The Story of Emily Evans

XLV: Awakening

They came from seemingly nowhere.... There were no sirens, no warning cries as they had landed. It caught me off guard...I wasn't really that equipped to be a fighter...I wasn't even one of the ones out risking their lives on the battlefield...but the enemy wouldn't care about that. They didn't care if I was a solider, a warrior, a fighter, a civilian, a daughter, a fiancée, a woman.... They only saw me as how they saw everything that wasn't them...an abomination to be eradicated. Even though...they were the real abominations.... They came in droves....

White hair pushed itself in front of my face as I ran across the red plains of Gallifrey. I ran from someone, multiple someone's, as fear gnawed at my core. My hearts beat frantically as I ran. Shots seemed to pass me by, but they weren't bullets...the shots were made of a type of electrical energy...laser like bullets. Maybe I should've listened to Father. I frantically told myself. There was a war going on and here I was...walking across the plains...away from the city. Out in broad daylight.

Just because they haven't invaded, until now, didn't mean that they weren't ever going to invade Gallifrey. Luckily, my hand went to my side...where I kept a blaster...my Father had given it to me when the war had first started...'for my protection' he had told me when I first refused said weapon. Never in all the worlds would I think I'd actually haft to use it.

I returned fire to the tin cans hot on my trail as they sung out their non-joyous melody. "Exterminate, exterminate, exterminate." They seemed to cry out, firing multiple shots from their cannons attached to their metal frame.

I yelled as I tripped over a rock, rolling down a hill. Owe...I told myself as I scampered up as fast as I could. I didn't want to be hit by their shots...I could die instantly...and then I wouldn't regenerate.... I'd be dead. Maybe that's why my Father didn't want me going out into the war...but I didn't go out into the war. The war came here...to Gallifrey...for the first time.... Suddenly, my home didn't feel so safe anymore. There wasn't anywhere safe, not anymore...not in the whole wide galaxy, universe even. I begun to realize.

I screamed as a hand caught my arm, scaring me in the process before they dragged me to the side. A flurry of shots seemed to run past, aimed at where I had previously been. I caught my breath...for only a second as the one who had saved me returned their fire towards the Daleks. The metal shells were soon pierced and dead, granting us a moment of reprieve.

"F-Father...?" I called out as I looked at my saviour. I was a bit surprised to see him here...wasn't he supposed to be at the front...? On the frontlines...?

"Not now." He told me, as he grabbed my arm...quite harshly as he lead me further away from those metal tin cans of destruction. "I told you not to go near the fighting!"

"I didn't...!" I tried to defend myself as he dragged me along. "Owe...." I told him, placing my free hand onto his as he gripped my arm. "You're hurting me." At that, his grip slacked...but only briefly. "I-I didn't go near the fighting, promise." I told him as our pace seemed to pick up. "I was already out here when they attacked."

"I told you the cities would be safer than the open plains...but do you ever listen to me...?" Father seemed to ask me, he was quite angry, furious even, with me. "You never listen to me...maybe I should've known you wouldn't a long time ago."

I then saw his Tardis in the distance...and I knew where he was taking me. The day this war started...he threatened...threatened me he'd do it if I ever got mixed up in the fighting. And I didn't...not until today. "N-no...!" I told him as I looked at his Tardis. "You said you wouldn't...you promised...!"

"But you just had to get mixed up in the fighting." Father told me. "You could've ran back to the city but where do I find you...? Running towards where he would've been at this time."