears in his eyes. He was defying them. I imagined it had to do with the secrets of the collar attachments that he alone knew. So long as he was the only one who could do it, he had value beyond being just another slave of the Vord. The moment the Vord could do it on their own...
...or, well, the moment the Vord no longer needed his services, presumably when they won the war... well, a little hedonist like that man was probably living it up knowing full well the good times were shortly to end.
The Vord Queen turned to Rook. Like the others she was laying prostrate. This had, if anything, kept Lady Aquitaine from noticing her. But if the Queen prompted her to look up.
"She's going to be compromised," I hissed. "Amara, we have to go now."
"What?! But with the Queen here..."
"We don't have a bloody choice, if Rook is recognized by your treacherous High Lady then she's compromised," I hissed. "Let's go, now!"
Amara nodded and put an arm around my waist. I gripped my sonic disruptor with one hand and the device I'd made in the other. By the time we were in position there was curious chittering nearby. I had spoken just loudly enough to be nearly heard. It was truly now or never.
Powerful winds grabbed us and forced us out of the window like a rocket. My sonic disruptor's shield blasted away the remaining glass to make sure we weren't cut up in the process. The sound of shattering glass and the fierce rush of compressed air brought immediate attention. But we were airborne already and accelerating to the auction stage at a speed that what felt like several Gs. I felt like I'd been fired out of a gun.
We were moving so quickly we would be on top of Rook and the Queen in seconds.
And yet.... we were still not fast enough.
The Queen's fingers grew talons of green-black chitin. As we erupted from the window her hand slashed downward.
Right into Rook's throat.
Just as the slash began the Queen seemed to register our loud arrival. Her arm's swing lost power. Nevertheless there was a spray of blood as the chitin talons ripped flesh away, exposing Rook's throat in the process. I screamed "No!" without thinking about it, even as we flew in and came to a rolling landing about ten feet away. A scowl of rage came to my face by the time the roll ended. Any thought of something glib and humorous - I was thinking of "Gallifrey Pest Extermination Service" myself - drained away like Rook's blood. With a wordless snarl I pressed the key on my device and threw the little sphere up. With my full Time Lord strength it went up in the air by about thirty feet before it activated. An anti-grav repulsor built into it would hold the device aloft so it could do its work.
I had acted with Time Lord swiftness. Only a second or two had passed.
Suddenly I was on my back. It felt like I had been struck by a car. The Vord Queen stood over me, her compound eyes glittering at me, and those razor sharp chitin talons still coated in Rook's blood raised up to come for my throat.
This thing was.... "fast" doesn't begin to cover it. That kind of speed I only usually see from the likes of Barry Allen or Wally West. Her speed was very much superhuman, if admittedly an exaggeration to compare it to the likes of metahumans of that caliber.
I wasn't going to have time to get the sonic disruptor up to protect myself.
Thankfully I didn't need to.
I could barely hear the high pitched tone that accompanied my device's energy output. The excited chittering of the Vord turned into a wailing sound. Pure agony, likely, and completely understandably. I'd rigged an emitter to disrupt the carrier waves that maintained their hive mind. Not nearly as powerful as the devices I'd seen to inhibit the Vord's Zerg cousins, I grant, but in the short radius of the effect the Vord would be experiencing the psionic equivalent of a subwoofer turned to 11 being blared into one's ear.
The Vord Queen's screech of agony almost hurt my ears. Her "I am Legion" echoing voice made the scream sound odd and even more terrible. She arched backward and fell away from me. The talons retracted as her hands went to her head. She went to her knees in agony.
At that point Aquitaine acted. She looked up at the device in the air. It was technology like her world had never seen. But she could see it was a machine, and she could see what it was doing to the Vord. So she reacted reasonably by throwing herself in the air toward it. I saw flame appear in her hand. She meant to destroy it.
Amara got to her first. The two women intersected in mid-air and Amara drove the bone dagger in her hand toward the bug on Aquitaine's chest. The other woman shifted to deflect the blow, causing the knife to scrape across the bug's flank and cut Aquitaine's chest along the sternum. She let out a cry and whirled away and downward. Amara shifted in mid-air to pursue.
By this point the other part of my plan had gone into operation. You may have been wondering where I'd put the TARDIS, after all.
I put it in the center of the action.
The bottom of the auction stage blew away from the center. Korra emerged with Bernard and Asami on a cyclone of air. Count Bernard already had an arrow nocked by the time his feet found solid ground. He twisted and fired it toward Lady Aquitaine as she maneuvered away from Amara in mid-air. It would have hit Aquitaine's head had she not done a mid-air somersault. Instead the arrow buried itself... well... hrm.... somewhere very...
Oh bloody hell, Count Bernard shot her in the arse, alright? He shot the woman square in the arsecheek.
"Korra!", I screamed. "Get water now! She's dying!"
Korra was already looking toward me and then to Rook where she lay, bleeding her lifeblood into the earth. She twisted open her flask of emergency-use water and in the same motion twisted in mid-air, Airbending herself to a rough landing beside Rook. The water flowed from her flask and formed a globe in mid-air before Korra focused it down on the ripped out section of Rook's throat. Blood started to get into the water before it started glowing.
