As the Huntress ran to her friends aboard the Salvation, her mind flicked back through a few memories from her previous life. She couldn't figure out why but all she could remember was one mission. Nothing really out of the ordinary, except for what she found at the end.
It happened quite a few years ago now. Many in fact. Her task took her far away to the triad planets of the Minogri sector. The main planet was well-known, going by Satara Prime. This planet was surrounded by three planets known as the triad. Khonos, Celica and Tagri.
Her objective attempted to hide from her on Tagri, the jungle planet also known to the Satarians as the Emerald Planet.
For a small planet, the wildlife was no less than exquisite. The flora bloomed constantly and the rivers were always clear. The animals were gentle beings. It was like a slice of heaven to be there. The only reason for its seclusion and population of zero was because the Satarians believed that the planet was sacred and should only be observed by the purest of beings. As history indicated, no one was ever worthy. Such a pity since the whole Minogri system was obliterated by Dalek invaders in the 48th century.
In the current time of the memory, it was a few centuries earlier. Her objective was one of the few of its species left. It was decided that it would be in the universes best interest if that survivor were to suffer a similar fate to the rest of its species.
Since this was an important task, the Huntress was sent to finish them off. To commit murder. No name, no identification. Only a species title along with its last known location. Easy for the Huntress. Barely even a difficult task.
The Huntress had chased this being for at least three planets now with only a vortex manipulator as her travel agent. She did have a standard issue TARDIS, however she was forced to abandon it after a stunt the target pulled, leaving it inoperable thanks to a convenient energy draining creature.
Right now, she was running through the thick jungle in hot pursuit. She'd managed to find her targets makeshift fire and drive them into the direction she wanted. They ran fast but oozed fear and demonstrated no skill in stealth or caution.
After all of this time, she wondered how they managed to avoid capture for this long.
'Nowhere to go now. This is it. Time to accept your fate' she chanted to herself as she always did when chasing her prey, sure of its demise.
She felt the wind rushing through her long red hair as well as the sweat flying off of her bare skin. She only wore a white tank top and tight brown leather pants with matching boots. The rest of her clothing and equipment were left behind on the last planet. She remembered to keep her plasma pistol haltered to her upper right leg, so she knew she was set.
Bouncing around her neck was a silver chain and on the chain was a golden ring with intricate cuttings and designs woven through it. It seemed dirty and old, like it had been treasured for a long time.
The worst part was that the Huntress had no idea why she treasured it. No idea at all. Every memory before her rebirth was erased. A clean slate for a brutal killer to be born.
As she planned, she forced herself to skid to a stop very quickly just as the trees and brush broke out into a small clearing next to a cliffs edge. Waiting and looking down at the massive and un-survivable drop was her target. The rocks around the edge made it impossible for them to try running alongside the cliffs edge. They were completely trapped.
'Well, Aplan. This has been fun. Game's over now. This is where the hunter takes her prey' she declared proudly as she stared down the being with a smile across her face and her skin glistening in the blaring sun before her.
Ahead of her, the target was a timid, white robe wearing being. Nothing too unusual except for the fact that it had two heads. One male and one female. Both frightened and looking at each other in panic.
'Please madam, our planets already been taken and our own people have been murdered! Surely we can be spared for our species sake!' the woman spoke up, while the male head shook frantically, clearly not agreeing with the other heads decision to plead.
The Huntress looked down and sighed with her smile remaining intact.
'What can I say, a job's a job. I never leave one unfinished. Never' she spoke with each word growing more brutal than the last. It was clear that her hearts were cold and emotionless. They only felt something when she drew the blood of others.
Shaking his head in frustration, the male head couldn't hold back his words any longer.
'No. No, no, no! Surely we can be spared. I mean, we're the worst of the worst compared to our fallen brethren. We, we went against our church and married each other! We were already hated, plus we're cowards! We ran away when our planet needed us!' he shouted in argument while the female head was nearing tears.
The Huntress nodded as she listened. It wasn't clear to them, but she was acting this way to pretend that she cared. In all honesty, she wished they were dead already. They were now starting to annoy her and annoy her only.
She noted their condition. It was beyond clear that the Aplan was seriously wounded in the left leg. It was covered in cuts and bruises. It would eventually suffer from heat stroke and was clearly lacking the intake of nutrition. It would've been dead within the next 24 hours at least anyway.
'Nevertheless, my mission stands and your demise is the endgame. Any last words?'
Both heads shook. They had nothing left to say. It clasped its hands together, almost like praying hands and placed its heads together as they started to cry.
Without remorse or restraint, the Huntress started walking towards them.
'Safe travels' she says as she reached the Aplan and shoved it over the cliffside.
Neither head screamed nor showed any panic on the way down. The Huntress merely watched as the figure disappeared into the greenery, vanishing from all sight and thankfully hiding the mess the corpse would have left.
As she watched, a tear rolled down her eye. She wiped it away and huffed. 'Every damn time.'
Thankful that the job was finally done, the Huntress calibrated her vortex manipulator for Gallifrey. However, she thought she'd take her time before hurrying home.
She stretched her arms out and leaned back. She smiled at the sun as it hit her face and made her opal eyes glisten. In that one moment, she was beautiful and innocent. Such a disguise for the monster she was, yet a perfect visual reflection of the woman she used to be. One who made it her lifes creed to never take another life under circumstance. Never.
