T H E L A S T O F T H E I R K I N D
xxviii. beware the beast
"DAUGHTER OF WAR, YOU ARE NEAR."
She remember feeling sore. Her body ached as another side affect from her overbearing abilities. She remembered being forced into bed by the Doctor, but everything afterwards was fuzzy.
How she got to this place, she didn't know. It was dark, so dark that she couldn't see anything in front of her. All she could feel was the cold and when her power reached out as a sixth sense, there was only the presence of an eerie darkness.
"Daughter of War hear me."
The girl spun around. That voice was familiar, creepily so. "I know you," She called out into the dark. "I've been here before."
She had been there before. A dark cavern, filled with an even darker energy. It was all too familiar. But she wonder how she got there. The Tardis was impenetrable. There was no way she was stolen away, The Doctor would never allow it. But why was it she couldn't remember anything past lying down?
Her eyes narrowed. "Oh," The blonde breathed. "I'm asleep, aren't I?"
"You will be dead soon." It called out to her, it's voice lower than before. "And so will those who are precious to you."
She turned to look behind her. Whatever it was, it was close. Karielle's eyes flashed a lustery silver. "Get out of my head."
"Daughter of War, be wary of me. For I am death, destroyer of worlds, conqueror of the universe." It hissed back at her. "I will be your fall, your final fall."
"Get out of my head!" The world around her flashed, like lightning striking as a consequence of her rage.
"I will be your end, Karielle. And you will be my beginning. You will set me free."
Karielle felt the panic rise in her. She couldn't wake up, not on her own. She let out a breath. "Why can't I wake up?" she squeezed her eyes shut. If she focused hard enough, she could feel herself laying down on her bed, her body unmoving while she moved in whatever dream state she was in. She was still safe inside the Tardis. Yet still, she was trapped inside her own mind. She felt her power surging in her body.
"I said, get out of my head!"
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THE TARDIS WAS STILL PARKED IN THE TYLER'S FLAT. While Rose slept in her own bed for the first time in weeks, the other three were still inside the Tardis. Rose needed time with her mother, The Doctor decided. And Karielle full heartedly agreed.
So there he sat, in the Tardis' control room with the lights lower than usual. The Doctor was silent as he sat in the jumpseat with his eyes closed. His thoughts wondering from Karielle to her struggle with her power. He knew there had to be a way to help her, some way to draw it out of her or calm it down.
He was pulled out of his thoughts by the Tardis creaking, and then her lights flickering. He looked around incredulously. The Tardis light's don't just flicker.
It would take a massive amount of power. "What is-?" His eyes widened. A power source strong enough to affect the Tardis? "Karielle."
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"You will loose to war."
Karielle squeezed her eyes shut with her legs tucked into her chest. Being trapped inside your own mind is dangerous for anyone, but for Karielle, it was her own personal hell. And he knew that. Whoever had her stuck, knew that it would scare her. She spent so long trying to fight herself, her own destructive, chaotic nature and in return, she became scared of herself- her own mind.
"Karielle," Her eyes snapped open. Oh that voice, that beautiful, wonderful voice. Realization dawned on her quietly. The mental link was still there, somewhere in the back of her mind. He could still hear her. But her control was limited. All she could do was call for him and hope to her father that he'd hear her. And so she did exactly that.
The beast laughed, seeming to think the same as her but found it comical. "He will die as a failed effort of saving you from yourself. He will die for the very last time, when stars are being consumed by an abyss."
She shook her head. "Stop it."
"Ri!" He only used that name when he was worried about her. He was there though. If she focused hard enough, she could sense the Time Lord. He was there and that's all that mattered.
"You bring fire and ice, and the world will stop when war has been repaired. You will be the death of them all."
"Get out of my head!"
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The Doctor found Karielle's room about as quickly as he'd find his own. He didn't even think to knock. The dark eyed alien opened her door, and flicked on her lamp. He found her lying figure on her bed, not even in her sleepwear or underneath her blanket. It was like she had just passed out.
