Death Wish

(Closed to me and Sonya)

Here's the funny thing about life. It doesn't matter if you understand the cost. It doesn't matter if you've been burned by it again and again. If everything you love has been sacrificed, bit by bit. It feels fantastic.

Imagine the rush. You're the clever lad who gets to outwit the universe itself. All the guilt and regret in the world can't hold a candle to it. You just can't give it up

And when you've lost everyone you've ever loved, and everything you've ever valued? When you've turned bitter and twisted, rotting from the hurt and shame? When you've even lost yourself? You know what happens then? That's when you start to get really powerful. But it's also when it ends.

Arthur Jurgens watched his life die in front of him. What had once been a pleasant existence was now over. The Stranger had kept this name for quite some time now, there were strings attached to it. It was time to move on. The old man with the thinning grey hair and the lazy left eye was dead now. Bruce Delgado was dead. Bruce Delgado was the Stranger now.

The Stranger, or Bruce as he now called himself, told the landlady that his stay would be short, he didn't realise just how short. It was a nice enough place with enough space for Bruce to live comfortably. He settled in quickly then set out for a jog, there was a faint buzzing in his ear, like a bee. His sandy blond hair waved in the breeze, he felt the wind rush through his stubble. He had something of a beard now. He stopped for a cigarette and then made the decision that would change everything.

Bruce saw a girl with raven hair disappear into a tall, dark, building. He recognised her, he knew who she was, but she couldn't be, could she? The girl who saved him, the dog-girl, the girl with the eye of horus? He followed her. He had to. He had to know. There was no sign of her in side. He called out her name. "She's not here," a voice responded. The girl, she had turned to face him, wait for him. It wasn't her, she was still lost to him. "I'm here." Bruce's eyes narrowed. "Who are you?" The girl's lips twisted into a cruel grin. "I am the hive..." she whispered. And then the world turned black.

There's one distinguishing feature that every true and experienced traveller in the web of space and time shares. I'm not talking about the ones who had no choice - the cursed heirs, the ghosts, the transformed. No, I'm talking about the ones who seek it out. Who want to master it. Myself included. Every single one of us is stupid enough to think we're better than everyone else. And how d'you think that works out for us? We usually end up dead...

Nate Stevens, the Anonymous Chicken, sat at his desk, playing with a sword while the phone rang. He ignored it for exactly four rings like he always did. Then he answered. Even he didn't have anything to say when he heard what the woman at the other end had to say.

He was at the building in no time, crouched down by the body, the body of the Stranger. He knew the man, they'd been friends, now he was dead. The Stranger was dead. Sophie Smith stood by him. There was a ring on her finger, from her dead partner who'd never had the chance to propose to her. She was a captain in a covert intelligence force created to deal with abnormal threats to Britain. She'd worked with Nate before.

"Do we know how it happened?" Nate asked. "Well we're guessing the Hive had something to do with it." Nate rolled his eyes. Sprawled across the wall in blood was the word: Hive. It wasn't the Stranger's blood. This wasn't their first encounter with the Hive also. "Then it looks like we have a mystery to solve..." Nate announced, his usual grin not present.

There was a beep in the Stranger's pocket. Nate reached down and took out the phone, it had just sent a message, something pre-programmed. "Dead." was all it said. There were Three recipients listed. Nate's phone buzzed in his pocket in answer to the first. He recognised the other name as an old friend that the Stranger had talked about. Someone that wasn't going to answer. The last name read: Sonya.

Blinking down at her phone, Sonya frowned at the message displayed there in bold. He couldn't be, he had been around for ages, he just couldn't be dead after so long... Placing it off to the side on her dresser, she sat on the edge of her bed, face falling down into her hands as she tried to process exactly what happened. It had been a relatively normal day for once, nothing more than running from angry villagers because the Doctor decided to mention something about how it was unusual to have the pets eating on the table instead of under it. Idiot, he ought to know by now he needed to read up on a culture before visiting, it would cut back on the times they had to run for their lives because of one simple comment.

Glancing back over at the phone, she shook her head in denial. She always took him for granted, always assumed he'd be there forever, she should have known. It could be a trick, someone could have nicked his phone, couldn't they have? Reaching over again, she picked it up and pressed the call button before lifting the device to her ear, listening to it ring on the other end. She'd get to the bottom of this if it was the last thing she'd do.

