Time and Earth: A Doctor Who and PJO Crossover (Bk 1)

Chapter 19: Prelude

Chapter 19: Prelude

Before I could register being back in the TARDIS, a pair of warm arms wrapped around me and pulled me into an equally warm chest. It was only the flash of auburn hair that let me know who had embraced me.

Daniel.

He took a shaky breath in, as if withholding tears, and pulled back. His hands were almost blindingly warm around my arms, and the relief radiating off him was not what I was expecting after the last time we spoke.

"How long has it been for you?" I asked.

"Months," he answered, voice and smile trembling.

"It's only been a few hours for me. Look, I'm sorry about the whole Calypso thing-"

"Please," he scoffed, "that was so two months ago."

I let out a sound somewhere between a laugh and a sigh, happy to be back in the presence of friends again. I opened my mouth to warn them about the God Lords, and who was leading the group when the Doctor spun around on his heels on the console ahead of us. As he did so, he revealed a group of four people, all remarkably different from the other.

"Lucy, how nice of you to pop in! These are my friends, Madame Vastra, Jenny, Strax, and Dorium."

Vastra was not human. She looked like one, if someone had been born with vibrant green scales and a lizard-like head structure. For a heartbeat, I thought she was a dracaena and reached for my absent weapons but halted. Her appearance was made all the odder with her Victorian style black gown, similar to Rivers save for color.

The woman named Jenny was in a similar outfit. She was the only purely human one of the group, and her gown realized her profession as a Victorian maid. Her skin was as pale as her apron, and her hair and eyes were dark as the rest of her robe.

Strax, in all honesty, looked like a potato given limbs. His face was crumpled with a permanent scowl, while the rest of him was covered in alien periwinkle armor.

Dorium was an obese genie, his vibrant blue body covered in fabrics from planets far and wide, his nonexistent neck coated in beads and charms.

I deemed myself lucky for traveling with the Ponds and not them.

"Hello."

There was a heavy stride from that all too familiar hallway to my left, and a Roman soldier walked out. It was Rory, and I'd never been so intimidated by a man in a skirt in my entire life. His gaze was Celestial bronze, his armor shimmering, his cape swooping behind him as he laid his eyes on Daniel and me.

Rory had told us about his centuries as the Lone Centurion before but never had I seen him in the role. I wondered if the Romans back at Camp Half-Blood knew about him and if he knew about them.

"Where have you been for the past few months?" His voice was as strong as his armor, helmet tucked under his arm and hip, his smile as flat as the floor.

"Nice to see you too, Rory."

Amy's husband's smile appeared at last as he rushed forward and enveloped me in a hug. Once we pulled away I explained to the crowd my travels.

"You just jumped on a ship?" Jenny asked.

"Is it supposed to be hard?"

There was a smirk from the Doctor, no doubt recognizing the Time Lord genes in me. The pride emanating from him was almost paternal.

Vastra put her hands on her corseted hips, "Did you know our plan for Demons Run?"

I shook my head and realized the tension between the group. They'd been together for months searching for Amy and me, and I'd just rocked up in the middle of their big day. My escape hadn't taken much effort, except for the last part. I must've made the Doctor appear almost human, which was a treasonous crime.