Fic: Afterlight
Jun. 25th, 2015 06:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thelibraniniquity posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
tli_productionsTitle: Afterlight
Fandom: Primeval
Summary: Captain Ryan's job is to protect the civilians.
Characters: Ryan, Abby, Danny, references to and appearances by others including OCs
Rating: PG-13
Length: ~3500
Beta:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lady_drace
Warnings: References to character deaths. Other nebulous, spoilery things. Definitely not Denial-compliant.
Author's Notes: Written for Denial's art challenge, usingeriah211's wonderful art as inspiration. Link HERE.
Many thanks tolady_drace for the beta, hand-holding and general awesomeness. It is ever appreciated :D
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
He wakes up instantly. He is alert, eyes darting everywhere in dim light. The room is unfamiliar, the angles disorienting until he realises he is on his back. Lying on something firm but not hard. A thin mattress of some kind. It feels narrow and high but he doesn't know how he knows that.
A shadow looms over him. No – a person. He blinks up at them. No – her.
She has wispy grey hairs and crow's feet, and well fitting but threadbare medical scrubs.
She smiles down at him. “Hello, Captain Ryan. I'm Doctor Stein. I'm glad to see you're awake.”
The name sounds right. I am Captain Ryan.
It fits.
“Where am I?” he asks. His throat is hoarse and his voice is scratchy.
“A secure facility,” the doctor tells him. “I need to ask you some questions before I can tell you anything else.”
He nods up at her.
“What is the last thing you remember?”
A monster screams in his face, dark and featureless against a cloudless sky. It has claws and reaches for him -
He winces, breathes too fast. Coughs, chest heaving. Arms flail. The doctor reaches down and something rushes through his body that slows him down. She pushes another button and the bed moves so he is now propped up into a sitting position.
“A mild sedative,” he hears the doctor say. “I'm sorry, Captain, I didn't mean to panic you.”
The questions come gentler this time. What is your name?
Tom Ryan.
Rank and serial number, soldier.
That one comes like breathing.
Other memories follow. He remembers primary school, his sister, Sandhurst, the time spent in Bosnia. Operation Desert Storm. A classified operation involving rips in time.
The last mission, being attacked by the silhouetted creature. A creature that does not exist yet, but he doesn't know the how or why.
Doctor Stein nods. Smiles. “Future predators,” she says, and like everything else it slots into place. Just so.
After the creature attacked him he'd lain on the ground, unable to move. Unable to breathe. Then more shadows had blocked out the sun. Men in uniforms, fuzzy through pain and blood loss.
“Your team,” the doctor explains. “They came back for you. Brought you here.”
He's still hazy from the drugs, but he looks down at himself. He looks healthy. Not at all like he's been mauled by an evolutionary time bomb.
“You've been here a long time, Captain Ryan. Now it's time to get back to work.”
o o o o o
Captain Ryan's job is to protect the civilians. It's simple. Familiar, in a way that a lot of the details of his new life aren't.
There are other military personnel assigned to the base, but their duties are separate to Ryan's. They're genial towards him, but distant. Professional.
The civilian contingent has a high turnover rate, Doctor Stein explains to him one morning. Part of the hazard of working with the anomalies – the rips in time. So not knowing who some of them are isn't necessarily another indicator of memory loss.
He asks the team to introduce themselves, which gets some understanding looks, even a smile or two. Their leader is a woman with dark hair and a guarded expression, and the only one Ryan has a vague recollection of. It's strange; he has the sensation he knew her as someone else, but not at the same time. She tenses up when Ryan says he remembers her, but is otherwise professional.
About three weeks after he first remembers waking up, Ryan is put on field assignment. He's to escort the team through an anomaly. It's two hours out, unsecured but also unpopulated location, according to their field co-ordinator.
Ryan wants to ask about the technology used to track anomalies, but something holds him back. He's not sure what the feeling is, which is why he keeps it to himself.
The mission is uneventful. The anomaly leads to a beach, a thin strip of sand against a vertical cliff face. Despite the relatively calm water there is no wildlife that Ryan is aware of.
The team quickly gets to work. Two of them fan out from the anomaly and take mineral and other samples. The others focus on the anomaly itself, bringing out hand-held devices and muttering to themselves about magnetism and frequencies.
Ryan focuses on forming a loose perimeter, satisfying himself that there are no visible immediate threats to any of the team. Everything is quiet, just another quiet afternoon in prehistory.
o o o o o
Ryan begins focusing on the details of his new life. Mindfulness, someone had once called it, but, try as he might he can't remember who had told him that.
Doctor Stein is a prominent presence, often checking in on him and running occasional tests. “Better safe than sorry, Captain,” she tells him during a lengthy brain scan. “Especially after what it took to bring you back.”