By this point Asami was on top of Brencis Minoris, who cried out in frustration as handcuffs locked around his wrists to restrain him. He tried to scream for help but couldn't through the gag Asami produced to stuff into his mouth. With her goal so easily accomplished Asami moved on to take Korra's job of freeing the Alerans in the cages. The nearest cage was an ingenious contraption, pouring water into a complete enclosure save for tiny airholes. I threw her my sonic screwdriver to use before I turned back to the Vord Queen.
Lady Aquitaine swooped down and snatched the Queen away as I brought my sonic disruptor to bear. She flew them both into the air and quickly disappeared into the night sky. The Vord around us, unable to even contemplate violence through the sheer debilitating pain in their brains, were already retreating as well, seeking sanctuary out of the range of my device.
The couple from Calderon joined Asami in freeing their fellow Alerans while I rushed for the hole in the stage and to the TARDIS beneath. Once inside I fired her up and brought her onto the stage. I grabbed the emergency case medkit I kept by the console and rushed back out the door to see Amara and Bernard now standing over Korra. Her eyes were intent upon the water she was holding against Rook's gored throat. The spy was still alive, but only just. Her lips were blue. Her eyes were growing distant. She was, in short, fading fast.
"Not this time," Korra insisted. "I'm saving you. I'm not having you die."
I thought back to Undertown in Chicago. The comatose, brain-dead teenage boy Lonny, who's dabbling in necromancy meant his younger brother Dustin was inadvertently turning him into a zombie-sustaining magic machine by trying to preserve him. Korra had tried so very hard to save the boy, but it had been too late. And it had hurt her, doubly so when the loss of his only remaining family and the fear of the dark powers he had tapped had led Dustin to throw himself on a sword in despair and longing for the family he lost.
And given Korra's state now... I shuddered to think at the blow to her heart that would come if she couldn't save Rook either.
I pushed through the growing crowd of Alerans and got on my knees beside Korra. I pressed a medigel injector against Rook's arm and followed it up with an oxylin injection just above the rip in her throat to try and prevent brain damage. "She's strong," I consoled Korra. "You're making it work."
"I have to," Korra insisted. "I have to make it work. I'm not failing again!"
"Get her to a healing tub!", a voice cried out. A man and a woman emerged from the crowd. "We are healers, we can help."
"She's too weak to move," I snapped. "Bring the tub here!"
They didn't respond to me right away. They looked toward Bernard and Amara. Bernard nodded. "Do as he says. As Count of Calderon I vouch for him."
The two watercrafter healers nodded and, joined by others, went to retrieve the aforementioned tub.
"Your Lordship!" A young man, really just a boy, came down from the air. He was in Roman-style armor, the famed lorica. "The Vord have cleared this part of the city, but they have gathered around us in numbers."
"They've found the edge of the field," I said. "They know where they can stay without it hurting."
"But we're safe now?" Given his voice I was certain Bernard didn't believe it.
"For the next few hours, yes," I responded. "But then my device's battery will run out of power and the field will start to contract. Eventually it'll fail altogether."
"Can't you make another one?", Asami asked me.
"Not enough time," I said. "I built that thing months ago. It takes hours of delicate work to assemble them, and that's my only one. Once it's burnt out... we've got nothing."
"So... we're trapped in Ceres," Amara said.
"Not exactly," I said. I tilted my head at the TARDIS. "No, for us the problem is..." I looked over at the dazed collar-wearers still in the courtyard, under close watch from their uncollared fellows. "...if we can free them in time."
"You said you had ideas."
"I do indeed, my Ladyship. I do indeed."
Chapter 3
Summary:
As Korra struggles to save Rook's life, our narrator and the others face a showdown with the Vord Queen if they are to escape the city.
Chapter Text
The first half hour of our precious remaining time was spent readying the TARDIS for the evacuation by shifting the door to a room for the refugees to stay in and, well, making sure there were security measures in place to protect them from the TARDIS and protect the TARDIS from them. I hoped this would buy the time I needed for my next task.
Rook had been immersed in a tub of water where Korra and the two watercrafters from before were working on healing her, or at least keeping her alive. I returned to them with a medical kit that included a regenerator. "I'm going to begin healing the rip," I informed them. "Keep her stable and the wound area clean."
"We don't need...." The male watercrafter noticed my look and ceased his complaint, returning to work. I drew out the necessary tools. Disinfectant to make sure there was nothing horrible in the cut area came first. Then came the hard part; with every bit of precision I could muster, i used the regenerator on the torn tissues within, starting with the blood vessels. It was aching, time-consuming work, but it had to be done.
Kneeling for so long, keeping my posture straight as I focused on the minute work ahead of me, it took its toll. I felt stiff in several spots and kept myself from groaning when I finally had the chance to stand back up. The damaged tissue was painstakingly restored to its proper place. "She should be fine now," I said, stretching a leg out. "You can let her go."
Korra looked hesitant to do so. I put a hand on her forearm. "Korra, the others need you. If I'm right, you're the only one who can free the people out there."
"I don't want to lose someone again," she said quietly.
"She will be fine now," the female watercrafter assured Korra. "You have done well, young lady. You show great promise as a healer."
