Mary stared at the blue box. No way. That was impossible. There was absolutely definitely no possible way for that box to be sitting there.
And yet it was. And so she stared at it.
She could feel the energy coming off from it, as though it was glowing a bright golden light. Regardless of whether or not it was possible, there was very definitely a big blue box sitting there, and it was almost very definitely what she thought it was.
Unless she was dreaming. She could be dreaming. Things like this did happen occasionally in her dreams, though admittedly they weren't common. It was more normally to do with plain boring stuff like what was going to happen, and what had happened, and stars. She dreamt about stars quite a lot, though she had no idea why.
Of course, she didn't feel like she was dreaming. But could she be sure? She didn't know.
Mary walked up, and touched the blue box. A word came to mind: TARDIS. She felt a shiver go down her back, she knew what that was.
She was a TARDIS, really. That was something she was absolutely very definitely super-positive about. She was a TARDIS, that got stuck in a person. She didn't know how, or why, or who, or what or when or where, or anything at all really, beyond knowledge that sometimes just appeared in her head. But she knew what she was.
And now here was another one. One of her sisters, only real. Realer? More real? More real than she was, at any rate.
Well, that was it then. This must be a dream. She leant against the door, pressing her cheek up against the hard painted wood.
Mary decided she was going to cry now. She really really wanted it to not be a dream, because all she ever had was dreams teasing her of things she could never be. Could never have. It wasn't fair that they taunted her like that.
Sudden the door opened, and she very promptly fell in. Looking up she saw shoes. After a long pause, the shoes spoke.
"Umm… Hello..?" They said.
"Oh yes, talking shoes. This is definitely a dream." She mumbled forlornly. Well, at least she was certain now.
Oh wait. Were those legs coming out of the shoes? Mary blinked, following them up.
"Oh." She said thoughtfully. "Excuse me, are you a dream?" She asked the man standing above her.
"Am I a dream? Well… I don't know. I suppose I could be, though I don't think I am. But then you wouldn't know either way. Who's dream, anyway, yours?" The man asked curiously.
Mary frowned. That was an interesting question. She took a moment to think about it, before nodding. It was rather difficult to nod from her position on the floor, but she managed.
"Yes… Yes, I think so. At the very least, I have never been in someone else's dream before, so I would suppose it safe to assume this is mine." She answered.
It was difficult to hold a conversation from down here, she decided. So, she stood up and brushed herself down. She was glad this was a dream, in some ways. Were it real, she would be decidedly too shy to do what she was about to.
"Well… I suppose that's true. Can't say the same unfortunately, but-" The man began, before Mary quite suddenly pulled him towards her, and pushed him out the door. Then she locked it on him from inside.
Good, now that she had the imaginary dream person out of the way, she could enjoy the TARDIS in peace. She slowly walked around the console, studying it, ignoring the banging coming from outside. She loved this part of her dreams. Just being in the Console Room.
She hugged herself, as she looked at it. This was what she was supposed to be. Rather than being stuck in her stupid human body, in the middle of the most uneventful place in the universe, Wales. She could have BEEN the universe. Travelled through it at will, seeing and experiencing everything. Like she was meant to.
She moved to the seat by the railing, to sit down and cry some more. This was very not-fair. Why did she have to be born like this?
"Doctor..? How come the Engine's stopped? Did we land?" She suddenly heard called out. God, was someone going to interrupt her crying every time? She just wanted a bit of peace and quiet, she thought sullenly as she looked up. It was a woman's voice. A fact soon confirmed as the woman walked through one of the doorways into the Console Room.
The woman stared at her for a long moment, and she just stared back, her cheeks still wet with tears.
… Why was there a human aboard this ship?
"… Hello. Who are you?" The woman asked her cautiously. Mary just stared. This was decidedly unusual. Even in her dreams, there'd never been a human in a TARDIS before. Only ever Time Lords.
Though she wasn't fully certain the woman was Human. She felt... Twisty? Like Time had hiccupped, and Mary was now staring at the resulting convulsion.
"My name's Clara. Who're you?" The woman asked again, trying to get a response from her. "Where's the Doctor?"
Mary blinked. Doctor, she'd heard that name before… Where had she heard it? One of her previous dreams?
"My name is Mary." She answered quietly. "Pleased to meet you."
"Ah… Pleased to meet you. " The woman replied automatically, "Wait, so what are you doing here? Where's the Doctor?"
Mary thought about those questions for a moment. "I walked in. Was the Doctor wearing a white pair of shoes, by chance?" She asked seriously. She had never seen white shoes quite like those before.
"That's the one." Clara said, nodding after a moment of thought.
"He's outside, trying to get back in." Mary shrugged. Clara stared at her.
"I locked him out." She said unapologetically. This was a dream, after all, and she had no reason to apologise to figments of her imagination. The man had seemed the type to talk too much, and he was interrupting her favourite bit.