The facility the anomaly project is based in is new to Ryan, somewhere the team had moved to during his recovery. He busies himself most mornings learning the building's layout, and timing how fast he can get from his quarters to the hub in an emergency. His evenings are spent on physical training, carefully measuring his body's all-round capabilities.
There are twins on another security team, identical burly blond-haired men in in tac gear so perfectly matching it has to be a conscious decision. Neither are especially chatty, but from how they move and behave it's clear both have had Special Forces training of some kind.
Doctor Stein is impressed by Ryan's increasing instincts. “We like to gather the best to work here,” she smiles before strapping him down to take some tissue samples.
o o o o o
His second field mission is a solo one with the civilian team leader. They leave in the middle of the night for a desolate cluster of semi-ruined buildings.
The anomaly is located inside one of the buildings, up three flights of dusty stairs and into an open space that could have housed anything. Some of the windows are boarded up, others empty. The air is cool and there are no signs of life.
The anomaly itself sits in the far corner from the stairwell, a flickering source of light that casts uneven shadows. Ryan flashes to lying on his back in the Permian desert and quickly represses the memory.
He realises he's being watched. He'd apologise for the lack of professionalism but she doesn't look annoyed. Just curious.
“Bad memory?”
“Something like that.”
“Will it interfere with the assignment?”
“No, ma'am.”
The other side of the anomaly is in bright daylight. It's on the slope of a hill, one of several in the area. The vegetation is sparse and hardy, with a few random flashes of colour. Again there's little movement to suggest animal life.
The team leader wastes no time. “Come with me.”
The walk is brisk, leading to a second anomaly a mile out from the first, and for the first time Ryan hesitates. This hadn't been in the briefing he'd received.
“Listen carefully,” he's told. “On the other side of this anomaly is something of vital interest to my research. Come with me, and stay close.”
Ryan does. He steps into pitch black and muggy, damp air and -
There's a thud behind him. The unmistakable sound of something racing closer.
Ryan whirls around and raises his rifle, and shoots the target in the head. The creature slams to the ground, scales and a bulging eyeball visible under Ryan's scope.
Movement to his left and Ryan fires again. This time he misses and the creature's claws hook into his tac vest. Ryan butts his rifle into its head, then reaches for a knife. He guts it and eventually its grip loosens enough for him to push it away.
More noises surround him but none are close enough to be a threat. Ryan's panting, keyed up from adrenaline but there's no pain. He's not injured.
Something behind him crunches.
Ryan turns around and raises his rifle. From the light on his scope he makes out two people in leather jackets. They both raise their hands when they see the gun.
“Whoa, whoa!” says the first person – a taller man. “I'm not a threat.”
Ryan's not convinced. He glances around but there's no sign of the person he's supposed to protect.
He ignores the sudden feeling of emptiness inside him, keeps the rifle trained on the pair. “Who are you?”
From the darkness something screeches, and the man pulls the woman towards him, as if shielding her.
“Look,” the man says, “can we – not here.” He points behind Ryan, at the anomaly.
Ryan takes half a step back. Then it's as if something clicks in his mind and he lowers his rifle. “Go.”
A shadow comes whirling out of the darkness and Ryan shoots it without thinking. A lizard-like creature falls to the ground and he nudges it with a boot. It doesn't react.
The woman makes a strangled sound.
“Go,” Ryan says again. This time the pair don't hesitate. They sprint for the anomaly.
Ryan sweeps the area again but there's no sign of his leader. He realises he's in a completely unknown, unsecured location and the civilian he's been tasked with protecting apparently had plans of her own coming to this place. It doesn't make it any easier to back slowly through the anomaly, rifle raised.
Back on the dusty hill, Ryan takes time to assess the two people. The leather jackets that might have been part of a uniform don't match each other. The rest of their clothing is casual, even brightly coloured in the case of the woman's purple skirt.
Both are now regarding Ryan suspiciously.
“Who are you?” he asks. He notices something in the woman's expression but it passes too quickly for him to identify.
“I'm Danny,” says the man slowly. He gestures to the much smaller woman beside him. “This is Abby.”
The woman nudges him, a strange expression on her face, but says nothing.
“What's your name?” Danny asks.
Ryan doesn't answer. Instead he turns back to the anomaly. “I have to go back through.”
He hears Danny step closer to him. “You'll get killed.”
Ryan glances at him. “You didn't. And you didn't answer my question.”
Danny frowns. “I told you our names. And that we're not a threat, which we're still not.”
That part is certainly true. Ryan would have been able to tell whether they were carrying any weapons even in the darkness on the other side of the anomaly, which they're not.
Nothing about either Danny or Abby makes any sense.
Ryan breathes through his mouth. His head is starting to feel clouded, unlike anything he can remember feeling. “I have to go back through the anomaly,” he says, more firmly this time.