Korra looked from the woman to me to the unconscious Rook. She gently pulled her hands back and allowed the water to dim. The other watercrafters resumed their work in healing Rook, who remained fine. An audible sigh of relief came from Korra's throat. "What do you need me to do?", she asked me.
"Rook's too weak to try what I have in mind," I began, explaining the idea to her and my reasoning for it as we left the healing area.
The auction area was full of the collared, each looking forlorn and lost and understandably traumatized. Amara was overseeing the people tending to them and keeping an eagle eye on Brencis Minoris with the help of Asami, who continued to grip him with her electric glove. He looked sullen and frightened and angry.
"Do you have a plan?", Amara asked. "You said you needed Brencis alive."
"I still do," I answered. "But as much as it pains me, we have to test something first. I need one of the collared people who is still robust. There may be an element of risk with what comes next."
Amara nodded and motioned to one of the Aleran windcrafters that had been escorting the Vord Queen. He didn't resist when brought up to us. "Are you ready?", I asked Korra.
She took in a breath to focus. "Yes."
I nodded and placed a pail of water beside the man. Korra's hands went up and she began a slow circular motion, drawing the water up in a rotating pattern around the Aleran. Or, more specifically, around his collar. He moaned and Korra had a fierce look on her face, one of concentration. Sweat beaded on her temples as she continued the motions. The water glowed gold as it circulated around him. The collar began to glow gold as well. The Alerans in the square were transfixed on the sight.
After about a minute of this Korra sighed and returned the water to the pail. "It's not working," she sighed. "I can't calm the spirit inside."
"Then we have to do Plan B," I murmured. I fought back a gulp. Plan B was the dangerous one for Korra.
Korra took in another breath and walked up to the man. She put both of her hands on the collar. Her eyes closed. I felt energy build in the air and expected what came next.
The man stared in surprise when Korra opened her eyes again, revealing the intense white glow from accessing the Avatar Spirit. The collar glowed white as well. The man began whimpering as if he were experiencing a steady discomfort or pain. For several seconds Korra kept her place. Sweat continued to build on her face as her body reacted to what it thought to be an enormous exertion. Thanks to my senses I could feel the energy in the collar resisting, directing its struggle against both the collared man and Korra.
The white in her eyes faded and she stepped away. And then that step turned into a stumble. I got behind her and caught her, holding her up by the arms. She put a hand to one head.
"What did she do?", Amara asked. She seemed very bewildered by the display of what had just happened. "Can he remove the collar?"
"No," Korra murmured. She regained her feet and looked a little pale. In steps that were deliberate but unsteady, she went back to the man and gripped the collar's lock. It came loose and the collar came off. The man stared in surprise. So did Brencis, who grew rather pale. "I forced the energy within to respond to me instead of him." She looked to Brencis.
"Yes, I thought that was how it would work," I added. "Korra's energybending allows her to change the energy link inside the collar so that she is the source of authority instead."
"It clearly took a lot of effort." Amara looked at the crowd of collared Alerans, each now showing varying degrees of hope in their bleary eyes. "How many of them can you do?"
Korra looked at me with dejection. "I... I don't think I can do them all," she confessed to me.
"You don't have to," I answered.
"Well, we can still get them out, right?", Asami asked. "Get them into the TARDIS and to safety. And then Korra can free them at whatever speed she can manage."
"Some have orders linking them here," I pointed out. "The mere act of coming with us will cause them pain. They'll be obligated to fight back to avoid it. And even if we subdue them, being unable to obey orders could further damage their minds. Like it or not, it's safer to free them now."
"Can't this guy just order them to come with us?"
I looked to Amara. "Countess?"
"I'm not sure, if he has already ordered them to obey only the orders of the Vord then any new orders he gives may not work. Or they might." Amara frowned. "The discipline collar relies greatly on intent and nuance. if Brencis isn't convincing enough with new orders, they may still harm those in the collars."
"So, last resort then. Better to get them off." I smiled softly. "Besides, I know a short cut." I looked back to Korra and motioned to Brencis Minoris. "His collar is weaker than the one you just used. It shouldn't be as much of a problem."
"Yeah, but... he's the jerk who put them on these people!", Korra protested. "Why should he be...." Her eyes widened as realization evidently dawned. "You don't want me to free him, do you?"
"Oh, I do want you to free him," I answered. I kept my expression neutral. I didn't want to show any emotion for what I was about to suggest. "After he frees everyone else."
Korra stared at me. "But, that means I would be.... you want me to control him like... like them?" There was an edge to her voice, a terrible edge I'd known in my own at such ideas.
"Want? No." I shook my head. "But they need you to." I pointed to the assembled Alerans. "And so does Rook. She's not going to have a happy life with that collar on her neck."
Korra's eyes narrowed with irritation. "This is wrong."
"I won't lie and say it's not," I answered. "But it is necessary. Just remember that it's wrong and get this mess over with so you can stop being wrong. Otherwise I fear that Amara is going to stick that dagger in his throat and be done with it."
Amara stepped up beside us. She put a hand on Korra's arm. "I know what it's like to do bad things for good reasons," she said. "It's not supposed to be easy. You've got a good heart to resist it, Korra. But please, for these people, do this one thing."
