The sky was dim and purple, with blazing stars and bright light from three large moons that spread across the horizon. If this was day, Sutton wondered if night was even something that existed here. Various alien races mingled the streets in what looked to be a downtown district center. The architecture was a bit grandiose, more so than the budget of the BBC show could ever have allotted, and the buildings almost shined iridescently. She'd changed into some normal clothes for the first time in too long, and was sitting with the Doctor and Rose in a small alien cafe, sipping on something that reminded her of tea. The Doctor had suggested it as the safest choice, and she had taken him up on it, not feeling particularly daring at the moment.
"So what you're telling me," the Doctor said, "is that you have the ability to alter the history or reality of a universe based solely on whatever you think is nifty. Or what other humans, from your universe, could believe."
Sutton snuck another sip of her drink before answering. The bowl-shaped cup was starting to cool already.
"That's about it," she acknowledged. "But, um, I don't think I can manipulate free will, if it makes you feel better."
One of the Doctor's brows rose high on his forehead.
"And how did you manage to learn that?"
She gave a sheepish grin and shrugged.
"I might have tried to get the librarian at Hogwarts to let me stay after the library closed. It didn't work."
Rose hadn't touched her own drink. She still eyed Sutton with a borderline suspicion.
"You tried to control her?"
"No, I-I mean, it didn't work! I just wanted to read for longer, it wasn't like I was trying to-to change her or make her do...do-"
A heat consumed her face as she dropped her head to stare into her cup.
"It was stupid," she muttered. Rose continued to look offended. "And I guess I shouldn't have done it. Not that she was particularly nice anyway."
"Wha' if she tried to do that to us?"
"I won't!"
The Doctor didn't seem to be giving the conversation his undivided attention. He was tapping his fingers on the table and staring out into the crowds of beings distractedly. There was a depth to his distraction, as if something were troubling him, or he was thinking hard about something. Sutton wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.
"Docta'!"
"Right, right. She'll be fine, won't you Sutton?"
"I've been trying to not change anything when I end up places."
"See? She'll behave; everything's brilliant."
He hopped up then, his hands diving for his pockets as he spun on his heel.
"What'ya say we check things out a bit, eh?"
Sutton and Rose both stood with glances at each other. In that moment both shared the sentimentality that the Doctor was brushing off the conversation a bit.
They both followed the Doctor into the city. In contrast to the permanently dark sky, the local residents of the planet dressed in bright pastels. There were predominantly blues and reds and purples which all appeared almost washed out or watercolor. The local beings themselves were humanoid, Sutton decided, although they were much taller than the average human, and they did not have human facial features. They were more lizard-like than anything. And she'd never met a human with three eyes.
Having no valid currency for this planet, Sutton contented herself with window shopping. As per usual, the Doctor had an encyclopedia's worth of knowledge of the planet and freely explained the history, cultural norms, and what the future would hold for them. Sutton was just proud of herself for not gawking like she had back on Tatooine.
Rose and the Doctor were walking a bit ahead of her after a awhile and she let them have some space. She couldn't help her eyes from darting back to where they'd parked the TARDIS. There was still some time before her body realized it had messed up again and zapped her somewhere else. Just the thought made her feel tired. But if Tony and Bruce could accomplish alternate universe travel in a couple months, then the Doctor shouldn't have a problem, right? He dealt with this sort of stuff all the time.
What sounded similar to a deep church bell rang through the air and a noise rose up with it that sounded like it was from a mass of people. It was solemn, almost mournful and haunting.
With a disturbed huff Sutton jogged to catch back up with the couple. Rose was giggling at something the Doctor had said and he was smirking smugly. Sutton rolled her eyes. She attempted to playfully leap the last couple steps to catch up, but winced as a pain shot up her legs as if she'd jabbed a bruise. Unease at the lingering after effects of her 'jump' tried to eat at her, but she shoved it down to admire the planet around her. The architecture would probably look brilliant if it were ever daylight here. Since it seemed that a majority of the planet's day was spent in a dusk-like state, most buildings were made of glass to let as much light in as possible. Even in the low lighting they reflected many colors.