She was shaking while she slept. It didn't take him long to notice she was crying and whimpering. He briefly glanced around the to see broken picture frames and mirrors. "Her powers must have done it."
And then her lights flickered again, and her body jolted, sending a small amount of energy surging through the air. But it wasn't blue like he had seen before. It was black.
She was having another nightmare. And if she didn't wake up, he feared she'd destroy the interior of the Tardis.
"Karielle."
Saying her name got no response. She didn't bat an eyelash. Her uneven breath didn't even. "Rielle?" He took her head in his hands. "Rielle, you've got to wake up. Ri!"
Still no response. Lucifer too must of sensed something was wrong, because sooner than the Doctor could realize, the devil stood in his sister's room.
"What is it? What's wrong with her?" Then he noted the damage.
"She's having a nightmare. Using her powers in her sleep." The Doctor rushed out. Lucifer came to his side and placed to fingers on her forehead. If he could just break through her barrier in order to wake her up-
But it was too easy to be true. Lucifer was sent flying back into a wall from a reactive blast trigger by his invasion of her mind. She was locking him out.
"I'm not surprised. Her mind blockade has always been strong." Lucifer coughed out.
"We've already established a mental link, albeit very suddenly and hastily but that's not really the point." He told Lucifer as he picked the girl's upper body up and laid her back down so that her head was resting on his lap.
"So what is the point?" Lucifer snapped.
CUnlike yours," He snarkingly retorted. "Her mind willing let's me in." He placed his middle and index fingers on her temples.
Imagines shot through his head at lightening speed. Her blonde hair in her face, her knees ticked into her chest as she sat on a dark covered floor. She was surrounded by darkness and she was crying.
Before he could get any deeper, another surge was sent through her body accompanied with a phrase that rung in his ears coated with the angel's voice.
"Get out of my head!"
Whatever she did, it worked. The Doctor was pushed out of her head instantly. His eyes opened in time to see Karielle inhale a large amount of air, push herself up and then begin to cough violently.
He got off of the bed to give her some space as she gathered herself. Her usual demeanor changed drastically. Her eyes were filled with fear. Karielle, the out-of-control Archangel, was scared.
But then, something changed. Karielle looked around, her eyes still filled with fear but the dark blue color dissipated. "Rielle?" Her head snapped towards him as she finally sat up. Her eyes were filled to the brink with tears. "Ri?"
"Doctor, I-" How was she suppose to describe what she just went through? It didn't make enough sense for her to explain it.
"Shh," He hushed her, taking his spot beside her as she started to hyperventilate. "You're safe. It's all right. You're in the Tardis." He wrapped his arms around her, one hand combing through her blonde hair.
Lucifer watched the two, the way the time lord cared for his baby sister and the way she clung to him in fear. She was safe with him, trusted him even.
So he left The Doctor to comfort her.
Lucifer missed Karielle pulled away. Her usual calm, calculated, and slightly temperamental attitude was nonexistent. She was panicked and terrified.
The dark eyed Time Lord watched as the girl slipped out of her bed wordlessly and move to the mirror, waving her hand in the process to conjure fire in the fireplace to heat her undeniably cold room.
She shut her eyes. It was threatening not only her, but The Doctor and Rose and Lucifer- all of them. She wouldn't have it.
"You have to leave me on Earth."
Now, it was The Doctor's turn to panic. He knew she had her struggles, of course he did, but she was doing well.
"W-what?"
"You have to leave me on Earth, Doctor."
Her voice dripped with so many emotions. But when she turned from the mirror to face him, her face showed none of them. She was calm, too calm. He tilted his head.
She was scared, but what would scare an angel that could never truly die? It suddenly clicked. She couldn't die, but everyone around her, excluding her brother of course, could.
"It was like the dream from before, wasn't it?" Karielle's jaw clenching was enough to answer his question. "Ri, who was it?"
"I don't know." She briefly said. "But until I do, I need to get as far away from you and Rose as I can."
The Doctor snorted. "Not going to happened, sweetheart."
Her eyes narrowed into slits. "I can't stay here without putting you and Rose at risk. You do understand that, right?"
