Fanfic: "Breakwater"

[aeshna_uk]

Title: Breakwater
Author: Aeshna
Fandom: Doctor Who
Rating: PG
Word count: 622
Characters: Adelaide Brooke, Tenth Doctor
Summary: She would take fire over water any day.
Spoilers: Major for The Waters of Mars
Warnings: Character death
Disclaimer: Not mine, no matter how many DVDs and toys I buy! Everything here belongs to RTD and to Auntie Beeb, who already has my licence fee.
Notes: Written for the consci_fan_mo comm. Watching WoM for the first time, I really wasn't sure which way things would go at the end – this is a look at how things might have gone....

Thanks as always to mimarie for looking this over for me – any remaining weirdnesses are all mine. Feedback of any variety is much appreciated but not compulsory – I'll post anyway! I've suffered for my art, now it's your turn....



Suddenly, everything was so very clear.

Captain Adelaide Brooke stopped as she reached the door, feeling the biting chill of the brass handle burn against her palm as she turned to meet the dark, impassive gaze of the man – the alien – who had dragged her from the jaws of death. So much had happened in the past hours, so much lost, too much saved... and now this creature, this Doctor, thought that she could simply trot meekly back into her life, to face the enquiries and inquisitions with a grateful heart? The fight had been doomed but at the end she had accepted her fate, had embraced her command and her responsibilities to the base and its people. She had been ready, her granddaughter’s shining future a comfort against the dark, and then –

He turned away, the dismissal clear, and she felt her resolve suddenly harden. The night was dark and still, the gentle descent of snowflakes adding a serene beauty to the world, but all she could see was the chaos of Mars, the fear and the fury, the sick sense of inevitability as all choices were reduced to one. It wasn’t how she had ever imagined dying, immolated in a boiling pillar of atomic flame, but after what she had seen done to her people it was a hell of a lot better than the alternative.

She would take fire over water any day.

Adrenaline still sang in her veins, its heat a shield against the creeping shock yet to come. Reaching down, she slid her gun from its holster, its weight heavy and familiar in her hand as she eased the door open, drawing in a deep breath as she turned back one last time.

He'd forgotten her already, striding back towards that freakish box with his long coat flapping at his heels. Off to descend uninvited into the lives of more of the 'little people', a god of his own twisted creation. If he had wanted to play saviour, why couldn’t he have done it sooner? Andy and Maggie and Tarak might have been lost causes, but the others....

She remembered Steffi’s terror, Roman’s determination, Ed’s sacrifice. Remembered Mia and Yuri’s desperate faith in her. Remembered the tales of Susie's glorious future, a future that might not even come to pass now that her grandmother’s Martian demise was no longer a mystery to inspire.

She owed them. She owed all of them. And the Doctor –

The Doctor had saved them from one monster, had brought them safely back to a place where water was merely a thing of chill and drifting elegance, but in so doing had, it seemed, unleashed another beast more dangerous by far. She didn’t doubt his power for a moment, didn’t doubt the fierceness of his gaze or the gleam of self-righteous madness in his eyes. He thought himself a god, the arbiter of time and fate, with carte blanche to do exactly as he pleased, to remake the universe as he saw fit. Mia had been right – they didn't know who the hell he was. And as for what he was capable of....

He had made his decision. And she... she had never needed a deity to show her the way forward. She sure as hell didn't need this one. No one did. The Time Lord Victorious?

Tough.

She brought the gun up in a firm two-handed grip, feeling the same sudden calm that had descended upon her as she set Action Five into motion. Her single shot found its mark –

And she stood silent in the frozen doorway, with snowflakes swirling about her feet, and watched as a would-be god dropped to his knees and dissolved into a column of boiling flame.

~ fin ~

Comments

[aeron-lanart.livejournal.com]

This is what I thought *was* going to happen - but obviously with Adelaide stopped at the crucial point somehow, or possibly just injuring him seeing as there are another 2 Tennant specials.

Lovely piece of writing.

[aeshna_uk]

I thought she might wing him or something - was rather hoping that she would, to be honest. :) But in some ways, shooting herself cut through his little fit of godhood rather more effectively!