"What are the aliens here called again," Sutton asked. Coming along the other side of the Doctor, she peered around him to the streets beyond. There were various alleyways that lined the road, and their dimness made them seem even more secretive.
"Cheeroks," he answered. "Very spiritual beings and quite peaceful, which is good for us!"
"Yeah," Sutton agreed. "And I'd rather it stayed that way."
"You sound doubtful," Rose pointed out.
"With good reason, you have to admit. How many actual peaceful, safe trips have you been on in the TARDIS?"
Rose glanced at the Doctor from the corner of her eye.
"Fair enough."
A looming, dark figure suddenly darted down one of the alleys in front of them. Sutton instinctively startled and shuffled back. From its size, Sutton assumed it was one of the Cheeroks. But it had to have been carrying something because it had looked much wider in the middle than the aliens actually were. For something so large, it sure had moved silently!
The figure also caught the Doctor's attention, unfortunately.
"Well hello," he murmured to himself. "What do we have here?"
Rose was peering down the alley as well and Sutton stood behind them, waving her hands in a wide slicing motion.
"Oh, no! We are not going to follow that thing down a dark alley on a dark planet with aliens who do who-knows-what for fun in their spare time! No! This is exactly how things like Daleks and Cybermen and whatever else get involved!" But Sutton felt like she had instantly been demoted to background character as Rose and the Doctor both shot down the alley way to follow the alien.
"Why did I think for one second," she muttered under her breath.
She begrudgingly took off after them. The Cheerok had heard the not-too-quiet footsteps of their group and turned to face them swiftly. Its eyes landed on the Doctor and the third eye on its forehead flashed momentarily.
"Stay back," it hissed.
Sutton knew that the TARDIS provided translations for foreign and alien languages, but it was still odd to see a lizard-like alien speaking english. Even if it wasn't technically speaking english. And why did it automatically have a British accent anyway?
Since they were closer to it now, Sutton could make out that the large round oddity the Cheerok was carrying looked strangely like an egg. If eggs were ever as large as your torso. The Doctor held up both hands and gave the alien a grin.
" 'ello! There's no need to worry. I'm the Doctor and these are my companions. We mean you no harm. I'm just wondering where you're off to with an almost hatching Cheerok egg?"
Companion! He'd called her one of his companions!
Wait. Focus. Egg? Hatching?
"Silence!"
The Cheerok cradled the egg close to its body, every eye darting around the alley wildly.
"If you really mean no harm, you will leave now and speak of this to no one!"
"You need to get that egg back to an incubator," the Doctor insisted.
"And you are hindering me," the Cheerok countered. It glared at them angrily and with mistrust before Sutton saw its third eye flash again. It sighed in frustration and then gestured with its shoulders.
"Hurry; come if you must. I can linger no longer."
The Doctor appeared to have gotten the answer he wanted, and they scurried after the much taller being. Sutton was hustling even faster than she normally had to in order to try and keep up. It seemed like every quick three steps of hers covered just one of the alien's.
It led them further down the dark alley, turning various corners that Sutton knew she would have missed in the minimal lighting. Shortly they came to a point where the Cheerok stopped and stomped three times on the ground. After a moment one of the cobblestones was pulled away and it opened up to a dark tunnel. The Cheerok squatted down and lithely leapt down into the darkness with the egg still in its grasp, and the Doctor followed right after. Rose hesitated, peering down into the hole and Sutton saddled up beside her.
"Are you really going to jump," Sutton asked nervously.
"I suppose we 'ave to." Rose paused as the Doctor called up to them to hurry up. "C'mon then."
She hopped trustingly into the tunnel, her eyes shining with adventure. Sutton groaned in the back of her throat and inched closer to the edge. Lowering herself to her rear, she let her feet dangle over the edge and stretched her toes out as if she might be able to reach the ground from there.
