Empire of Sumer

A mother sits, tied up in a straight jacket, in the middle of a pure, blinding, white room. Her eyes are wide, forehead damp from a recent release of sweat. Two years ago she was a revered psychologist who specialized in the dreams of her patients, helping them overcome fears and other nightmarish dealings. But then...something happened...something odd..something more than a dream...something that not only took her known career..and daughter..away from her.

Alaska, 2000

Abigail Tyler sat, looming over her male patient who laid on the couch in front of her, his eye's were closed, his lips trembling in fear. "Can you tell me what happened the night of October the 1st?" Abigail said calmly to her patient, nodding over to her camera operator who acknowledged her order and pressed record on the camera in front of him, then all attention was immediately shifted to the man. His lip quivered from pure fear as he gulped and began his story, "I was sleeping...in my bed. Everything...everything was silent until i felt it. I felt it staring at me...eating..eating away at my consciousness. When i turned and looked at it. It was an owl..a pure white..owl perched on the frame of my window. Just staring at me..then it turned it's head and they came...they came in a flash..a flash of pain...".

The man's words became more and more stuttered and broken up as his mind and body became restless at the shier recollection of the event. Eventually he broke from his position on the couch and jumped upwards, thrashing his arms as if fighting off an invisible enemy. "NOOO!!!" He screamed, pleading for his life against the unseen enemy until finally Abigail jumped from her seat, "When i snapped my fingers you will wake up. 1. 2. 3" then snapped her fingers. The man fell in a limp and to the ground before Abigail ordered for the man to cut the camera and he did so.

The events that took place sense then resulted in in quarantine of Abigail Tyler who by that time, was on the verge of insanity. Her daughter disappeared after the image of a UFO was seen over Tyler's house...to this day her daughter has not been found. On the day of her daughter's disappearance, Tyler herself was put into a trance, revealing hidden dreams..dreams that contained the words of a dead language. Tyler was seen floating in mid air...her eyes rolled back and her mouth protruding down as far as it could go..there she spoke ancient Sumerian...there they came..they took..then left...never to be heard from again.....or so we thought.

(Popping in here for the hell of it just gonna wing my entrance here)

Sonya wiped away a bead of sweat rolling down the side of her face, concentrating on the task at hand. The communicator Interfect had given her was on the verge of being scrap, in fact, when she tried to use it, the thing sparked at her. Wincing slightly at the memory, she glanced at her still-red finger then resumed what she was doing. All she had to do was replace some of the wires inside, they had shorted out from the spark, easy task, right? Wrong.

The wires were miniscule, she had to use tweezers just so she could hold them in place. That and the fact the flat she was staying in at the moment had no air conditioning, and one box fan was not enough at all. Since that morning she had taken two showers just from sweating alone. Biting down on her lower lip, she shifted her Sonic into a better grip and finished attaching the last wire. "Finally!" Sonya sighed, leaning backwards over her chair and popping the sore spots in her back with a relieved groan. Picking up the communicator, she examined it for a moment longer then snapped the cover into place.

Turning it on, she grinned at the purple light that flashed at her, waiting for a command. "Call, the Doctor, Tenth." She stated simply, watching as a small image of the tenth Doctor's face appeared momentarily on the screen before it connected to his TARDIS and to it's view screen on his console.

The Doctor was leaning over his control console, head lowered, eyes nearly dropping down and falling into the deep welcoming sleep. Then, like an alarm telling a human to wake up at a specific time, the scanner roared to life, flashing the image of Sonya onto it. The Doctor shot up, jumping off of his feet and barely able to balance on his back leg before leaning forward and looking forward and down at Sonya, "You have any idea what time it is?!" he proclaimed before chuckling to himself with a raising smirk, "Ironic, that is" he mumbled to himself.

Then seriousness kicked into The Doctor as his eyebrow raised up, curiosity growing inside of him with each passing second until finally words of reason slipped from his lips, "What's wrong?" he asked her, the first logical thing he had said yet.