“Why?” Abby asks. When Ryan turns to look at her, she cocks her head to one side. “So you can kill more of those creatures? What were you even doing there?”
Ryan should be the one asking that question. Instead all he can say is: “Cutter.”
Abby's expression blanks and her posture slumps briefly. “...Cutter?”
“Professor Cutter,” Ryan says. The words are easier now. “I have to go back for Professor Cutter.”
He'd left her behind.
He'd disobeyed his orders.
He – the anomaly surges and then closes in on itself.
o o o o o
Ryan's first mission briefing at the anomaly project is also his last.
“It's simple,” Doctor Stein tells him, the afternoon after he meets the civilian team for the first time. “We all have our roles here. Mine is to keep you and the other soldiers operational. Yours is to protect the civilians. All you have to do is your job.”
o o o o o
The anomaly does not immediately reappear. Ryan has no equipment on him, no anomaly detector. Not even a means of contacting the project that does not include backtracking to the first anomaly and returning to the project in person.
“Now what?” someone behind Ryan says.
He looks around. Danny and Abby are still there, standing closer together now. It takes him a moment to realise Danny was the one who'd spoken.
“Did you do this?” Ryan asks.
“No,” Danny says.
“Ryan...” Abby looks up at him. “What did you mean, you have to go back for Professor Cutter?”
“How do you know my name?”
Abby frowns. “We used to work together, bef – a long time ago. At the anomaly project.”
“Don't you remember?” Danny asks.
“No. But that's not a bad thing,” Ryan says. If they did work for the anomaly project it's possible they're part of the gaps in his memory.
“It isn't?” Danny frowns. He glances at Abby briefly, but not too quickly that Ryan doesn't notice.
“No.” Ryan points at the space where the anomaly was with his rifle. “What were you doing there?”
Danny and Abby share another look.
Something in the back of Ryan's mind flickers. “I'm not going to hurt you.”
Danny eyes the rifle. “You're not?”
“No.” It's simple enough to him but they don't seem to understand so Ryan tries to explain. “You work for the anomaly project.”
They nod.
“And you're civilians.”
They nod again.
“Then I won't hurt you.”
“But -” Abby pulls a face. “I can't believe I'm saying this – you're dead, Ryan.”
He stares at her.
“You died,” she insists. “A long time ago.”
Shadows block out the sun. Men in uniforms lifting him to safety.
“They came back for you,” Doctor Stein tells him.
“So did Cutter,” Abby says quietly. “You both died.”
“No,” Ryan says. “That's not right.”
“Then what happened?” asks Danny. He holds his hands up in front of him.
They're part of another team, something in Ryan insists. A very new, or perhaps a very old team and that's why they don't know how things work. How the project works. The dullness from before is back, making it hard to think.
Maybe that's why this is so easy.
“Professor Cutter and I were on a mission,” Ryan says. “Then those creatures attacked, and you were there. And she -”
“She?” Danny says sharply.
“She must have got separated from me.”
“She?” Abby says. “Ryan, Professor Cutter was a he.”
“The professor here is one of our top field researchers,” the project director explains.
Ryan looks at her. She's tall, slim, with short cropped dark hair. Her eyes are sharp, and she's the first person Ryan's met today that he thinks he remembers.
“You had a ponytail,” he murmurs.
Helen Cutter's eyes widen imperceptibly. “That was a long time ago. I'm – impressed you remember that.”
Ryan knows instinctively she's lying.
“Wrong. You don't work for the anomaly project.” Ryan tightens his grip on his rifle, then crouches down on the ground, a few metres away from the anomaly site. “Go. There's another anomaly a mile and a half south of here.”
“And then what?” Danny looms over Ryan, hands on hips. “Go back the way you came, back to Crazy Town? I only met him a couple of times, but Professor Cutter was no 'she'. No thanks mate, I think we'll take our chances on our own. Abs.”
Abby pulls away from him, comes over and crouches on the ground next to Ryan. “My name's Abby Maitland,” she tells him. “I don't know who you are or why you're here. Why any of us are here, really. So help me understand.”
Ryan tilts his head.
“If we're really wrong about Professor Cutter,” Abby says slowly, “then that makes us a threat, right? So why aren't you doing anything about that?”
“You're civilians.” Ryan closes his eyes briefly. There's a growing pain at the back of his head, but he doesn't think he's been injured. He'd have noticed that by now. “I told you – go through the first anomaly.”
“If that leads back to your anomaly project, we won't be safe there.”
“I...”
Abby reaches out slowly with one hand. Ryan leans away.
“It's my job to protect the civilians.” It's the first 'right' thing he's said since leaving the facility.
“So help us,” Abby says. “Maybe we can help you as well.”
Ryan thinks this should be more difficult than it is. But there's something about Abby – she wasn't lying when she told him he was dead, but it doesn't mean she's right.