"If it makes you feel better... I will share in this," I said. "Order Brencis to obey me. I will do the work of securing his cooperation."
Korra looked at me and nodded quietly. She turned and walked up to Brencis, who recoiled backward against the uncollared Alerans who had come up to join Asami in restraining him. As she approached him Korra looked around at the people he'd hurt, the people who she would be saving. it wasn't hard to see how upset she was.
She reached out and took the collar around his neck. This time the effort was faster and with clearly less effort. Brencis' breathing picked up while the collar glowed and slowed when it stopped. He looked up at her with hazy eyes. Korra stepped back from him. "I want you to free everyone from their collars," Korra ordered. "I want you do it now."
"N-no...." Brencis gasped in agony and slumped against the men holding him. "I won't... I-I can't..."
Korra stared at him. "Are you really that devoted to.. to owning people?"
"I-It's not about..." Brencis had to stop talking. Blood seeped from his nostril.
I stepped up to him. "You're worried about the Vord Queen." I shook my head. "Brencis, do you really think this arrangement would have lasted? Once she was done defeating the rest of Alera she wouldn't have needed you anymore. She wouldn't have needed any of you. Don't think resisting us will save you, odds are she's going to kill you regardless of what you decide. If you want to live, if you want even the slightest freedom again, stop fighting us and do what you're asked."
Brencis swallowed as the blood trickled down from his lips now. "You'll l-let me g-go?"
"We'll take you to safety and let you go, yes," I assured him. "I give you my word."
Brencis closed his eyes and gasped. His body ceased tremoring. "Okay," he mumbled. "I'll start right away."
"Stay with him," I said to Korra and Asami. "I'm going to check up on..."
There was a rumbling through the earth. A hound made of pure earthen material bounded up to us. Count Bernard was perched on his back. "Doctor, you need to see this," he said. I wasn't surprised at him using my name. I had expected Asami and Korra to share it with him. "The Vord are... they're doing something along the edge of our territory."
Oi. That didn't sound good. "Get everyone into the TARDIS as quickly as you can manage," I insisted. "And protect Brencis."
"Stay safe," Korra insisted.
"Oh, you know me. I'm always safe," I responded, smiling back and knowing it was, well, rather something of a lie.
We arrived at an open plaza, the eastern third of which being free of Vord. My field extended to the halfway point. I'm certain you can guess the reason for the discrepancy.
At the edge of that eastern third was a line of corpses. Vord corpses. And behind that line was more Vord, creeping even further inward. Their howls grew more and more terrifying until they collapsed, their senses overloaded to the point of overtaxing their bodies from the strain of my disruption signal. "That's the disadvantage of facing insectoid foes," I remarked somberly. "Utterly suicidal tactics are something they can get away with." A sickening possibility came to my mind. "Oh bugger," I hissed to myself while pulling out my sonic screwdriver.
Bernard stood beside me, an arrow already nocked into his bow (for as little as that would do for us given the numbers involved). "What is it?"
"They're adapting," i remarked. "Biologically, on the fly. Look at the carapaces on their heads, the different forms of their bodies. A new breed with a more robust system to try and survive the disruption field."
"Can they get through?"
"Sooner or later," I answered.
The Vord pushing in faltered. They parted like the Red Sea in front of me. Not to my surprise, a single figure came from within the swarm. The Vord Queen stepped up to the very edge of the disruption field. She tilted her head in curiosity. "Just what are you? You are... new. Different. Not Human."
"I'm a Time Lord of Gallifrey," I replied. "Something of a traveler."
She pondered this for a moment. Her multitudes-as-one voice spoke up once more. "And what purpose do you serve here? What allegiance do you owe these Alerans?"
"None, really," I answered. "I was meaning to go back about ten thousand, fifteen thousand years, to tell the truth. Sometimes my ship goes to the wrong place or time or both." I crossed my arms. "What are your intentions, Queen? Why do you do this?"
"Because it is my necessity. I require this land. Vord require it."
"Even at the costs of innocent people?"
"Innocent?" She tilted her head. "What is innocence? If you refer to the idea that they have done nothing wrong, I remind you that the collars are their invention, not mine."
"Not all of them are likely that," I countered. "And is that your justification for mass enslavement and slaughter? For launching war upon an entire nation?"
"Justification?" The Vord Queen seemed to ponder the word. "I do not understand."
"What justifies you?", I demanded. "What permits you to slaughter innocent people and destroy their homes, their very civilization?"
"Nothing," the Queen said. "I do these things because it is what I require. This world is for Vord."
"Haven't you ever heard of peaceful co-existence?", I asked. "Species don't have to fight to take another's territory all the time."
"We are not species. We are Vord. We take what we seek."
It was clear the argument would go nowhere. This was an alien mind with values I could never fully comprehend. It wasn't hard to understand, of course. The Vord would not tolerate competition for natural resources, food sources, the like. From any life form. They would devour everything as they saw fit. They had no conception of restraint, of peaceful interaction, just force with occasional deceit, perhaps.