Glad you enjoyed it! :D

[joking.livejournal.com]

Excellent misdirection. Also, I think this very much captures the way she thinks. She has this wisdom tempered by iron resolve that comes through in your writing.

[aeshna_uk]

Thank you - she was rather fun to write. :)

[canaana.livejournal.com]

Delightful to see someone pull this off, and of course, you couldn't do it anything but deftly. :) I always felt there was that moment where she touched her gun and could have gone either way, and it's cool to see someone playing with that.

More impressive is the way you've gotten inside her head for the last scene. It's on of those places I'd always wondered what she was thinking, and *I* sure wouldn't have wanted to tackle it. There really is a very "Fire and Ice" dynamic about the last five minutes of WoM, isn't there?

[aeshna_uk]

Thank you! There was a real will-she, won't-she moment there, and while the two specials to come rather meant that he wasn't the one likely to get shot, it's entertaining to play with the alternate scenario in fic. :D

Yeah, very "Fire and Ice" at the end there - it's good to see the Doctor find himself up against someone who can match him and isn't intimidated by him on occasion. Glad you enjoyed it! :)

(not forgotten your auction fic, btw - 2009 is just proving slightly mad towards the end....)

[canaana.livejournal.com]

I wasn't really worried about the auction fic, but it's also nice to hear something. :) And I totally understand the "slightly mad" issue--I'm still working on the SP's runner up auction fic in the midst of the madness. (Of course, it's rapidly expanding toward 20,000 words, so I suppose bloat shares the blame with end-of-year madness).

[tempusdominus10.livejournal.com]

Ah, very nice. Waht everyone else said. Very nice.

[aeshna_uk]

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it! :)

[helygen.livejournal.com]

Wow. Just ... wow! Very clever rewrite, and beautifully written

[aeshna_uk]

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it! :)

[torn-eledhwen.livejournal.com]

You completely caught me out - wonderful. Lovely Adelaide voice. Very dignified.

[aeshna_uk]

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it! :)

[lindenharp.livejournal.com]

The Time Lord Victorious?

Tough.

Brilliant, using the Doctor's words is such a different context..

Your ending is chilling and very, very right.

[aeshna_uk]

Thank you! There were some terrific lines in there that were just begging to be twisted back on him. ;) Glad you enjoyed it!

[mad-jaks.livejournal.com]

Fantastically well handled. Thank you. And the end was as lindenharp has already said, very chilling and very, very right,

[aeshna_uk]

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it! :)

[eumenidis.livejournal.com]

"...she had never needed a deity to show her the way forward. She sure as hell didn't need this one. No one did."--Thank you, that sums up the situation very neatly.

[aeshna_uk]

He makes a particularly poor god, does the Doctor, especially when in petulant child mode. :) Glad you enjoyed it!

[eumenidis.livejournal.com]

Even more esp. when he's in the mode of petulant child who's realized no one can stop him from doing whatever he wants; scaaary.

Always do.

[sapphire-child.livejournal.com]

I totally thought she was going to shoot him in the back as I watched WoM. I was honestly shocked when she did herself in instead. Very awesome to see it played out this way instead.

[aeshna_uk]

Thank you - glad you enjoyed it! :)

[swordznsorcery.livejournal.com]

After years of following devotedly in the Doctor's footsteps, I'm almost cheering Adelaide on here. And I agree - why couldn't he turn all Mad Time Lord God earlier, before Peter O'Brien got all blewed up?! ;)

This is a nicely written piece, and I appreciate seeing it more through Adelaide's eyes than the real scene was in the programme. The Doctor must look pretty terrible at this point to somebody who has never met him before, and doesn't know about the good that he's always done in the past. I can easily see this happening.

^{I just wish, if it did, that we'd be seeing him regenerate into Paterson Joseph...}

[aeshna_uk]

The Doctor, on the whole, must come across as a complete psycho to most of the folks he encounters on his travels - good intentions, but tends to leave one hell of a bodycount in his wake (even if unintentionally)! I'm amazed that more people don't take potshots at him.... :)

PJ, alas, never actually auditioned for the role, so you'll need to take that one up with him!

[weird-fin.livejournal.com]

Seconded before Peter O'Brien got blown to space. :(

[weird-fin.livejournal.com]

Lovely piece. She should have seen what would happen yes?