Private Rites of Magic (Pete, Arielle)

[Deleted]

Three days since outbreak, and the government was still squabbling itself hoarse in commitees. Fat lot of good any of them were. Mickey and Jake had headed off to France, but they kept in contact. Good thing to, since it was Mickey who had helped inspire today's venture.

It seemed in the universe Mickey came from, there were organizations formed to handle alien contact with Earth. UNIT - which did exist here, and was the only reason he was not privately cursing the entire government blue - and another more secretive operations known as Torchwood.

Mickey had told him that he had never seen this Torchwood himself, only caught mentions, but the idea was a good one. So Pete had done a little digging, and in no time at all discovered there was a Torchwood Institute here. Hidden almost in plain sight, he'd forgotten how many of their reports he had read himself.

Like everything else, it was a bit different from Mickey's version. Instead of being any sort of alien fighting experts, it was primarily a small facility of researchers that were originally formed to help Queen Victoria fight a mysterious illness. True, said researchers probably did not have much in the way of field experience other than cataloguing various alien tech they had found, but Pete didn't necessarily need combat experience. A weapon that could take out some of the millions of remaining cybermen stored in so many nations would do him just fine.

And hopefully, they would be willing to do more than that. Their planet needed every bit of help they could get. The Doctor's arrival earlier at the dawn of outbreak had been sheer luck. But as strangely improbably as he might be and as his companion definitely was, Pete knew that right now - this planet was on its own. He was on his own. No Jacks, no sworn in President even. Just that tiny little dog Rose and a giant infestation of Cybermen. He wasn't going to turn down many potential allies at this point.

So he decided to make a call.

[Deleted]

There was a stranger at Canary Wharf today. Arielle could tell without so much as lookingout of her glorified cell. True, not many prisons provided suites, but then... Arielle's only crime seemed to be existing and the stubbornness of the Torchwood scientists. And though they had been kind to her on the whole, she still knew that in many ways she was under constant guard.

Her quarters consisted primarily of two rooms. One was her sleeping area, it had once doubled as a play room before Arielle decided that she was too old for such things. The other was her office.

The office was somewhat new to her. In the terms of it being an office and a place that was at least primarily hers. When Arielle was younger, the room had been used more as a classroom. Of sorts, anyway. It always felt like she was being reminded of things more than learning them, and when she grew older and surpassed her teachers, Arielle had spent a good fourth of her time debating what she was taught. She couldn't really explain how she knew certain mathematical and scientific concepts. She simply did.

The others would just exchange knowing looks whenever something like this came up. Arielle wasn't stupid (in comparison to most people, she was a prodigy borderline genius), she knew that the Torchwood scientists had long thought she wasn't human. Why else would they have brought her here and kept her for so very long?

Sometimes it felt like the only thing they found remotely interesting was aliens. Anything else they worked on was accorded a far lesser zeal.

Arielle was completely human though. Every scan, every ridiculous test she had begrudgingly gone along with all came back with the same result. Arielle Evala was 100% human. Not to say that she was average or possessed their strange love of the telly, just... not liable to manifest a green antenna or an extra set of eyes on the back of her head any time soon.

All this being said, a new presence in Torchwood was as distinctly recognizable to her as any stranger would seem in one's home.

Tessa was rambling at forty kilometers an hour, and she could make out Joe's steadier tone every know and then.

"I've only been here about a year and a half," h was telling someone.

True. Joey had found the Torchwood Institute five hundred and forty days ago.

"He was the last to join our team. Before you, that is. I mean, if you are joining. I don't think we got much of a chance to talk about the reason for your visit before. But Alex said you were very insistent that you meet us. And what with everything going on, I didn't see any point in drawing it out. None of us did."

Well, no one that you bothered to tell, Tessa. Arielle thought rather grouchily.

[Deleted]

So far, introducing himself to the minds at Torchwood had been ridiculously simple. If it weren't for the fact that their world was at war and, thanks to their part in helping take down Lumic, Pete and what was left of the Preachers had gotten quite a bit of publicity, the man would have had words with them on their security.

As it was, he still might.

He had been met at a fake tourist entrance by the peppy, vivacious chatterbox named Tessa. From there, Pete had received what could only be described as the 'guided tour' of Canary Wharf.

They weren't completely stupid. Pete had only caught glimpses of several 'think tank' rooms. His guide seemed more intent on introducing him to the other scientists. Pete didn't have a particular problem with being introduced, or even the woman's probing comments. But he couldn't deny being a trace impatient.

"I don't know about joining. We'll have to talk about that, but I was given to understand that we might be able to help each other in this particular crisis."

He greeted Jose... Joey, whatever his name was, with a nod.