Sonya shifted slightly, unsure if this was a good idea anymore. It was just stories she had heard, but there was something about them that just called to the deepest part of her fears. "Something, I'm not sure what... Stories, all of these things start out as stories you know. And this one is worse than the rest." She murmured, chewing on her lip for a moment before continuing. "I heard things about UFO sightings going on, then apparently several people vanished or were killed. There's one person that I've heard about, she's in a psychotic ward at the moment." With a frown, she mentally shouted at herself. She sounded like a scared child running to an adult for help when they think they see the boogy man in their closet.

"It sounds insane, but I'm telling you what I know. It's not right, whatever it is, I get this chill whenever I hear about it or even think about it. I don't ignore my gut instinct, and it's telling me that whatever this is, it's bad. And I don't know exactly how to fix any of this without knowing anything. I haven't been able to get any information on anyone that had seen or heard anything." Stopping her babbling, Sonya took a deep breath and stared down at the screen on her communicator with a sigh. "I need your help."

The Doctor nodded, his head lowered slightly as he listened intently to Sonya's explanation of the call, "We need to talk" he finally replied in a deep cold tone as he glanced up at Sonya through the scanner, his hand moving over to the lever. Yanking down, the TARDIS automatically locked onto Sonya's location and roared through the time vortex and towards her current location with tremendous speed and velocity. Within seconds the TARDIS materialized directly beside Sonya, fitting into the tight space with masterful precision, the doors flying open to reveal the outlined body of The Doctor who stood looking down at Sonya, "Come inside" he told her before he walked back up the ramp and over to the control console; the atmosphere inside of the TARDIS was dark, the scanner being the brightest source of light lit up half of the console while the other half, along with the rest of the control room was dimly lit by the time rotor.

Sonya turned her communicator off and walked into the TARDIS without asking questions. Her eyes widened slightly as they adjusted to the dim lighting. Usually the control room was bright with color and lights, but apparently the mood of her call set his mind on a dim interior. "You know something, what is it, Doctor?" Turning around once she reached him, she rested back against the edge of the console and studied him with an unblinking gaze. "You've heard things too, haven't you? More than what I've heard anyhow."

Chewing on her lower lip, she fell silent and finally dropped her stare from his face and down to her shoes. Faint clippings of what she had read or listened to flashing through her mind. Women sent to an insane asylum, sightings of UFOs, people going mad... "I don't know what it is, Doctor. But I'm telling you, it just does not sit right with me at all. What bothers me the most is I don't know why, I cannot put my finger on what it is."

The Doctor lowered his head, gazing down at the controls before finally releasing a sigh and looked up and over to her, ""No" he simply replied, "I know as much as you do...as much as the Alaskan police. But there is something.....something the TARDIS picked up on when i searched through the files regarding the police. The sound..the sound of a voice". Tapping a button on the keyboard to the left of him then pulling over the scanner so that Sonya could see. On the scanner it held the image of a sound wave, at first it was blank and silent but then there was a spike as a voice came through. The voice was deep, dark and twisted, it spoke an ancient language, one in which was not fully translated until the voice was over and it read blank again, "The language.." The Doctor said glancing down for a split second to the controls as he pressed a button then peered up at Sonya, "Sumerian" he said just as the word Sumerian flashed onto the screen.

Walking over to the side of Sonya, The Doctor crossed his arms and glared down at the screen, "Sumerian! Hasn't been heard in over four thousand years. The first Earth language to go dead..not one person alive on this planet can speak it and yet there it is..bleeding through that voice through Abigail Tyler...".

Sonya reacted to the name with a sudden jerk of the head, staring up at him with wide eyes. "Tyler as in... No, she's an only child." She suddenly said, shaking her head sharply. "Rose never had any siblings, and as far as I know, she didn't have a kid before being stuck in the other universe either." She added, looking back up at him with a quizzical expression. "And... Well Sumerian is a dead language... But it doesn't mean that there isn't someone out there that knows it, in the past, in the future or even from another planet. There was no concrete evidence that they... Oh. Your saying someone else is using Abigail. Right." She stumbled along her sentences, still startled at the name he said moments ago.

