Shooting Star // Eternalian Chronicles Book 1

24) .Lives Saved in Venice.

(Edited)

.The Vampires in Venice.

~Third Person~

There was something The Doctor needed to do first. There was something that bothered him about Catherine's tale of being inside the 'school'. She had guessed that some of her Eternality hadn't left. That scared the Doctor. That made him ask himself what happened that day in the Byzantium and what was that crack in the universe really? That's why he went back to question the Lady Rosanna. Without Catherine this time. He didn't even tell her what he was doing and promised he would meet her back at Guido's home later that afternoon. The Doctor wasn't really one for showing emotions and he definitely didn't want to show Catherine that he was scared for her.

He sat on the throne in the throne room, lounging like he didn't have a care in the world when he really did. When Rosanna entered alone, he was glad to see no one else with her. That made things a lot less complicated. The Doctor knew where she was from. Catherine's description had been enough, but why she was here was something he didn't know. Their planet was rather far away, wasn't it?

"Long way from Saturnyne, aren't you, Sister of the Water?" He asked her, starting off with a bang and making her jump when she noticed him, though she tried keeping her dignified posture. She sighed.

"Oh, it's you again. Let me guess. The owner of the psychic paper. Then I take it you're a refugee, like me?" 

"I'll make you a deal," the Doctor decided, not daring stand but instead straightening himself in the throne. "An answer for an answer. You're using a perception filter. It doesn't change your features, but manipulates the brainwaves of the person looking at you. But seeing one of you for the first time in, say, a mirror, the brain doesn't know what to fill the gap with, so leaves it blank, hence no reflection."

"You're question?" Rosanna wondered, her eyebrow raised, surprised at his figuring out her identity so quickly. Had the girl ... what was her name ... told him all this?

"Why can we see your big teeth?"

"Self preservation overrides the mirage," she explained, not meeting his eyes, but playing with her fingers. "The subconscious perceives the threat and tries to alert the conscious brain."

"What did you do to Catherine?" The Doctor asked this time, but Rosanna held up a patient finger, wagging it back and forth.

She took a couple steps towards the man, curious. "My turn. Where are you from?" 

"Gallifrey," he answered almost immediately, glancing away sadly.

Rosanna smirked, her eyes widening. She knew what happened to that poor planet. She almost laughed at his suffering. It was so much like her own. "You should be in a museum," she said in a sing song voice. "Or in a mausoleum."

"Why are you here?"

"We ran from the silence." Chills ran down Rosanna's back, looking back on the moment. "Why are you here?"

"Wedding present. The Silence?"

"There were cracks," Rosanna said, fear creeping into her voice. She swallowed, not wanting to relive it. "Some were tiny. Some were as big as the sky. Through some we saw worlds and people, and through others we saw Silence and the end of all things. We fled to an ocean like ours, and the crack snapped shut behind us. Saturnyne ... was lost."

"So Earth is to become Saturnyne Mark Two?" The Doctor asked, almost disgusted.

Rosanna smiled, suddenly pleased at the outcome of the Doctor being in her home. Him and her, they could accomplish great things. "And you can help me," Rosanna pleaded. "We can build a new society here, as others have. What do you say?"