The Stranger's phone started to vibrate in the palm of Nate's hand. "Excuse me..." Nate muttered confused. "You should take it," Sophie said kneeling down to examine the Stranger's body. "Hi..." Nate said awkwardly, answering the call, "I'm sorry, I'm afraid that..." he paused wondering what to call the stranger, "He isn't available to take your call right now, and probably never will be again. But you can still leave a message if you want..." He grimaced. He still sounded like his normal happy-go-lucky self. Wasn't there supposed to be some sort of grieving period where he got all angsty. He shrugged, that wasn't what was needed, or what the Stranger would have wanted. Probably. He shrugged and waited for the caller's response.

"So it's true. He is dead..." Sonya murmured, her eyes shutting tightly as she gripped the edge of her bed with her other hand tightly. "What happened? Who did it? Not just anyone could kill him, he was clever, he took more precautions than anyone I know. It was nearly impossible to sneak up on the man..." Trailing off, she took in a slow breath, trying to calm herself down before continuing. "Look, he's... He's a very old friend of mine, and dead or not, I promised him I'd help whenever he needed it. Even if he's gone now, he needs my help in this, I can't just let his death be another mystery for you lot to cover up, lock away and forget about."

Standing up, she made her way to her door, opening it up quickly and heading towards the console room. Surely the Doctor wouldn't mind too much if she borrowed Lady. It was important after all. And from the way he spoke earlier, he'd be gone for hours. Bloody conventions, he never could resist a good one full of useless bits of junk that'll just end up being piled away into one of his storage rooms for years on end. "I'm following the signal from his phone, don't you dare leave the area or so help you." With that, she ended the call and hooked her phone up to the TARDIS controls, tracing back the signal to the point of origin. With a few quick swipes of the controls, she flew off into the vortex, only to land moments later, a few feet behind Nate and step out the doors, her eyes immediately moving to the body on the ground.

"Well..." Nate muttered as the TARDIS materialised besides him. Sophie stepped back in shock, she'd never seen the TARDIS before. "...I'm guessing it's not the Doctor inside there..." Nate tried a grin, but it still didn't seem to be working for him so he changed it to a weak, solemn, smile. "Hi," he greeted Sonya, "Nate Stevens, Anonymous Chicken, Alien Investigator. This is Sophie Smith, she's an agent of... something." Sophie rolled her eyes: "Leviathan," she confirmed, "You won't have heard of us, we're very secretive like that." Nate whispered: "Think of Black Ops UNIT but just British."

He paused then pointed at the Stranger's body, "I assume he's what you're looking for. He's pretty dead, I checked. Not sure what killed him though. My money's on aliens, but it always is at first. Last case I worked I thought a death ray was the cause of death for my first analysis, turned out to be coffee. Poisoned coffee of course, but... coffee." He looked at her for a moment: "We've met before, haven't we? Briefly. With skinny pinstripes and the purple death-man." It was clear he was referring to the Eldrad incident. "I'm sorry, I'm babbling, talking, a lot. That happens. When I'm nervous or upset. Or not nervous or not upset. Just generally I talk a lot. I'll shut up now and let you have a go." he resisted the urge to hit himself at the way he was just going on and on.

Staying silent for a moment, Sonya surveyed the area, taking in each of the people there along with the surroundings they were in before walking over and crouching beside her long-time friend with a sad look on her face. "Yes. We've met before. I didn't pay too much attention though." She finally muttered, not caring if she came across as rude, in truth, she really didn't care if she made him angry or not, she only wanted to get to the bottom of this, then be on her way.

In retrospect, she realized she must be spending too much time with the Doctor. Fixing a problem, then running off before she could be touched by the aftermath that came with it. Shaking her head, Sonya turned to look around the area, eyes narrowed as she tried to pick up on something, anything that might give her a clue as to what happened here, her nose flared slightly, picking up a cloying scent of overpowered perfume. Her eyes flicked over to the woman, a slightly irritated look on her face as she did. "Would you mind either hosing yourself off, or leaving the room? I can't smell a damn thing besides that cheap perfume you're wearing."

Sophie looked offended. Nate looked at her sympathetically, "it does smell..." he said, shaking his head slightly. Sophie glared. "I'm not wearing perfume." she stated. "Then your natural smell is very weird," Nate said without a second thought turning back to Sonya. He opened his mouth to say something then stopped as a thought crossed his mind. "Maybe it's not you..." he said suddenly, "Maybe the perfume... is a clue!" he said it so dramatically you'd think he was announcing who shot JFK. He looked at Sonya for a moment then as he spoke, his voice had changed tone completely, it was surprisingly warm and comforting, "Arthur, or whatever you knew him as, was clearly very close to you. But I don't think he'd want to get angry and emotional at least until after we've solved the case..."