"Right... What do we do then?"

The Doctor shook his head with a slight chuckle, "Just because someone's last name is Tyler doesn't mean they are Rose's siblings, blimey" he mumbled, moving away from her side and pulling the scanner over, "A language is proclaimed dead for a reason. It means that not one living person on Earth has heard a word of Sumerian for thousands of years..not ever again Sonya. It's gone, can't just reappear out of nowhere..the only people who ever spoke or heard that language were either people that were alive during that time or-". Suddenly The Doctor was cut off from a thrust from the TARDIS as it directed itself to a specific time and space, completely by itself, "Alaska. Year 2050..2035..2020..2005...2000!" he yelled, calling out the years he saw as they passed until finally one last thrust indicated they had landed.

Peering around the control console room, which was beginning to settle, The Doctor's eyes wondered until resting on the doors that seemed to be calling to him as he stood up straight, "I think..she wants us to see something" he muttered.

"You think? And the name is pretty well known by anyone you know. If it wasn't me here, it would have been someone else with the same reaction." Sonya added dryly, looking over at him from where she had been flung back against the hand rails in surprise. Getting to her feet quickly, she straightened her jacket and glanced at the screen over his shoulder with a slight frown. "That's the same time that I heard the stories started from." She suddenly said, pointing at the year displayed on it before bounding around the controls and towards the doors. "Come on then, might as well and see what Lady thought was so important. I trust her more than I trust you half the time. 'Let's go to the 1600's' we end up in the 1500's and I'm almost sold off into slavery." Snorting in amusement, she flashed him a smile before vanishing out the TARDIS doors.

The Doctor chuckled and rolled his eyes as he rushed out of the doors and after Sonya, snagging his trench coat and quickly flipping it on as he exited his infamous vessel. Immediately a cold breeze met The Doctor as he stepped out onto the snow covered floor, his eyes looking to the skies as a smile appeared on his face, "Snow! Brilliant! Love snow!" he exclaimed as his attention turned to a two story, well decorated wooden house in front of them. "Allons-y" The Doctor said nonchalantly as he placed his hands into his pockets and strode over to the house, eventually stepping up the three steps to the front door and giving it a firm, hard knock.

The door was quickly answered by a middle aged woman, her eyes hanging no from obviously no sleep, "What is it?" she barked before placing her hand over her forehead then restarting, "Sorry..it's just i have a lot on my mind. I've got a patient with me right now..so-". Before the woman, who was now informally known as Abigail to The Doctor, could finish The Doctor flashed his psychic paper and squeezed through the frame of the door and entered the house, "Good because we're here to witness it. Headlines, good for the papers" he mumbled, his mind and attention immediately shifting to the woman laying on the couch and the camera set up in the living room, pointing directly at her.

Abigail sighed and closed the door behind Sonya, "Just..just don't interfere alright?" she told The Doctor as she walked back into the living room ahead of him and sat down in the chair adjacent to the couch which bore the woman. "When i snap my fingers you will go back to last night...tell me everything you saw. 3...2...1.." Abigail said calmly before snapping her fingers, causing the woman to immediately fall into a trace, along with The Doctor who walked around so he could get a better view, "There was a noise...a noise outside of my window....when..when i opened it..there was an owl..a while owl...the eyes...the eyes were yellow. It turned it's head...then that's when the door opened behind me....noo! nooo!!! Who are you?!?! What are you?!?!" the woman began to freak out, tossing pillows around the room as if defending herself from whatever was inside of her room, "What is it?" Abigail said, growing more worried by each passing second, "I don't know!!...dark..can't see. But i hear it...it's...it's saying something..telling me to do something...but..but i don't know what it is. I don't recognize the language...aaaahhhhhH!!!!!!!".