"C'mon, Sutton! This egg doesn't have forever!"
"Well," she groaned, "here goes nothing."
The drop was farther than she had even expected, probably due to the height of the Cheeroks. Thankfully, the Doctor was gentlemanly enough to help break her fall at the end. Still, she stumbled slightly as she tried to regain her footing, and a few more pains shot up her legs and into her lower spine. Her wince didn't go unnoticed by the Doctor, if his frown was any sort of evidence. Sutton grinned falsely in order to try and reassure him, and they were following the alien down the tunnel before anything could be said on the matter. There was another Cheerok figure down with them now, it had to have been the one to open and replace the stone in the street, and it growled in a lower voice than the one holding the egg.
"And what are they doing here, Nihir? You know the risks."
"We have no time for talking. The egg is growing colder by the moment and the hatching is upon us."
That seemed to shut the other alien up, and they continued on in the tunnel. It was obviously dark, as they were underground, but there were glass balls of light lining the walls at spaced intervals that provided enough illumination to see by.
The tunnel opened up a few yards down and it reminded Sutton of a post apocalyptic bunker from the movies. There were crates stacked along one dirt wall with various supplies, and a large, circular module in the center of the room. The module had a few other eggs in it, and a light seemed to defuse within the contraption itself. The Cheerok referred to as Nihir hurried to gently lay the egg inside what Sutton was assuming was the incubator. As the egg settled inside the device, Nihir held up a clawed hand to its face and let out a noise that sounded almost like a choked sob.
"You are safe now, child," it said in a tone that reminded Sutton of her own mother. "You will live. You will live."
The second alien placed a hand on Nihir's shoulder and stared at the incubator with a hard gaze before directing its attention to their group. Its third eye flashed as it looked at them, and some of the tension in its shoulders relaxed as it did so.
"And who are you," it asked, still sounding a bit suspicious.
"The Docta', at your service!"
Sutton rolled her eyes at his enthusiastic theatrics.
"He's a Time Lord," Rose added as if that information would help. "And I'm Rose; a human."
Forgoing a wave, Sutton sighed deeply.
"Sutton, human. Wants to go home and not die."
The Cheerok's tail twitched beneath it's robes, causing Sutton to notice it had one, and still seemed hesitant.
"I am Vohoan," it said. "And she is Nihir. If you are as good as I believe you are, you will speak of this place or of us to no one."
"About that," the Doctor drawled, "what exactly is going on? Those eggs should be in private incubators with their respective families. Why are you lot smuggling them around?"
Nihir rejoined them from her place next to the incubator, her hands clasped together tightly. She was marginally taller than Vohoan, but their species were hard to differentiate genders as they had similar body builds and no hair.
"We are forced to smuggle eggs where we can," Nihir said, "because of the atrocities occurring to our young." Her voice choked up and her three clawed fingers rested gently at her throat. "They are being...murdered, The Doctor."
"Just Doctor is fine, thank you. And what do you mean murdered?"
"Let us sit," said Vohoan. "If you must know, then there is much to say. It is not a pleasant conversation."
They sat on short cushions for the explanation and, after declining a beverage, the Cheeroks began to explain their predicament.
An unwarranted and unwanted discovery had been made by foreign alien species within the last few years. Cheerok eggshells were highly medicinal when ground into powder and added to substances, to the point of being miraculous, and eggshells not ground to dust were actually quite durable. They were quite beautiful as well, even Sutton had to admit, as they were bright and multicolored, and many alien species liked to purchase them as status-displaying décor.
That idea seemed odd to Sutton, but then again, she was in the universe of the Doctor.
But there was a problem, Vohoan explained. Cheeroks did not reproduce as rapidly as other alien species. They tended to live longer lives than most, so did not need to. That meant that the supply of eggshells did not meet the new demand.