In a split second, she heard a twig snap behind her. She instantly drew her pistol and positioned herself in front of the being behind her with all intention to kill. However, that intention died the moment she saw the man before her and she would have given anything to know why she couldn't pull the trigger.
Another time lord stood before her. A man wearing a long dark jacket and a bow tie. Young looking indeed, though she couldn't remember why he felt so familiar to her. It had something to do with his eyes. So old, yet so familiar.
She couldn't speak, she couldn't move anymore and she couldn't even blink. Both time lords stared at each other with no idea how they happened to meet.
The man stared at her with the saddest look on his face directed at her. She thought it was maybe because of who she killed, but it was more than that. He was sad FOR her and for some reason, she was somehow sad for him. His eyes started welling with tears and his hands clenched.
'You can't be...' he whispered at her. Every word stung her hearts and more tears formed within her. He knew her. He knew the old her that she couldn't remember, yet she still felt something towards him, but she didn't know what.
In confusion and pain, the Huntress forced herself to do the only thing she could do. Activate her vortex manipulator and teleport away. Her only answer was to run away. Run away again from her past and her old self.
As she vanished, the man was left with a haunting sight which would forever stay with him and ignite a flame which had died a very, very long time ago. 'You're alive...' the Doctor smiled as the first tear fell down his cheek.
* * *
Finally, the Huntress reached warehouse 56. It was certainly an old, run-down building. Perfect for hiding a ship no-one wanted found or tampered with.
She stopped at the buildings door and crouched, getting her breath back. She'd just ran from one end of the yard to the other in record time, but her lungs did have limits just like everyone else's.
'Whoo! These lungs aren't as trained as the last ones! That's something that definitely needs improvement. So many faults and so many improvements all in one. This regeneration business really is an experience, isn't it?' she rambled on to herself.
Feeling an overwhelming dizziness, she staggered and tried to keep herself upright with every fibre of her being. As she steadied again, her head leaned back and her eyes closed. A golden streak of energy flowed out of her mouth and vanished into the sky.
This time, she seemed sad as she opened her eyes and watched the last hints dissipate into nothing. 'I wonder how long this lasts?' she quietly uttered in wonder. 'You ok, Cassie?'
It was only then that she noticed Cassie's absence, frantically looking all around her and back where she had just ran from.
'Cassie? Cassie! I thought she was right behind me! Oh, I've already lost another one. If these two are gone too, I'm not going to have a great track record at all. Well done Huntress, nice start to your journey on earth. Meet humans, get attacked and regenerate whilst losing your TARDIS, discover an alien attack plot, attempt to investigate then lose two of four humans I've met to the enemy. Geez, how does he cope with this stuff?'
She looked inside the warehouse from the open doorway. Inside was indeed a large vessel, presumably the Salvation. It was still well maintained and had most of its hull and equipment still attached, functional or not. It seemed strange that a vessel in this condition would be abandoned and not stripped or restored.
It seems that Will and Gray's detective work is nothing to ignore. They did well finding importance in this ship. Makes me wonder why they even need me. Oh, right.
She noticed the locked door up on the main deck near the walkway. She stretched her back and started walking to the ship. She heard every move the water made around her. She wasn't about to let her guard down for a second aboard this floating cage.
As she reached the door, she tried to open it herself with no luck at all.
'Huh. A locked door without a lock. Fancy that.'
She pulled out her sonic screwdriver and used it on the door. It swung open for her with no issues whatsoever. 'Oh look at that, even ships will open a door for a lady. I think that was a nice thing which people did on earth, right? Oh, forget it.'
She slowly stepped inside and looked both ways along the corridor. Neither Will or Gray were there. They hadn't waited for her, thank goodness.
She assumed that Will noticed already, but the inside was certainly the wrong design compared to the outside. Everything seemed wrong aboard it. As she took a few more steps forward, the door swung shut behind her and locked once again.
Huntress could hear the slam of the door and she tried to pull it open once more. It wouldn't budge. She then turned to her sonic and tried to force it open. Nothing.
'Well, well, well. Deadlock seal. Someone did their homework' she sighs.
Behind her, she could hear the gushing sound of water. This time, its presence called to her, almost pleading to be seen. In confidence, the Huntress turns around to the formation and was truly surprised by what she was seeing.
Before her was a figure comprised of water particles. A male wearing an old navy uniform. A young man who was soaking wet and still dripping water from his mouth, nose and ears. A scary sight indeed.
She saw in his lifeless eyes sadness that he had no intention to harm her. At the very least, she was relieved at that. He reached an arm out and tried to speak. In her mind, almost telepathically, she heard a voice cry to her. It was clear that he was speaking, but what she heard was delayed from the man's lips.
'Save them' it whispered.
As soon as she heard those words, the man instantly dissolved into water before her once more. As soon as the water hit the ground, the particles dissolved into steam, like the ones she dissolved back at the lab.
Clearly, this was a crewman from the Salvation reaching out. The question was, how was his presence able to manifest through the same technology the enemy was using. These were more questions with more connections, but it was all building up too great for Huntress to keep up. She could piece it together easily, but all she wanted right now was to find Will and Gray.
With her hearts pumping and her mind set on saving the few friends she had left, she started running through the corridor. She hoped that they would find the bridge as she asked. If so, then the bridge was the place to go.
'Let's hope nothing else goes wrong' she thinks aloud.
As she runs, her every move is still being observed by the male figure in the red-washed room. Still bearing a wicked grin.