"Well, for starters, yes. I didn't blindly invite you into the Tardis without knowing there would be danger. You're kind's two away from extinction. And you're very powerful. There's bound to be someone out there who knows and wants you or that power. But there's also this." The Doctor got up from the bed and walked over to her. "I don't care, couldn't care less in fact."
"Then you're-"
"an idiot? Mad?" He questioned, throwing her a know it all smirk. "So I've been told." He knew she'd try to push him away. The sooner he wanted her gone, the better for her plan. It was too bad the Doctor wasn't planning on letting that happened. "Remember the letter Antoinette wrote you?"
Her eyes hardly ever gave her away, contrary to popular belief. It was always her voice. "You'll- you'll have to be more specific."
And there it was, the slight crack of voice he was hoping to hear. It was the equivalent to her eyes softening.
"You know."
She looked towards fireplace. He followed her gaze to see the very same letter neatly laying on the mantle piece. "She said you promised to protect me," she whispered. "and that I should find comfort in that."
"You have to trust me to protect you, and Rose." He replied, looking down at her in a way that made her feel really uncomfortable. No one had ever looked at her like that.
The angel shook her head. "Why can't you just let me go?"
"If you were anyone else, I'd let you leave. I'd let you leave the Tardis and go off on your own, without a fight." The Doctor told her. "But you're not just anyone. You're you, and I can't let you go. I physically just can't. I know you don't want me to let go either because I believe you need me just as much as I need you."
Karielle was ready to cry again. This man, this wonderful, incredible, and extremely, stupidly brilliant man could feel everything she could. She couldn't deny it because it was true.
"We're in danger." She finally choked out, tears building up in her eyes again. She sat down on the couch, The Doctor following suit. "And I'm-"
She was scared and she probably would never admit it again.
He wrapped an arm around her shoulder, laying her head against his shoulder. "I know, Ri. I know."
No one said anything else. The Doctor watched the fire's flames dance as Karielle sat beside him, exhausted and sleepy. "He'll come again if I sleep. He can keep me there too. It took far to much power to get him out of my head." She yawned out.
The Doctor ran a hand through her hair. "Now that I know, I can keep whoever it is out of you're head through the bond. Nothing's getting into your head without me knowing anymore, sweetheart. Sleep."
So she did as told. She allowed herself to be lured back to sleep by the sound of his hearts beating in his chest.
The Doctor looked down at the sleeping girl in thought. She struggled far too much and he'd be damned to let her struggle like this for much longer. He promised to protect her, and to care for her. So he'd do just that.
He shifted to get the two of them for comfortable and draped a blanket over them both. He kissed the top of her head. He would protect this rare girl by whatever means necessary. As promised, the guardian watched over her, shielding her mind from the nightmares that tried to terrify his rare angel.
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"You must teach me how to make this."
The Doctor jumped at the sound at the sound of her voice. He turned the monitor away from him as he turned to face her, a grin finding it's way onto his face. "What?"
She held up her coffee mug in response. "Right. Chai Tea Latte." He tilted his head at basically thin air as he thought to himself. "Kind of repetitive if you ask me, chai tea. You know technically, if you translate it properly it's just tea tea. Eh, actually that's not kind of repetitive, that is repetitive. Tedious too!"
Karielle took a seat on the jumpseat, just admiring The Doctor as he went on his rant about her drink, smiling to herself. He wasn't talking about last night. He was distracting her. A welcomed gesture because she needed a distraction.
"Oh, I've got to get Rose." The Doctor stopped and murmured to himself before announcing, "I have a trip planned!" She nodded to herself. He was definitely trying to keep her occupied.
The Doctor did laps around the console, but briefly came to a halt to observe the angel, who was deep in thought. He flicked a switch and the monitor shut off, concealing the paused footage of Karielle and Lucifer in the control room, arguing.
When Karielle finally looked up, the Doctor met her gaze, smirking at her playfully. The girl shook her head, totally unaware of what he now knew.
He could save her.
THE END OF ACT ONE.