Sonya stayed next to the wall, watching the scene with something like horrified facination as the woman flailed about. Casting a quick look at the Doctor, she widened her eyes as the girl mentioned a language she couldn't recognize. Sumerian? And the whole 'white owl' part pokes at something to... I still can't lay my finger on it.[/i She thought over at him, brushing her mind against his before withdrawing once more, turning her eyes over at Abigail and the girl with a frown.

Suddenly unable to stand still, Sonya began circling around the room herself, hands locked behind her back as she stared at the scene, trying to figure out exactly what it was the girl was saying. [i]Shifter? But those haven't been seen in thousands of years. Much less heard of. She thought to herself, unaware she was chewing on her lip harshly until a sudden dull throb came from it, making her unlock her teeth and let out a low sigh. Doctor, What do you think attacked her? Something that knows Sumerian obviously, but what species still speaks it?

The Doctor shrugged, his eyes fixated on the event at hand before it finally came to a close with Abigail breaking the woman from her trance with a snap of her fingers. The woman broke from the trance, her face completely engulfed in fear as she jumped from the couch and stormed out of the house, "I have to go" she mumbled back to Abigail just before opening and slamming the front door. Once the woman was gone Ms. Tyler turned her attention over to The Doctor and Sonya, "There are rooms here..if you'd like them..but only for two nights at most. I..i need to get some rest" she rubbed her eyes then marched off up the stairs and into the second floor of the house.

The Doctor sniffed as his eyes followed her form until she was out of sight, but never out of mind, then he finally turned back to Sonya his voice in a low hushed tone, "Like i said before ancient Sumerian's disappeared just over four thousand years ago. The TARDIS can barely translate it..hell, i only know a few words and that's because of books in the academy library on Earth".

The Doctor shrugged, his eyes fixated on the event at hand before it finally came to a close with Abigail breaking the woman from her trance with a snap of her fingers. The woman broke from the trance, her face completely engulfed in fear as she jumped from the couch and stormed out of the house, "I have to go" she mumbled back to Abigail just before opening and slamming the front door. Once the woman was gone Ms. Tyler turned her attention over to The Doctor and Sonya, "There are rooms here..if you'd like them..but only for two nights at most. I..i need to get some rest" she rubbed her eyes then marched off up the stairs and into the second floor of the house.

The Doctor sniffed as his eyes followed her form until she was out of sight, but never out of mind, then he finally turned back to Sonya his voice in a low hushed tone, "Like i said before ancient Sumerian's disappeared just over four thousand years ago. The TARDIS can barely translate it..hell, i only know a few words and that's because of books in the academy library on Earth".

"Its the one language I never learned, and that is saying something." Sonya murmured quietly to him, her eyes following where Abigail had vanished to. "So who's speaking it now? Who in the universe knows the language fluently enough to use it as an actual language?" Biting down on her lip again, she ignored the pained protest from it and began pacing around the room again. "This is wrong, there's someone tormenting this girl and they won't leave her alone." Stopping by the door, she folded her arms and gazed out the window beside it. Unsure of what to do, there weren't many situations where she was stumped, but this would be one of the top. "Doctor, I'm out of my league here..."

The Doctor gazed down at the ground for a moment as his head rolled over millions of thoughts inside of his consciousness before finally, with a sigh, he peered back up to Sonya and placed a hand on her shoulder, "Come on" he mumbled, gesturing upstairs with his head, "Get some sleep then we'll be able to figure this out". With a reassuring nod, The Doctor turned and walked gently up the sitars and immediately turned left once he got to the final step. Inside of the hallway there were three doors in front of him, two laid behind him on the other side of the hallway where Abigial and her daughter currently resided. Choosing the second door, The Doctor slowly turned the handle and walked through, tossing his trench coat onto the edge of the bed just before flopping down onto the mattress, his face engulfed in his hands, "Sumerian's..." he hissed to himself.