“What do you want?” he asks.
Abby glances up at Danny quickly before looking at Ryan again. “Where's the anomaly project?”
Ryan frowns. “A mile and a half back to the first anomaly, then three hours' drive back to the facility.”
Abby shakes her head. “That's not what I... where is it? Like if I showed you a map of the UK, where would the facility be on that?”
Ryan doesn't have an answer for that. He's not even sure what the question means. But Abby's expression suggests he should.
“Ryan,” Abby says, very quietly now, “what year is it?”
“I've spent a long time putting you back together,” Doctor Stein tells him. “I do my job so that you can do yours.”
It occurs to Ryan that Abby might not be wrong when she said he'd died.
“I can't leave,” he says. “Professor Cutter is my responsibility. It's my job -”
“- to keep her safe,” Abby says. “I know.”
She bites her lip. “Can you tell us another way away from here? Somewhere that won't lead us to your facility?”
Where else is there? Ryan wants to ask. “I don't know any other route. They only tell me what I need to know.”
Abby makes a huffing noise. “Sounds about right.”
“I can't protect you,” Ryan says. “I'm sorry.”
He's surprised that he means it.
Abby's expression is harder to read now. “I understand,” she says, standing up.
Ryan stands up as well. “I can't protect you,” he says again. He doesn't know how to explain this, but he tries. “But I can help you, if you need it.”
“Yeah,” Abby says, looking at Danny who nods. “Yeah, we need your help.”
It's physically difficult to walk away from the anomaly site. Every instinct in his body screams at him to stay, to wait for the anomaly to reopen, to protect Cutter.
With very step he takes Ryan consciously tells himself he's protecting these civilians. This silly pair who don't follow any rules or convention that Ryan understands, who wander through anomalies unarmed and unprotected.
He leads Danny and Abby back to the first anomaly. He silences them when they start to protest.
It's difficult to speak. Harder to find the words. “In the car,” he says eventually. “Some – something that can. Help. It can help you.” Better than he can.
Danny and Abby follow him into the building, where it is still night-time, and there is no sign of Helen Cutter, or anyone else from the project. Ryan nearly falls down the last few stairs. Danny catches him, reaches under his shoulders to support him.
“Easy now,” Danny murmurs. “Just tell us where to go.”
Ryan can't speak now. It's all he can do just to keep his head upright. Everything's blurring at the edges.
He sees a figure, slight and purple dance ahead of him to the truck.
“Found it,” the figure says.
The grip around Ryan tightens.
“...with us, mate.”
Ryan blinks. There's a bright light swirling in front of him, coming closer and closer.
“You'll stay operational as long as you do your job.”
Everything goes dark.
o o o o o
Danny and Abby bury Ryan on the hill where they'd sort of first met him.
Abby wants to say something but she can't think of anything that would be fitting.
It takes three days of non-stop hiking and scavenging for food and cover through four separate time periods, but the anomaly detector Ryan helped them find gets them home.
Well, it gets them to a rainy Monday evening in the middle of Regent's Park. By the time the ARC team gets there, they've been gone for close to seven weeks. Connor babbles endlessly about time dilation and the scientific accuracy of Doctor Who while Becker and Sarah just look relieved they're still in one piece.
They'll explain how they got the anomaly detector later. After they've had time to process it themselves.
o o o o o
“Bring the next one up.”
Stein sighs. Twenty-six days between recruits was a new low. If she's not more careful the project director will have her replaced. Especially as there's still no sign of that Cutter woman since she absconded with half the archives.
Minutes later the orderlies bring in the sleeping patient. They've dried the amniotic fluid off him, as per protocol. Dressed him in a medical gown.
Everything else is in place.
Stein administers the stimulant and waits for the tell tale signs that her patient is waking up.
“Hello, Captain Ryan. I'm Doctor Stein. It's good to see you awake.”
Fandom: Primeval
Summary: Captain Ryan's job is to protect the civilians.
Characters: Ryan, Abby, Danny, references to and appearances by others including OCs
Rating: PG-13
Length: ~3500
Beta:
lady_draceWarnings: References to character deaths. Other nebulous, spoilery things. Definitely not Denial-compliant.
Author's Notes: Written for Denial's art challenge, using
eriah211's wonderful art as inspiration. Link HERE. Many thanks to
lady_drace for the beta, hand-holding and general awesomeness. It is ever appreciated :DHe wakes up instantly. He is alert, eyes darting everywhere in dim light. The room is unfamiliar, the angles disorienting until he realises he is on his back. Lying on something firm but not hard. A thin mattress of some kind. It feels narrow and high but he doesn't know how he knows that.
A shadow looms over him. No – a person. He blinks up at them. No – her.
She has wispy grey hairs and crow's feet, and well fitting but threadbare medical scrubs.