"You have means to go to other worlds," the Vord Queen said. "Take the Alerans and go. Take as many as you please. It is of no consequence to me if they leave Alera before I take it."
"Really? I'm supposed to just move millions of people like that? I'm good, yes, but not that good," I answered. "Do you realize how hard it is to organize a population movement like that? People need food and medicine, shelter, rest. Go ahead and ask your friend Lady Aqui...."
I stopped. I looked closer and could not see any other humanoid figures present. Sudden realization struck me and I grabbed Bernard. "Take us back!", I shouted. "We've got to go back now!"
Bernard understood. He summoned his hound-shaped fury yet again and it carried us off.
"I will not be stopped," the Vord Queen declared behind me as we fled. "This land is now for my Vord. Leave or you will be destroyed!"
We rode back into the courtyard and I nearly stumbled off my bounding earthen mount. A mound of unlocked collars was building in the square, flanked by a smaller mount of raw metal as metalcrafters destroyed the collars with savage glee. Korra was holding Rook in her arms and bringing her toward Brencis, who had just freed a young lady from the collar. The moment it came off she shrieked hatred at him and slapped him. I recognized her voice; it was the girl he'd called Fiona, the one who had been betrothed to marry him.
"Aquitaine is here!", I shouted. "She's here!"
Almost everyone reacted with surprise. I yanked out my sonics, on in each hand, intent on finding the hiding Aleran traitoress before she could do any damage. Amara pulled her bone dagger and Bernard brought up an arrow that I noticed was made mostly of salt crystal. I looked at him quizzically.
Before I could inquire I felt the strong rustling of air. Invidia Aquitaine - or Aquitaine Invidia if you're being strict - flew from the same building I'd used earlier in the night. The windcrafter soldiers in the air moved position and created a mid-air phalanx to protect the disruptor device. Aquitaine was cut off from attacking it.
But that wasn't her target.
She moved above our heads at a speed exceeding that Amara had managed with me in tow. She was across the marketplace in the span of a couple of breaths. Black-green chitin blades gleamed on her Vordskin suit in the moment before she made impact. Asami, recognizing the danger in time, threw herself on Korra and thus Rook to get them out of the way.
Nobody saved Brencis Minoris. He screamed in terror as Aquitaine's blade impaled his throat, severing his uppermost vertebrae in the process. Blood gurgled from a choked scream and the little petty tyrant fell toward the ground, paralyzed. Aquitaine followed up this strike by grabbing him with one hand and using the other to deliver a quick jab to the head that sliced cleanly into skull and brain. Brencis was dead before he hit the ground.
Amara shouted in challenge and flew toward her, but Aquitaine was almost as fast as the Vord Queen, it seemed. She was aloft a moment later. I realized what she was doing a moment too late; her shift of position had left her a small hole in the phalanx of windcrafters above and she slammed into it. The one young windcrafter who maneuvered into her way had his throat ripped out by her chitin blade. His dying body fell to the ground.
Aquitaine had nothing between her and the disruptor. She slammed into it at full speed. Her mass and her speed together were more than enough for the countermeasures I'd built into the device. She held it against her and flew off into the sky, moving the disruption field away. I couldn't see what she did next, exactly, but given the shriek of punctured metal and the sharp sound of her chitin blades, it wasn't hard to guess what she'd done.
The disruption field was gone.
In the distance we could all hear high-pitched warbling and chittering.
The Vord were coming.
"Everyone into the TARDIS!", I shouted.
Bernard shouted orders as well, getting the fit Alerans into combat formation. And just in time. The flying Vord - Vordknights, I'd been told - came in first, descending from the air and rushing in with blades swinging. Screams of pain and terror came from the crowd they plunged into, joined with the sickening sight of blood and flesh flying. People pushed into the TARDIS doorway to get in from panic.
I brought up the sonic disruptor and held it high. Bursts of raw energy erupted from the lit-up tip of the device. I shot away one that was swooping in on Bernard. He put an arrow into another one. Metalcrafters moved with skill and power in bringing their blades down upon the enemy while the flying windcrafters tried to reduce their numbers in the sky.
I knew we wouldn't buy enough time, though. We couldn't. If we were to save at least some, we had to flee now.
"Take her!", I heard Korra shout. Asami accepted Rook into her arms. "Get her to safety, I've got this."
"Korra!" I looked to her. This was a vicious and bloody affair; I didn't want her getting mixed up in it. "Korra, get in the TARDIS! We'll..."
"No!", she insisted. She ran toward the center of the plaza. A diving vordknight struck at her but was felled by a firecrafter's flames in mid-air. She added to the mid-air conflagration with her own firebending, using the flames to ignite several other vord. When she made it to the center she set her feet and closed her eyes. I felt energy thrumming around her.
When she opened her eyes again, they glowed with the power of the Avatar State.
Her arms shot upward. Massive chunks of rock and earth erupted at the end of the square she was facing. She made several more movements and more and more came out on each end, creating strong rock and earthen walls that would stop any food advance by the Vord. But the Vordknights remained and went after her, identifying Korra as the greatest threat.