Stepping in behind him, she closed the door and walked over to the chair sitting beside a desk and rested her elbows on her knees, staring at the floor in front of her. Sleep was really the last thing on her mind at the moment as she went over everything they had just witnessed and heard. Something still didn't sit right with her, something she was missing and just couldn't remember. Letting out a frustrated sigh, she leaned back and crossed her arms over her eyes, trying to figure out what it was determinedly.

"What are they doing in this time? You even said it yourself, they died out, or they spread and melded with other cultures, forgetting their own language with time." She finally asked, looking over at the Doctor with a small frown of concentration. Her eyebrows pulled together in the middle as she thought over the words the girl had said. "She didn't look like she had been attacked..."

The Doctor looked up from his cuffed hands that, once empty, hung loosely over the edges of his knee caps, "They didn't just die out.." he mumbled a reply, "They disappeared. Like completely vanished. No trace, nothing...just completely gone. Their temples, their clothes, weapons, religions, everything..left as it was as if something happened...not one Sumerian skeleton has been found..well..apart from those in graves from burials". He shook his head with a sigh, glancing back down to the ground, "It's like they just vanished off the face of this planet...don-", then a blood curtailing scream echoed throughout the entire cabin, stripping The Doctor's attention away from Sonya and her question and over to the door, which he raced to.

As if there were a spring beneath his shoes, The Doctor jumped up from the bed, flung the door open and rushed down the hallway. Immediately upon opening the door, the lighting in the house was tremendously brighter and more focused as a blinding white light shinned through each window of the house, even on the bottom floors. Placing his hand over his eyes, so he could see, The Doctor approached Abigial's door and slowly opened it, "Ms. Tyler?" he called out before he stood frozen in front of the door, his eyes meeting two large, thin, gold plated figures looming over Abigail, who pressed her back up against the head of the bed. The figures turned to The Doctor, "Is.u.bicta! Gra.tuc. Nik.em.groda" the figure approaching The Doctor hissed, it's voice deep and malignant, it's eyes and facial features unseen behind a mask which bore an elongated head.

Sonya went to go after the Doctor, only to be distracted by the sudden light shining through the window in their room. For a moment, she hesitated on the threshold of the door, staring at the light with a kind of wondering fascination before she realized what was happening. Shaking her head sharply, she turned and raced after him. Slipping to a stop behind him, her eyes locked onto the figures. A numb disbelief spread through her as she stared over the Doctor's shoulder. "Sumerian, they speak Sumerian." She breathed in shock, her blue eyes widening further.

Not realizing they were in potential danger, Sonya studied the mask with an astonished smile. Stories had been told, whispered rumors, but seeing them for herself, now that was a story to say. Questions began popping up in her head, questions she died to ask, but her lips remained closed, warning her of some danger around. With a slight frown, Sonya finally realized the rest of the details in the room. Abigail cowering on her bed, the figure in front of the Doctor speaking in threatening tones.

The Doctor took another step back before the large figure thrust it's arm outwards, grabbing him by the neck and slamming him up against the wall with great force. "Ru.Ti. Ru.Ti!!!" It roared, the other figure turning it's attention over to Sonya, gazing down at her through the pitch black eye holes of it's mask, before glancing down at it's wrist where a device was strapped around. Pressing three buttons on the device, the four of them disappeared in shroud of smoke and reappeared inside of a ship. The walls were brown, like stone, with moss and grass hanging from it, the ground was damp; the sounds of echoing bird calls roared throughout the ship along with several other identifiable species.

Hitting The Doctor with it's other hand, The Doctor fell out of the grasp of the figure and plummeted to the ground beneath him where the other figure quickly activated a ray shield around him and Sonya. Glaring at them for a moment, the figures look at one another, nodded then walked off out of view, leaving The Doctor and Sonya alone inside of the room.

Reaching up hesitantly, Sonya tapped at the shield around them and jerked her hand back as it sent a soft current through her hand. "Ah... No touch then." Muttering under her breath, she crouched down next to the Doctor and laid a hand on his head gently. "You alright? That looked pretty painful, being tossed around like a rag-doll." A slight scowl settled on her face once she noticed the hand marks on his neck, her hand already moving from his forehead to the bruises there and healing them. "You really ought to know who to burst in on and who you should really keep away from. I can only imagine how many times you were chased around in the school because you came between a fight or argument.