She smiles down at him. “Hello, Captain Ryan. I'm Doctor Stein. I'm glad to see you're awake.”
The name sounds right. I am Captain Ryan.
It fits.
“Where am I?” he asks. His throat is hoarse and his voice is scratchy.
“A secure facility,” the doctor tells him. “I need to ask you some questions before I can tell you anything else.”
He nods up at her.
“What is the last thing you remember?”
A monster screams in his face, dark and featureless against a cloudless sky. It has claws and reaches for him -
He winces, breathes too fast. Coughs, chest heaving. Arms flail. The doctor reaches down and something rushes through his body that slows him down. She pushes another button and the bed moves so he is now propped up into a sitting position.
“A mild sedative,” he hears the doctor say. “I'm sorry, Captain, I didn't mean to panic you.”
The questions come gentler this time. What is your name?
Tom Ryan.
Rank and serial number, soldier.
That one comes like breathing.
Other memories follow. He remembers primary school, his sister, Sandhurst, the time spent in Bosnia. Operation Desert Storm. A classified operation involving rips in time.
The last mission, being attacked by the silhouetted creature. A creature that does not exist yet, but he doesn't know the how or why.
Doctor Stein nods. Smiles. “Future predators,” she says, and like everything else it slots into place. Just so.
After the creature attacked him he'd lain on the ground, unable to move. Unable to breathe. Then more shadows had blocked out the sun. Men in uniforms, fuzzy through pain and blood loss.
“Your team,” the doctor explains. “They came back for you. Brought you here.”
He's still hazy from the drugs, but he looks down at himself. He looks healthy. Not at all like he's been mauled by an evolutionary time bomb.
“You've been here a long time, Captain Ryan. Now it's time to get back to work.”
Captain Ryan's job is to protect the civilians. It's simple. Familiar, in a way that a lot of the details of his new life aren't.
There are other military personnel assigned to the base, but their duties are separate to Ryan's. They're genial towards him, but distant. Professional.
The civilian contingent has a high turnover rate, Doctor Stein explains to him one morning. Part of the hazard of working with the anomalies – the rips in time. So not knowing who some of them are isn't necessarily another indicator of memory loss.
He asks the team to introduce themselves, which gets some understanding looks, even a smile or two. Their leader is a woman with dark hair and a guarded expression, and the only one Ryan has a vague recollection of. It's strange; he has the sensation he knew her as someone else, but not at the same time. She tenses up when Ryan says he remembers her, but is otherwise professional.
About three weeks after he first remembers waking up, Ryan is put on field assignment. He's to escort the team through an anomaly. It's two hours out, unsecured but also unpopulated location, according to their field co-ordinator.
Ryan wants to ask about the technology used to track anomalies, but something holds him back. He's not sure what the feeling is, which is why he keeps it to himself.
The mission is uneventful. The anomaly leads to a beach, a thin strip of sand against a vertical cliff face. Despite the relatively calm water there is no wildlife that Ryan is aware of.
The team quickly gets to work. Two of them fan out from the anomaly and take mineral and other samples. The others focus on the anomaly itself, bringing out hand-held devices and muttering to themselves about magnetism and frequencies.
Ryan focuses on forming a loose perimeter, satisfying himself that there are no visible immediate threats to any of the team. Everything is quiet, just another quiet afternoon in prehistory.
Ryan begins focusing on the details of his new life. Mindfulness, someone had once called it, but, try as he might he can't remember who had told him that.
Doctor Stein is a prominent presence, often checking in on him and running occasional tests. “Better safe than sorry, Captain,” she tells him during a lengthy brain scan. “Especially after what it took to bring you back.”
The facility the anomaly project is based in is new to Ryan, somewhere the team had moved to during his recovery. He busies himself most mornings learning the building's layout, and timing how fast he can get from his quarters to the hub in an emergency. His evenings are spent on physical training, carefully measuring his body's all-round capabilities.
There are twins on another security team, identical burly blond-haired men in in tac gear so perfectly matching it has to be a conscious decision. Neither are especially chatty, but from how they move and behave it's clear both have had Special Forces training of some kind.
Doctor Stein is impressed by Ryan's increasing instincts. “We like to gather the best to work here,” she smiles before strapping him down to take some tissue samples.
His second field mission is a solo one with the civilian team leader. They leave in the middle of the night for a desolate cluster of semi-ruined buildings.
The anomaly is located inside one of the buildings, up three flights of dusty stairs and into an open space that could have housed anything. Some of the windows are boarded up, others empty. The air is cool and there are no signs of life.
The anomaly itself sits in the far corner from the stairwell, a flickering source of light that casts uneven shadows. Ryan flashes to lying on his back in the Permian desert and quickly represses the memory.
He realises he's being watched. He'd apologise for the lack of professionalism but she doesn't look annoyed. Just curious.