I got to her side first and brought up the sonic disruptor's shield setting. Their blows rained against the defensive field and made it spark blue repeatedly. I felt the force of their blows in my arm and had to brace it to keep my arm in place. As it was, I expected I would be overwhelmed soon enough. Amara struck at one with a blade and her husband was firing arrow after arrow into their numbers as they came around for repeated diving attacks. But there always seemed to be more of the blasted things.
And then Korra finished whatever she was doing with her Earthbending. She raised her arms again and used them to make circular motions, like when she was spirit-bending before. But this time it was the air that began to shift. Winds formed above us, circular and increasing in violence and strength. The airborne Vord started maneuvering more erratically. Their Aleran foes made it to the ground without trying to fly against them. Soon a literal tornado was over our heads, whipping the Vordknights around and smashing them against the strong earthen ramparts Korra had formed. They would hit the ground, dazed and wounded, and Alerans quickly finished them off. Even as the tornado continued, Korra changed her pose slightly. Flames erupted inside the violent winds at the top of her defenses, giving us a ceiling of blazing fire. An inferno no Vord could get through without being horribly burned.
It was buying us the time needed. Even more Alerans were loading into the TARDIS. Most of the ones outside were fighters. "Get your men into the TARDIS!", I shouted to Bernard. He nodded and relayed the orders, sending them in group by group. We all began to back up toward the TARDIS save for Korra and myself.
There was a shriek of pain. Two vordknights plunged through the flames, horrifically burnt. But I could see what they were doing even before they opened their arms wide. The Vord Queen and Lady Aquitaine jumped down from them, having used the vord as insulation from the flames. The Vord Queen plunged right for us. I generated a shield again and almost fell down from the raw impact when she slammed into it trying to attack Korra. She rebounded from the blow, raised her arm, and brought the blade down again.
From the corner of my eye I saw Lady Aquitaine engaging the Calderons. The husband and wife team were holding their own for the moment, buying time for more of the others to get into the TARDIS. Which was a goal that I was having to think up a new plan for given the Vord Queen's immense and imminent threat to our well-being. She was shifting around swiftly, trying to find a weakness, trying to get behind me, anything to overwhelm or outflank my shield. And given how wide I had to set it to prevent her from getting around it, the former was likely to come baout relatively soon.
Korra's arm suddenly struck out. A fierce blast of flame, tight enough that it resembled a beam, suddenly caught the Vord Queen in mid strike. She let out a horrible screech as the beam of raw heat sliced through her chitin armor along her left side. She recoiled backward. Korra's other arm moved forward and a gust of wind struck her next, slamming her into the nearby building and sending her through the doorway with the crash of splintered wood. Korra's arms came up and smashed downward. The stone, earthen structure collapsed. On top of the Vord Queen.
Somehow I knew it still wasn't enough.
I felt the movement of wind and shouted, "Korra, behind you!". Korra moved in a graceful AIrbending spin, barely avoiding a strike from Invidia Aquitaine. The Aleran woman's chitin blade sliced across Korra's side but caused only a surface cut. In the Avatar State Korra probably didn't even feel the pain very much. She turned in mid-air and her foot came up, turning the evasive maneuver into a roundhouse kick. Stone erupted from the paved ground and slammed into Aquitaine's back. She went flying and hit a nearby structure and plopped onto the ground. As she started to get back up I stepped between her and Korra with the disruptor raised. "Stay down and you won't be harmed," I ordered.
Rubble moved away from the front of the broken building. Bloodied and wounded, the Vord Queen shrieked and rocketed toward us again. I was out of position now and there was nothing between her and Korra. Korra reacted more quickly than I thought she would though. She generated air beneath her and rose up in it, narrowing avoiding the lunge. She made a kicking motion toward the Queen and more stone came up to smash into the Vord Queen's body. She shrieked and hit the ground, rolling into a crouch. An arrow struck her armored shoulder but didn't penetrate. Bernard nocked another arrow while Amara approached Invidia. He let it fly a moment later.
The Vord Queen's arm went up and broke the arrow just before it struck in in the head. She went airborne again and lunged at Korra once more. I saw Korra begin a mid-air maneuver.
And then I noticed her body tense. That damnable flashback.
I had no choice. With not a second to spare I brought the sonic disruptor up and sent out a full force kinetic blast. The wave struck both, knocking Korra and the Queen out of the air, but it had the side effect of preventing the Queen from delivering what could have easily become a fatal strike. Both rolled on the ground to a stop.
I would have attacked again, but I was struck from behind. Amara crashed into me. I can't imagine it wasn't intentional on Invidia's part. The Aleran woman went after Korra as well, joining her new mistress as she tried to stand.
At that point, Korra got back up, at least to one knee and one foot. Whatever the attack was, it hadn't gripped her as it usually did. She found her footing and bent an earthen sphere for herself. The Queen and Aquitaine struck at it, looking to break the defense.
I looked up. The flames Korra had generated before were vanishing from sight. With her chance of state Korra was no longer keeping them active. That meant more flying Vord.
We weren't going to win this.
I began changing the settings on my sonic disruptor. As I did, Korra's earthen sphere collapsed around her, revealing her amidst the shattered masonry and brown earth. Before her attackers could strike, she received succor from our three remaining allies. Bernard's arrows threatened to hit both and forced them to retreat a little. As Aquitaine moved to attack him she was forced to move to the side to avoid a dagger strike from Amara.