Sutton squirmed on her cushion at that ominous statement.
So eggs started to be stolen, and sold on the black market, with the young still inside.
"So many dead," Nihir cried softly. "Whether consumed or discarded, I'd rather not know. But our population and our people cannot take more of this."
"We have a few hidden places, like this one, for others to hide their eggs; if they're able to smuggle them out in time. But those who would take the eggs have more fire power than we can counter. There is apparent gain to be found in our young," Vohoan said hotly.
"Why would you trust us with this information," Sutton asked suddenly. The question hung thickly in the air a moment as everyone turned towards her. "I mean, you don't know us. And these, these are your children. How do you know we-we're not smugglers?"
"Didn't you hear what the Docta' said," Rose asked. "Tha's what their otha' eye is for."
Nihir pulled her lips back in a tight smile.
"We Cheeroks have the honor of being blessed with the Soul Eye. It allows us to see an impression of the soul of another being. We can tell that all of your intentions are well meaning towards us."
"Even...mine? That-that doesn't make sense. I'm...from somewhere else. You shouldn't, really, be...able to. I don't think."
"Dear girl," Nihir smiled, "souls transcend time and space. They are a universal constant."
Sutton sat back on her cushion, but didn't attempt to argue. She pulled the jacket she'd borrowed from the Doctor's extensive closet more tightly around her shoulders.
The words from the story she'd been told just kept making circles in her mind. Smugglers were killing unhatched children for profit! For just the shells of their eggs! Her stomach rolled as she saw Nihir glance back at the incubator with glassy eyes.
"I can already see their souls," she commented quietly. "They're beautiful."
"Well that'snot supposed to be happening." The Doctor stood up. "The Cheeroks are supposed to continue on for a few millennia yet! You're the ones responsible for the non-violent end to the Carpillian War!"
He paced back and forth in the small room a few times before stopping.
"Obviously I need to have a chat with these smugglers; can't have this continuing on."
"They will kill you if you try to intervene," Vohoan said. But there was something in his voice. A note, as if he hoped his warning wouldn't scare the Doctor away. Rose scoffed.
"Like we haven't encountered that before."
Sutton's hand twitched in her lap and she stopped herself from raising it as if in school. She swallowed back the proclamation that she didn't go around barely escaping death regularly. But her hooded gaze re-landed on the few eggs in the incubator and she straightened her posture.
They were barely even children.
"I can help."
Sutton looked up from her lap to the Doctor with a new determination.
" 'course you will. Now, I'll just-"
"No. I mean, I can help." She gave the Doctor a more pointed stare. "I mean that I can take care of it right here. It would only-"
"Oh, no; absolutely not. "
The initial decision to try and use her ability to actually benefit the side of good had left a warm feeling beginning to blossom within her, but the Doctor's quick shutdown rapidly fizzled it out.
"Excuse me?"
"We can talk about it later."
Sutton flushed and ticked her jaw briefly while she tried to keep her voice calm.
"I can do it more easily," she said. "And more quickly. I know I don't have a lot of practice, but I really think I can-"
"Sutton." The Doctor's voice had come out slightly snappy and stern. "We'll discuss it later."
That made her fingers curl into fists.
Did he think he was her mother? Not even her step-father had never even spoken to her like that.
Even Rose looked a bit awkward after the exchange and Sutton's face was warm enough to be a back up for the incubator, so she bit out a 'fine' instead of continuing to argue.
Whatever information the Doctor gleaned about the smugglers and such from the Cheeroks, Sutton didn't hear. She was too offended to be able to listen to the conversation. Really! She could actually be useful for once! For something good!
She stiffly followed the rest back down the tunnel to the secret entrance was helped back up through the opening in the ground. Nihir followed after them and Vohoan stayed behind to look after the eggs that were due to hatch any moment.
"If you are truly going after these smugglers, I want to join you," Nihir said. "It is my duty to help protect my people."