“Bad memory?”
“Something like that.”
“Will it interfere with the assignment?”
“No, ma'am.”
The other side of the anomaly is in bright daylight. It's on the slope of a hill, one of several in the area. The vegetation is sparse and hardy, with a few random flashes of colour. Again there's little movement to suggest animal life.
The team leader wastes no time. “Come with me.”
The walk is brisk, leading to a second anomaly a mile out from the first, and for the first time Ryan hesitates. This hadn't been in the briefing he'd received.
“Listen carefully,” he's told. “On the other side of this anomaly is something of vital interest to my research. Come with me, and stay close.”
Ryan does. He steps into pitch black and muggy, damp air and -
There's a thud behind him. The unmistakable sound of something racing closer.
Ryan whirls around and raises his rifle, and shoots the target in the head. The creature slams to the ground, scales and a bulging eyeball visible under Ryan's scope.
Movement to his left and Ryan fires again. This time he misses and the creature's claws hook into his tac vest. Ryan butts his rifle into its head, then reaches for a knife. He guts it and eventually its grip loosens enough for him to push it away.
More noises surround him but none are close enough to be a threat. Ryan's panting, keyed up from adrenaline but there's no pain. He's not injured.
Something behind him crunches.
Ryan turns around and raises his rifle. From the light on his scope he makes out two people in leather jackets. They both raise their hands when they see the gun.
“Whoa, whoa!” says the first person – a taller man. “I'm not a threat.”
Ryan's not convinced. He glances around but there's no sign of the person he's supposed to protect.
He ignores the sudden feeling of emptiness inside him, keeps the rifle trained on the pair. “Who are you?”
From the darkness something screeches, and the man pulls the woman towards him, as if shielding her.
“Look,” the man says, “can we – not here.” He points behind Ryan, at the anomaly.
Ryan takes half a step back. Then it's as if something clicks in his mind and he lowers his rifle. “Go.”
A shadow comes whirling out of the darkness and Ryan shoots it without thinking. A lizard-like creature falls to the ground and he nudges it with a boot. It doesn't react.
The woman makes a strangled sound.
“Go,” Ryan says again. This time the pair don't hesitate. They sprint for the anomaly.
Ryan sweeps the area again but there's no sign of his leader. He realises he's in a completely unknown, unsecured location and the civilian he's been tasked with protecting apparently had plans of her own coming to this place. It doesn't make it any easier to back slowly through the anomaly, rifle raised.
Back on the dusty hill, Ryan takes time to assess the two people. The leather jackets that might have been part of a uniform don't match each other. The rest of their clothing is casual, even brightly coloured in the case of the woman's purple skirt.
Both are now regarding Ryan suspiciously.
“Who are you?” he asks. He notices something in the woman's expression but it passes too quickly for him to identify.
“I'm Danny,” says the man slowly. He gestures to the much smaller woman beside him. “This is Abby.”
The woman nudges him, a strange expression on her face, but says nothing.
“What's your name?” Danny asks.
Ryan doesn't answer. Instead he turns back to the anomaly. “I have to go back through.”
He hears Danny step closer to him. “You'll get killed.”
Ryan glances at him. “You didn't. And you didn't answer my question.”
Danny frowns. “I told you our names. And that we're not a threat, which we're still not.”
That part is certainly true. Ryan would have been able to tell whether they were carrying any weapons even in the darkness on the other side of the anomaly, which they're not.
Nothing about either Danny or Abby makes any sense.
Ryan breathes through his mouth. His head is starting to feel clouded, unlike anything he can remember feeling. “I have to go back through the anomaly,” he says, more firmly this time.
“Why?” Abby asks. When Ryan turns to look at her, she cocks her head to one side. “So you can kill more of those creatures? What were you even doing there?”
Ryan should be the one asking that question. Instead all he can say is: “Cutter.”
Abby's expression blanks and her posture slumps briefly. “...Cutter?”
“Professor Cutter,” Ryan says. The words are easier now. “I have to go back for Professor Cutter.”
He'd left her behind.
He'd disobeyed his orders.
He – the anomaly surges and then closes in on itself.
Ryan's first mission briefing at the anomaly project is also his last.
“It's simple,” Doctor Stein tells him, the afternoon after he meets the civilian team for the first time. “We all have our roles here. Mine is to keep you and the other soldiers operational. Yours is to protect the civilians. All you have to do is your job.”
The anomaly does not immediately reappear. Ryan has no equipment on him, no anomaly detector. Not even a means of contacting the project that does not include backtracking to the first anomaly and returning to the project in person.
“Now what?” someone behind Ryan says.
He looks around. Danny and Abby are still there, standing closer together now. It takes him a moment to realise Danny was the one who'd spoken.
“Did you do this?” Ryan asks.
“No,” Danny says.