"That being said, I'd rather get straight to business. Whose in charge here?"

[Deleted]

Peeking out the door of her office, careful to keep both legs securely on her side of the frame, Arielle could read Joe's expression easily. He had the far of look that he adopted whenever there was bad news.

This new man had his back towards her, and he was clearly waiting for an answer. He looked very impatient, actually. A man ready to fight. A man who had lost greatly.

Blonde buzzcut man would make an interesting psychological case study.

Reaching quickly for her glasses, Arielle snapped them on as Tessa fumbled for a response.

"Charlie was here the longest."

Not true, Arielle scoffed to herself. She'd been at the Torchwood Institute longer than any of her wardens.

"Torchwood isn't exactly an institute known for many long tenures amongst its employees."

That was true enough.

"Alex will probably be the one to take over."

[Deleted]

Right, stupid move. Everyone had suffered losses thanks to Lumic and his cyber monstrosities.

Well, no, not stupid per se. It had been a perfectly rational question. Still, Pete couldn't help but feel a bit tactless all the same.

"When does Alex get in then? I assume he is coming today?"

Perhaps he had just grown accustomed to having an immediate response over the years since he became CEO of Vitex. Even with Lumic, time had always been partitioned with an 'of the essence' quality. Now here he was getting antsy over a few people being polite.

"Sorry, am I supposed to finish the tour first?"

Craning his neck left down the hallway, Pete caught a glimpse of auburn hair from his peripheral vision. But when he looked dead on, the hall appeared deserted.

Confused, his only immediate reaction was to call out, "Hello?"

[Deleted]

Not good. Very not good. On a Richter scale of shenanigans, this was at least a category seven. No one outside the incumbent Torchwood scientists were ever meant to see her. And while Arielle had tried to duck out of sight back behind her perception field as quickly as possible, the stranger's query made it fairly obvious she had not been as successful as she would like.

"He should be here within half an hour; we weren't expecting you so soon. I can call and check if you would like."

[Deleted]

Pete paid no mind to the obvious attempt at distracting him, ignoring the fact he had initially asked after Alex. The delay was not appreciated. As important as Pete Tyler thought Torchwood's alliance could be in ridding the world of Cybermen, he was still properly skeptical.

What was more, this was simply not a time for secrets or suspicions to be left ignored. The enemy of my enemy is my friend is all well in good in theory, but sleeping with that enemy to be stabbed in the back later? That wasn't good business.

And Pete had become quite versed in that.

So he investigated, walking down the hall to stand in fron the spot where he could have sworn....

"It's alright," he spoke gently, privately feeling like a complete idiot to be talking to a wall. But then, the Doctor had masqueraded as the help, and he and his friends were brilliant if mad, so... worth a go.

[Deleted]

Later, she might put it down to lingering childlike naivete or make the argument that if he was working with Torchwood, he pretty much counted as Torchwood. But the truth of it was, Arielle simply wanted to trust this man. There was something about him.

Something special.

So rather than let Tessa spin one of the half truths she was so very accomplished with, Arielle peeked back out the door.

"How do you know?" she asked, clearly skeptically.

[Deleted]

Pete didn't miss the hssing intake of breath from the scientists down the hall, but it did take a moment or two to focus on the source of the young woman's voice.She sounded so young, though physically he could tell now that she looked about Rose's age.

No, he wasn't going to think about Rose right now.

Focusing on the girl's eyes was also an uneasy prospect. There was just something... off. But she looked harmless enough. Aside from the fact she had just disappeared and reappeared from a wall.

No. Now that he focused more, Pete could just see the edges of a door behind her hand.

"Crikey, I'd love to know how you do that," he mumbled before adding in a louder voice. "'Course it's alright. I'm not going to hurt you. There's no need to hide."

[Deleted]

Arielle suddenly wanted to laugh. This soldier man was bright enough to see her, but at the same time, his self centeredness seemed so... stereotypical.

It wasn't that she went out of her way to experiment on her wardens (most days), but as of late, a definite trend had developed.

Maybe she should write that in her diary....


'Course it's alright. I'm not going to hurt you. There's no need to hide.'


"She's not kept there to protect her," Tessa interrupted.

"Well, not just because of that," Joe countered in his ameliorating fashion.

Arielle had always thought Joe was a nice sort. Except when she thought he was an idiot. Er... needed help understanding basic partial derivatives.

"Never seen a ghosty before?"

Arielle assumed that's what Torchwood thought she was anyway. Part human, part alien. But alien enough for them to be anxious. Enouhg to keep her andthe rest of the population mutually separated.

She was their prisoner, in that sense. But on the upside, at least she had not had to settle down in a job and pay mortgage or anything like that.

Could've been worse.