The Doctor chuckled, shaking his head as he glanced down at the ground, "Well.." he began, exaggerating the word as he always did, "Never came through fights or arguments..just was running from other kids in the academy, accidentally ran through a fight so they chased me". Turning his attention from Sonya and over to what was around him, he inhaled then exhaled, his mind finally coming up with a series of words that matched what he was thinking, enough to explain to Sonya what might be going on. Standing up, he pointed over to the wall a few feet in front of them; on it was inscribed with a series of ancient images, obviously from older times, depicting some sort of vehicles descending onto a group of people. Above the ship was the outline of a figure as it stood over it; it's head was elongated just as the figures that took them were.

"In all of ancient civilizations..there are depictions of..some sort of people or gods coming down to their people. Showing them how to live correctly, agriculture, religion.." The Doctor began to explain, his mind still telling him a thousand things at once, his task was simple yet hard, to explain to Sonya the best he could, "To the Sumerian's they were called..the annunaki. Gods from another world that showed them everything in their civilization. Then next thing you know..the Sumerian's disappear from the Earth, just literally disappear.".

"Well now this is the most coincidental encounter I have ever been a part of. Hello Sonya, Doctor. Fancy meeting you in a place like this." A familiar voice, at least to Sonya, spoke from behind the two. The Interfector was in a separate prison than the other two though it was only a few feet away. He appeared dishevelled, hair wildly sticking out, he was shirtless and shoeless and dirt covered the majority of his face and body. Sitting cross-legged, the Time Lord rubbed at his inked arm as if to fend off a chill, his fresh face, at least to the Doctor, was all smiles and charm as he eyed the new arrivals. This was very interesting not to mention nerve racking. The Interfector didn't exactly want to encounter the Doctor again but if he had to, it wouldn't be at a time like this. For all he knew the other Time Lord would get out but leave him here. Though he didn't think Sonya would let that happen...

"I was in the wrong place at the wrong time if you were curious to know how I got here. I would say the same about you two but that cannot be true. You look for trouble at any chance you get. Looks like you found it. Now how about a bit of team work, hm? As you can see they took everything off of me. I have nothing but my hands and brain to work with. "

Sonya spun around and felt a grin split across her face at the familiar face. "Interfect! It figures you would show up here." She chuckled and stalked over to the edge of their prison, studying him for a moment. "Did they throw you around too, or did you run into anymore of those little lizards?" She added slyly, her eyes shining with mischief before remembering the Doctor was there too. "Ah.. Right, you remember Interfector." She mumbled, a slow flush creeping across her face as she looked at the Doctor. "He ah, regenerated during a rather confusing adventure we ran into after literally running into each other." Her eyes dropped from his face and down to the floor as she took a slow breath, trying to fight back the blood in her face and regain some composure. "Anyway, you know each other, we're all stuck in here. Aliens kidnapped the Sumerians and now have returned to earth for some reason." Sonya said quickly, clapping her hands together as she flashed a forced smile around at the both of them.

The Doctor looked over to the newly regenerated Interfector with a raised eyebrow before slowly turning his attention back to the walls of the ship around them, "No.." he mumbled in a lower tone, "Alien's didn't kidnap the Sumerians...the alien's are the Sumerians" he explained. Already guessing that Sonya and The Interfector would be completely and utterly confused by his rationing, The Doctor pointed to a hieroglyph on the wall to his left. "Images from Sumer show not only figures falling from the sky..but also Sumerian's themselves flying up into the heavens with the gods. Well..you can interpret those images as much as you'd like but i know when i see a b class interceptor and that right there is one." He paused as his eyes caught the shadows of three of the figures walking down the hall and entering the room, "Only question now remaining is...what happened to the Annunaki".