“Ryan...” Abby looks up at him. “What did you mean, you have to go back for Professor Cutter?”
“How do you know my name?”
Abby frowns. “We used to work together, bef – a long time ago. At the anomaly project.”
“Don't you remember?” Danny asks.
“No. But that's not a bad thing,” Ryan says. If they did work for the anomaly project it's possible they're part of the gaps in his memory.
“It isn't?” Danny frowns. He glances at Abby briefly, but not too quickly that Ryan doesn't notice.
“No.” Ryan points at the space where the anomaly was with his rifle. “What were you doing there?”
Danny and Abby share another look.
Something in the back of Ryan's mind flickers. “I'm not going to hurt you.”
Danny eyes the rifle. “You're not?”
“No.” It's simple enough to him but they don't seem to understand so Ryan tries to explain. “You work for the anomaly project.”
They nod.
“And you're civilians.”
They nod again.
“Then I won't hurt you.”
“But -” Abby pulls a face. “I can't believe I'm saying this – you're dead, Ryan.”
He stares at her.
“You died,” she insists. “A long time ago.”
Shadows block out the sun. Men in uniforms lifting him to safety.
“They came back for you,” Doctor Stein tells him.
“So did Cutter,” Abby says quietly. “You both died.”
“No,” Ryan says. “That's not right.”
“Then what happened?” asks Danny. He holds his hands up in front of him.
They're part of another team, something in Ryan insists. A very new, or perhaps a very old team and that's why they don't know how things work. How the project works. The dullness from before is back, making it hard to think.
Maybe that's why this is so easy.
“Professor Cutter and I were on a mission,” Ryan says. “Then those creatures attacked, and you were there. And she -”
“She?” Danny says sharply.
“She must have got separated from me.”
“She?” Abby says. “Ryan, Professor Cutter was a he.”
“The professor here is one of our top field researchers,” the project director explains.
Ryan looks at her. She's tall, slim, with short cropped dark hair. Her eyes are sharp, and she's the first person Ryan's met today that he thinks he remembers.
“You had a ponytail,” he murmurs.
Helen Cutter's eyes widen imperceptibly. “That was a long time ago. I'm – impressed you remember that.”
Ryan knows instinctively she's lying.
“Wrong. You don't work for the anomaly project.” Ryan tightens his grip on his rifle, then crouches down on the ground, a few metres away from the anomaly site. “Go. There's another anomaly a mile and a half south of here.”
“And then what?” Danny looms over Ryan, hands on hips. “Go back the way you came, back to Crazy Town? I only met him a couple of times, but Professor Cutter was no 'she'. No thanks mate, I think we'll take our chances on our own. Abs.”
Abby pulls away from him, comes over and crouches on the ground next to Ryan. “My name's Abby Maitland,” she tells him. “I don't know who you are or why you're here. Why any of us are here, really. So help me understand.”
Ryan tilts his head.
“If we're really wrong about Professor Cutter,” Abby says slowly, “then that makes us a threat, right? So why aren't you doing anything about that?”
“You're civilians.” Ryan closes his eyes briefly. There's a growing pain at the back of his head, but he doesn't think he's been injured. He'd have noticed that by now. “I told you – go through the first anomaly.”
“If that leads back to your anomaly project, we won't be safe there.”
“I...”
Abby reaches out slowly with one hand. Ryan leans away.
“It's my job to protect the civilians.” It's the first 'right' thing he's said since leaving the facility.
“So help us,” Abby says. “Maybe we can help you as well.”
Ryan thinks this should be more difficult than it is. But there's something about Abby – she wasn't lying when she told him he was dead, but it doesn't mean she's right.
“What do you want?” he asks.
Abby glances up at Danny quickly before looking at Ryan again. “Where's the anomaly project?”
Ryan frowns. “A mile and a half back to the first anomaly, then three hours' drive back to the facility.”
Abby shakes her head. “That's not what I... where is it? Like if I showed you a map of the UK, where would the facility be on that?”
Ryan doesn't have an answer for that. He's not even sure what the question means. But Abby's expression suggests he should.
“Ryan,” Abby says, very quietly now, “what year is it?”
“I've spent a long time putting you back together,” Doctor Stein tells him. “I do my job so that you can do yours.”
It occurs to Ryan that Abby might not be wrong when she said he'd died.
“I can't leave,” he says. “Professor Cutter is my responsibility. It's my job -”
“- to keep her safe,” Abby says. “I know.”
She bites her lip. “Can you tell us another way away from here? Somewhere that won't lead us to your facility?”
Where else is there? Ryan wants to ask. “I don't know any other route. They only tell me what I need to know.”
Abby makes a huffing noise. “Sounds about right.”
“I can't protect you,” Ryan says. “I'm sorry.”
He's surprised that he means it.