That opened her up to Asami, now returned to the field and with electric gauntlet in hand. She pressed it to Aquitaine's neck. The Aleran woman screamed and toppled over.
That left the Vord Queen... and dozens, hundreds, of her flying creatures.
I did the only thing I could, made possible by the Vord Queen being distracted and relatively stationary for the moment. I brought the sonic disruptor to bear, murmured a quiet prayer to whomever would listen, and triggered setting 21's neural-disruption effect.
The Vord Queen stopped in mid-step toward Korra. She let out a shriek of pain and clasped at her temples. Chittering wails erupted above us.
And Korra took her opportunity. She moved her hand in an open palm strike and sent out another tight beam of heat and flame, spearing the Vord Queen through the chest. The Queen screeched even louder and collapsed to the ground.
I do love it when a plan works. Especially in these circumstances.
As the vordknights rained down around us, I motioned frantically to the TARDIS. "Go! Go!" With the sonic I sent a remote command, transferring the door's entry from the room with the evacuees to the control room.
Asami helped Korra up. They arrived at the TARDIS concurrent with Amara and Bernard and entered together. I followed, keeping the sonic disruptor trained on the Vord Queen until I got to the door. I lowered the disruptor, slammed the door closed, and ran to the control panel. "Here we go! Tally ho!" With a couple of dial twists I was ready and pulled back on the lever.
VWORP VWORP VWORP.
As my TARDIS made her usual sweet vworping, I signed and leaned against the control panel. "Well, that was exciting," I mumbled. "Now, off to your holdings, Count Bernard, where we shall sort through the mess at hand."
It took time for us to finish the evacuation, within the fortified walls of what Bernard called Garrison, his primary stronghold. I kept an eye on everyone coming out, not so much out of mistrust but because I hadn't seen how many people still had discipline collars on them.
As it turned out, only one did.
Rook was brought out on a litter made by a couple of the Aleran legionaires we had rescued. She was awake now, still very weak, but she didn't appear the least upset at her condition.
Korra walked up to us. She had used waterbending healing on herself to heal the cuts and wounds she'd taken. Her hair was still a bit mussed up though. "How are you?", I asked her.
"I'm really tired," she admitted. "That Queen was the worst thing I'd ever had to fight before. She was so powerful and fast."
"Yes. A good thing we all worked together against her."
Korra looked at where Rook was being tended to. "I want to try to get that off of her."
"Are you sure?", I asked. "It cost you a lot to take off one of the late and unlamented Kalarus Brencis' collars before."
"Yeah. But I'm not leaving her like that," Korra insisted. She stepped up to the litter. Rook sat up weakly to greet her. "Let me see if I can take that thing off."
"Don't hurt yourself trying," Rook said gently. "You've already done more than enough, Korra."
"I'm not going to be able to rest until I know you're fine." Korra got onto one knee and reached for the collar. I saw her begin to energybend it like she had the prior ones. Rook gasped and let out a small moan as her collar glowed brightly. Korra seemed to falter a little. But she didn't stop.
The glow faded. Korra slumped against the litter slightly before recovering. She raised her heads and gently moved them apart from one another. The lock on the collar tore open and it came off. With a last burst of energy, Korra smashed the collar with her Metalbending, turning it into a wafer of cheap metal.
"Furies bless you," Rook said.
Korra nodded and stood up. She walked over to me. And I could see her weakness just quickly enough to catch her as she fell against me, limp and exhausted. I nearly fell over in the effort. I hadn't realized how worn I was from the long day either. "You've pushed yourself too hard," I chided gently.
"Had to," was her reply.
Rook's litter was placed down near us. The healers would undoubtedly get to her to continue treatment as necessary but she was in no danger.
"Mama!"
The cry came from the dwellings area of the fort. We turned to see a young girl rush up to the litter. Rook saw the child, smiled widely, and already had tears in her eyes when the girl got close enough for her to hug. "Masha." She ran her hands through the girl's hair and I heard the sound of lips pressing briefly against skin, a kiss on the forehead it seemed. "I'm home. I'm never leaving again."
It was quite heartwarming, I must say.
With the evacuees out of the TARDIS and accounted for, I shifted us out of that world and somewhere to rest. We all needed it; it had been a strenuous, terrifying experience. Not exactly what I wanted for Korra's recovery, I must admit.
After a couple days of recuperation - I took to my hot tub quite a bit, I admit - we were sitting in the library when Korra looked at me and asked, "Do you think I killed the Vord Queen?"
I pondered the question. Then I sighed and shook my head. "I wouldn't bet on it."
"So she's still invading that land," Korra said. "We should help them."
I eyed her. "Korra, we barely got out of that alive. Chasing down the Queen by ourselves, with her undoubtedly surrounded by more Vord and with that Aleran traitor at her side, is unlikely to help anything."
"Well, maybe we don't chase the Queen down," Asami said, chiming in. "Let's just go back and see if we can help them some more. I mean, they're an entire nation of powerful benders, with the right tools they should be able to beat the Vord."
"I can't just sit here knowing that entire world is in danger," Korra said. "I want to do something."