The Doctor spun on the ball of his foot to face her and agreed.
"Of course. We'll probably need your help at least once before this is all finished."
[][][][][][][][][][]
A string of curses flooded the lab room; not for the first time. Tony and Reed were furiously at work on their computers as another wave of energy was read by their equipment.
"What do you mean 'interference'?"
Tony's eyes were bloodshot, but he continued to read the numbers scrolling across his screen. His reply was waspish and blunt.
"I mean that I got readings of her going one direction and then suddenly the energy diverts."
"That's impossible. There's no way she could feasibly control and redirect that large of a surge of energy. Her body shouldn't really be able to process those initial surges in the first place."
Tony paused a moment to mull over the statement, despite the fact that it was an already understood concept.
"The only way it could work is if... if there's another player in this game. And they have better tech than I do."
Reed stopped his work completely and gave Tony a flabbergasted stare.
"Are you telling me you think someone actually was able to pick up on her signal while she was in the middle of transcending dimensions, was able to actually lock on to her signal before the process was completed, and not only that, but was then able to redirect it?"
Tony nodded stiffly while continuing to stare angrily at his screen. Reed sat back in his seat and huffed.
"Well, that's not... good."
"Ya think?"
Tony shot jerkily from his seat and then stood frozen and silent. Reed grimaced.
"Hey, look, at least, um, at least we know this means she's still alive, right? Maybe Jane will find something while she's away."
"Jane hasn't even made contact in days. I doubt anything she finds will be useful. Not for something like this."
The door to the lab whooshed open and Pepper Potts entered the lab. She wore a concerned look that implied Jarvis might have been been meddling on behalf of human emotion's where a computer shouldn't have concerns.
"Tony? Hey, how's the resear-"
Reed sliced his hand through the air in front of his neck signaling her to stop that train of conversation.
"Or, actually, have you eaten today?"
Pepper rested a hand on Tony's shoulder and his face partially cracked. His head dropped until it was cradled in her neck and he breathed shakily.
Reed decided to slip out of the room.
Pulling him closer, Pepper ran her fingers gently through his hair and rubbed his back.
"Hey, hey, hey. It's going to be ok. But Tony, you're killing yourself. You need to take a break."
He took that moment to wrap his arms in a vice-like grip around her waist and just held her. Pepper closed her eyes tightly a moment while taking a pained breath.
"I'm failing, Pep."
His voice was too vulnerable, too broken. Pepper choked back the emotion that rose up her throat.
"You are not failing," she said. "You're doing everything and these things don't come easily. I know you want to help her, but you have to take a break every once in awhile. You're never going to figure this out if you're so tired you can't even see straight. I know Sutton wouldn't want you like this."
"I'm the reason she's here." There was a light snap to his voice again. "She came over because I told her it was her only choice. I'm the reason she's... wherever she's been taken to now!"
"What was her other choice? Prison? Come on, Tony, you did the right thing."
"Furthermore! We could all be needing a bit of her help in the near future, because that place? That place up there?" He had lifted himself up enough to be able to point to the ceiling, but Pepper understood that he meant space. "It is filled with things that would love to see us all destroyed. Things with better weapons, and better technology, and they will not hesitate to annihilate us! And what if they found out about her, huh? They-"
"Tony!" Pepper gripped the sides of his face and forced him to make eye contact with her. "I need you to listen very closely to me. You are not responsible for the protection of the entire earth, ok? I don't mind that you help out here and there, but that is not a burden for you to carry."
"It is if I can do something about it."
Pepper groaned.
"How about we just start with small steps? The first thing you can do if you really want to help is to take a shower. Believe me."
She slowly freed herself from his grip, but kept a hold of his hand. When Tony hesitated, she gave his hand a little tug and graced him with a small grin.
"Come one, let's go. It might not be as bad as you think."
That seemed to help bring back a little of his usual personality. He finally began to follow her as she trailed out of the room.
"Well, if you want to insist."