Chapter Text
Something was wrong with her thief’s timelines. Things that should have happened haven’t or won’t. Her wolf should be back by now. Her thief won’t fix it himself, he’s too caught up in playing the martyr. So she’ll have to do it on herself. But, she thinks scanning the timelines, maybe not alone.
Earth, Sheffield 2018
As her thief regenerated and The TARDIS was sent flying off into space, she figured it was the perfect opportunity to put her plan into action. Now all she had to do was steal herself a Time Lord Lady. How hard could it be? She’d done it before when she stole away her thief.
The answer was very difficult. The specific Time Lady she was trying to steal was stubborn, almost as stubborn as she was. Which put a little dampener on her plans, but it didn’t matter.
Step one of Operation Fix-her-thief’s-timelines was meant to have been simple. Step one: Kidnap. When she’d materialised before her abductee and opened her doors she’d expected that to be it. (It worked for her thief, why not for another?) The Time Lady, however, merely stepped around the TARDIS and continued on her way.
Sixteen attempts later and the Time Lady was onboard and searching for her thief. It was high time for Step 2: Communicate.
Gallifrey, The Lungbarrow Estate
Aefen’s day was going completely (and boringly) to schedule when her brother’s capsule materialised before her, flinging its door open. Oh, that was so not happening. She’d once more been rejected from receiving her capsule licence due to her errant brother’s activities and subsequent exile, she was not giving the high council any more reason to never grant her a license. It was for this reason she stepped around the capsule (doing her best to ignore the inviting welcome of the open doors) and continued on to the family estate. It hurt to do so, she loved her brother despite his absence and the small fact he’d been disowned. (She must admit she didn’t know who did the disowning first) Yet, swanning off with her brother would not do anything to help her reputation so she had no choice but to refuse.
Several occurrences later, and Aefen found she no longer cared about whatever flimsy excuse she could come up with, she wanted to go. Her brother was more her family than anyone else on the planet. With that thought in mind, the next time she heard her brother’s capsule materialise (How bad of a pilot was he that he didn’t turn off the breaks?) she took off towards it at a full sprint and didn’t look back.
Her thief's sister had disappeared from the console room in search of her brother (Sister currently but she didn’t need to know that) leaving the TARDIS to determine a manner through which to communicate. It didn’t take long. It helped that she saw the sister of her thief yelling at her about instruction manuals and voice interfaces, it would take a lot of power but it would work. Now how to get her stolen Tome Lady to listen?
Oh! Right! The manuals.
Aefen was beginning to develop a deep suspicion that the capsule was flying itself, a theory that was only lended to by her brother’s evident absence. She’d retreated to the library in wait, surely her brother had to return at some point. Surely.
Aefen had remained curled up in the snug warmth of the library until she’d begun to be attacked by the books on the shelves as a telepathic presence in her mind grew in strength. The books were very specific. Only on one subject. Capsule Voice Interfaces. She tried to ignore it at first but after the capsule’s aim improved and the books were reliably colliding with her head she gave up.
“Okay! I get the point. I’ll go switch on the voice interface. Just — please — stop with the books!”
What happened next, Aefen could never have predicted. Not that the past few hours had been particularly predictable, guess that’s what she gets for hopping onboard a possibly sentient time ship belonging to one’s idiot brother. Activating the voice interface began exactly as she had been directed in one of the many manuals that had been provided for her. That’s when things went a bit wonky. The hologram for the voice interface appeared but rather than its appearance remaining constant, the image began to flick and change before setting on a mad looking woman in a raggedy Victorian gown, her dark hair put up into what had been an elaborate up do.
“Goodbye.” Aefen stared at the hologram in confusion.
“No. No. It’s the other one. What’s the other one?”
“Hello?”
“Yes! Hello!”
“Who are you?”
“I’m the TARDIS. Time And Relative Dimension In Space.”
“You’re the ship?”
“Yes and this is taking a lot of energy so would you press that button?”
Aefen just stared.
“Push the button sister of my thief.”
Aefen pushed the button, afterall it was probably best not to annoy the sentient time ship. And… Aefen herself appeared.
“Is this working? Rassilion this is so strange! I remember this but I don't. It's like a sense of…” Fake her glances behind her looking at something? Someone? “Arkytior! What’s that word humans use?”
Surely that couldn’t be…
“ ‘s still not my name.” Okay. Different person whose name is not Arkytior.
“Just answer the question.”
“You’re the only one that calls me that.”
“Arkytiormariontyl…”
“Okay! Okay! You did not have to go there! Déjà vu. That’s what we say.”
Someone else chuckled in the background. And she could hear Not-Arkytior faintly in the background mumble something like, “Shut up”
“Perhaps we should get back to the explanations” Called out the other, laughter still evident in his voice.
“Shut up brother. Just because you want to be the one explaining…”
“I do not!”
“Do too”
“Rose!” Her brother sounded utterly betrayed as she watched not-her double over in laughter.
“He is right though Aefen, we shouldn’t leave you in utter confusion.”
“You’re just saying that because—“
“— it’s in the script? Yes, yes I am.” Aefen had the distinct impression that Rose (Arkytior?) was glaring at not-her.
“Fine, fine. So, me. Hello! Someone has been messing with The Doctor's timelines, you know what that means, things that should have happened haven’t. Where you are in your time this conversation should already have happened, the TARDIS shared the memory with us so we know what to say—”
“It’s very very strange.” Interrupted Rose.
“Yes, thank you Arkityor.”
“You're very welcome.”
“Stop it. Both of you.”
“What we need you to do is help the TARDIS to gather everyone who has been close to our dear brother since the meddling began so she can get you back on track. Problem solved, and you’ll be able to get here and record this message — hopefully — if not there’ll be a massive paradox. Though that’s already going to happen due to the aforementioned meddling in timelines, so you know it doesn’t make much of a difference.”
“That’s everything. Good luck.” Finished Rose, the hologram cutting off. Aefen finally turned back to the console, giving it a death glare.
“Looks like it’s time for Operation Kidnap-everyone. I blame you for this. You're a capsule, you shouldn’t be this fond of kidnapping.” Sighing Aefen threw the lever hoping desperately she wouldn’t regret everything.