I nodded. I didn't want to voice some of my thoughts. Namely... there are always worlds in danger. And sometimes we couldn't do a thing about them. Fixed points in time, things like that. Or just something out of our capability. But still... I did feel terrible at the thought of all that being for nothing. At the very least, if they couldn't beat the Vord, I could still save some of those Alerans, couldn't I?
I stood up. "All right. Let's go."
When the TARDIS materialized, it was not where I planned.
I had intended for us to materialize at Garrison again. But the city, damaged as it was, was clearly not Garrison. But there were no signs of the "croach", as the Alerans called it, and I could hear distinctly non-Vord voices chattering amiably in the distance. With curiosity I led my Companions down an alley of buildings and toward an amphitheater of sorts. There were milling crowds. Alerans, yes, but also some silver-haired faintly elvish-looking peoples, large yeti-like beings, and... yes, indeed, those were nine foot tall wolfmen, weren't they? Oh dear.
I followed the press until we were challenged by a main in standard Legionnaire-style armoring. "Identification?"
I reached for my psychic paper. It proved unnecessary. "Let them pass!", a male voice insisted.
Bernard and Amara stepped up beside us, two children in tow, and Amara looking very much like she was about to give a third. I bowed respectfully. "Your Lordship, a pleasure to see you doing so well." I sighed. "I take it this is a sign that the Vord are gone?"
"They are," Amara answered. "Where did you go?"
"To heal," I answered. "And then I was coming back to help more. It appears I overshot the mark. Or my TARDIS was being rascally. That happens."
"You did enough as it was," Bernard assured us. "Are you coming?"
"A victory event of sorts?"
"Not quite." Bernard was beaming. "My nephew's having his official marriage ceremony."
"Ah. Indeed, well, I'm always good for weddings," I answered cheerily. "Just as long as there are no crossbows."
The couple gave me a bewildered look. "Crossbows?", Amara asked.
"Spring-powered bows," I clarified.
"Ah, those Canim weapons then," Bernard said. He blinked. "At a wedding?"
"Yes. It was rather unsporting of the hosts to try and murder their guests," I said. "So I was rather cross with them. And they were cross with me as well, with crossbows nonetheless...." I winced. "I'm terribly sorry. That pun has grown stale. Although the look on Lord Frey's face was rather amusing by the end of that fiasco. Anyway, as I was saying, I'm always good for weddings."
"And now, if there is an attempted murder, I shall know who cursed us," Amara responded with amusement. "Please, follow us."
We had the interesting experience of being introduced to the new ruler of Alera. Gaius Octavian - or was it Gaius Tavarus? - was an intelligent and resouceful fellow and it was nice to be introduced to him and his bride Kitai and their little son Desiderius. His mother Isana and new stepfather Araris were quite welcoming as well. I also had the singular distinction to have a handshake with a nine foot tall wolfman named Varg and an equally-imposing Marat chieftain named Doroga, the father of the not-so-blushing bride. He seemed to make even Kal-El look a bit on the leaner side.
As it turned out, we had become something of a legend in the past months. The Aleran survivors of Ceres had embellished the tale of our battle with the Vord Queen to rather silly heights, for instance. The other attendees were quite astonished to discover that neither Asami nor I had furies, and that Korra didn't need them to bend the elements. I felt rather perturbed at the idea that our arrival was going to divert attention from the main festivities.
Thankfully they didn't. We took respectable seats on one end of the amphitheater to await the formal ceremony. As we sat down I saw Korra look a little distant. "Is something the matter?"
"No, I..." She sighed. "We could have done so much more. So many people died that we could've saved. In that city, in the rest of Alera..."
"Perhaps," I said. "But they won. The Vord are a mindless bunch of insects now, they can't do the same harm they might have before. It all turned out well in the end."
"I think we could have made more of a difference, though."
I sighed and smiled at her. "I know that temptation well, Korra. It's from having a good heart. But it's not always the wise thing to do." I patted her on the shoulder. "Do you really feel like we didn't make enough of a difference on this world?"
She seemed to consider that. And she couldn't answer either way.
I delicately pointed toward another pair of seats down the way. We all looked in that direction.
In the front seats, just a row back from where Bernard and Amara would be seated, we could see Rook. Her throat had some scarring shown by the open collar of her blue tunic. But her face was beaming with delight.
And though we were too far away to hear it, it was easy to see why, given her daughter Masha was in her lap and giggling happily in her mother's loving arms.
I saw my Companions were beginning to smile at the sight of Rook and Masha. "We saved a loving mother and brought her back to her little girl," I said quietly. "So yes, my friends, we made a difference."
They didn't answer. But in the warm tears I saw on their eyes as they observed Rook playing with her daughter, I knew they agreed with me.
I love it when I can say "Everybody lives!". But that's not always possible. You have to take your victories where you get them.
And, in this case... we did, indeed, make the difference.
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stgjr on Chapter 1 Sat 04 Jan 2025 08:19PM UTC
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stgjr on Chapter 1 Sun 05 Jan 2025 03:03AM UTC
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stgjr on Chapter 1 Wed 08 Jan 2025 02:10AM UTC
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