Abby's expression is harder to read now. “I understand,” she says, standing up.
Ryan stands up as well. “I can't protect you,” he says again. He doesn't know how to explain this, but he tries. “But I can help you, if you need it.”
“Yeah,” Abby says, looking at Danny who nods. “Yeah, we need your help.”
It's physically difficult to walk away from the anomaly site. Every instinct in his body screams at him to stay, to wait for the anomaly to reopen, to protect Cutter.
With very step he takes Ryan consciously tells himself he's protecting these civilians. This silly pair who don't follow any rules or convention that Ryan understands, who wander through anomalies unarmed and unprotected.
He leads Danny and Abby back to the first anomaly. He silences them when they start to protest.
It's difficult to speak. Harder to find the words. “In the car,” he says eventually. “Some – something that can. Help. It can help you.” Better than he can.
Danny and Abby follow him into the building, where it is still night-time, and there is no sign of Helen Cutter, or anyone else from the project. Ryan nearly falls down the last few stairs. Danny catches him, reaches under his shoulders to support him.
“Easy now,” Danny murmurs. “Just tell us where to go.”
Ryan can't speak now. It's all he can do just to keep his head upright. Everything's blurring at the edges.
He sees a figure, slight and purple dance ahead of him to the truck.
“Found it,” the figure says.
The grip around Ryan tightens.
“...with us, mate.”
Ryan blinks. There's a bright light swirling in front of him, coming closer and closer.
“You'll stay operational as long as you do your job.”
Everything goes dark.
Danny and Abby bury Ryan on the hill where they'd sort of first met him.
Abby wants to say something but she can't think of anything that would be fitting.
It takes three days of non-stop hiking and scavenging for food and cover through four separate time periods, but the anomaly detector Ryan helped them find gets them home.
Well, it gets them to a rainy Monday evening in the middle of Regent's Park. By the time the ARC team gets there, they've been gone for close to seven weeks. Connor babbles endlessly about time dilation and the scientific accuracy of Doctor Who while Becker and Sarah just look relieved they're still in one piece.
They'll explain how they got the anomaly detector later. After they've had time to process it themselves.
“Bring the next one up.”
Stein sighs. Twenty-six days between recruits was a new low. If she's not more careful the project director will have her replaced. Especially as there's still no sign of that Cutter woman since she absconded with half the archives.
Minutes later the orderlies bring in the sleeping patient. They've dried the amniotic fluid off him, as per protocol. Dressed him in a medical gown.
Everything else is in place.
Stein administers the stimulant and waits for the tell tale signs that her patient is waking up.
“Hello, Captain Ryan. I'm Doctor Stein. It's good to see you awake.”
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no subject
Date: 2015-06-25 06:19 pm (UTC)It's utterly fascinating to see how different people's take on the art is. Great stuff!
no subject
Date: 2015-06-25 08:04 pm (UTC)And great.
no subject
Date: 2015-06-26 09:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-06-26 09:00 pm (UTC)And yeah, I don't think our fics could have been more different if we'd tried! It's definitely been interesting seeing how everyone's interpreted the artworks.
no subject
Date: 2015-06-25 09:52 pm (UTC)Poor Ryan, he is lost and confused, but still he just wants to do the right thing. And of course Helen is there, she is good at taking advantage for her own purposes.
The ending really made me shiver, poor Ryan! And poor Abby and Danny too (she lost him twice!).
Very interesting take on this, loved the pov of a vulnerable Ryan. Great fic!
no subject
Date: 2015-06-26 09:05 pm (UTC)I'm glad you liked this, once I realised what Ryan was going to be, I just couldn't let the idea go!
no subject
Date: 2015-06-26 03:36 am (UTC)*sniffles*
“You'll stay operational as long as you do your job.”
Everything goes dark.
But, but, but, he was doing his job!
*sniffles again*
They made his orders a bit too specific, methinks.
So harrowing, but really brilliant!
no subject
Date: 2015-06-26 09:08 pm (UTC)Thank you for the feedback!
no subject
Date: 2015-06-26 01:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-06-26 09:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-06-27 05:45 pm (UTC)Reading the story further and further I had the creepy feeling something was terribly wrong with Ryan.
Great build up, with this poor Ryan trying to understand who and what he is.
no subject
Date: 2015-06-27 09:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-06-27 07:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-06-27 09:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-06-29 06:53 am (UTC)*mems*
no subject
Date: 2015-06-29 08:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-07-12 03:57 am (UTC)Chock full of angst! I like how at first we assume the woman Ryan could vaguely remember was Claudia who was now Jenny, then the realisation that the twins were clones and that poor Ryan was on the wrong team and wrong Cutter...but his inherent sense of what is right was able to let him help Danny and Abby. Meep that there was a clone factory going on!
no subject
Date: 2015-07-12 01:57 pm (UTC)