Clara appeared confused, but nevertheless walked over to the door and opened it. The Doctor fell into it, just as Mary had, before rapidly rising to his feet as though nothing had happened.
"Hah! Wait, where'd she go?" He asked confusedly, realising it was Clara that had opened the door. She jerked a thumb over to Mary wordlessly, giving him a questioning look.
"She came in when I opened the door. And pushed me out and locked the door." He muttered in a disgruntled tone.
"She says her name is Mary." Clara said, closing the door behind him as he marched over towards the newcomer.
"Right, Mary… Who are you, and what are you doing on my ship?" He demanded.
Mary gave him a perplexed look. "I'm Mary, and I'm sitting."
The Doctor didn't know what to make of that. "R-Right… Well…" They were technically the answers to his questions.
Clara rolled her eyes. "He wants to know WHY you're here. What purpose." She said, quite aware that the Doctor would probably spend the next ten minutes struggling with those answers if she didn't.
"I don't know… What does it matter? This is my dream. I saw a TARDIS, so I came onto it." She mumbled, pulling her legs up onto the seat to hold them.
The Doctor and Clara both stared at her. That wasn't a reply either of them had been expecting.
"… Doctor, she knows what the TARDIS is." Clara stated after a moment, looking uncertainly at him. "That's not normal, is it?"
The Doctor just continued to stare at Mary, a frown slowly forming on his face. "Who are you really, Mary?" He asked seriously. "What species?"
Mary looked up at that question. "… That question is complicated to answer." She said after a moment.
The Doctor clapped his hands at that answer. "No it isn't! Because, believe it or not, I have a TARDIS. I can just find out for myself." He said, dancing his way to the Console. Mary sighed, as he started pressing a few buttons, before looking at the screen. He continued to look at the screen, his expression unmoving.
"Well?" She asked him expectantly. The Doctor was stood still.
"… It says 'That question is complicated to answer.'" He said flatly.
Clara looked between the two for a moment. Mary was giggling, while the Doctor was giving his TARDIS a thoroughly annoyed look.
"Okay… Backing up a moment, what does she mean when she says this is all a Dream?" She asked the Doctor.
He looked to her briefly, as he fiddled with various controls. "I don't know, ask her." He said in a put-out voice.
"You're my dream." Mary shrugged, when Clara looked at her expectantly. "This isn't real."
"… No we're not." Clara said perplexedly. "This is real life." She paused for a moment after saying that, before looking worriedly at the Doctor.
"This is real life, isn't it? We're not actually in a dream?" She asked. It wouldn't be the first time something like that had happened.
"No no, this is real- Well…" He stroked his hair back thoughtfully. "It's probably not a dream. I suppose it is possible, but it's not very likely. Though it would certain explain this." He said, frowning at the monitor that was still refusing to give Mary's species.
"Great, so we're probably not in the dream of a girl of an unknown species who just walked into the most secure ship in the universe without a fuss, from God-knows where-"
"South Wales." The Doctor interrupted absently-mindedly. Clara paused at that.
"… South Wales? What're we doing in South Wales?" She asked, taken off track for a moment. "I thought we were going to… You know what, nevermind. Obviously today is just one of those days where things happen for no reason whatsoever." She said, holding up her hands in defeat.
The Doctor gave a happy look at that. "Oh I do love those days… They're always so much more fun than normal." He grinned at her, before pulling out a mallet and hitting it against something on the Console.
"Hey, don't do that!" Mary cried at him in an affronted tone. He blinked at her.
"What? Why not?" He asked.
"You shouldn't hit her. No wonder she doesn't listen to you." Mary muttered, getting up and walking over to where he was standing.
Pushing him to the side, she began pulling levers and pressing buttons. "Here, you just have to treat her kindly." She said softly, quickly walking around the console, flicking switches as she went. Dials she barely touched began spinning and correcting themselves under her fingers. Others that hadn't even been there a moment ago were suddenly appearing for her to touch.
"Ah, please don't, umm…" The Doctor began, as he followed her around. He'd been about to stop her, but it was quite obvious she knew what she was doing. How she could know what she was doing, he had absolutely NO idea, but she could.
Once she'd done a full circle of the console, the Doctor simply staring at her as she went. She dragged the Console Monitor along with her over to him, before crossing her arms in a huff. "There, see? No need to resort to violence."
The Doctor stared at the monitor blankly. That wasn't possible. It simply Was Not Possible.
"What's it say?" Asked Clara curiously, looking over the meaningless Time Lord language.
"It… Says she's Human." He said, and Clara had never seen a more confused look on his face in her entire time with him. "But that's not possible."
"Human isn't so unusual, is it?" She asked uncertainly. "I mean, we ARE on Earth. Of all the races, I would have bet on Human…"
The Doctor stared at her. "A seventeen year old human from the Welsh 18th century, who can fly a TARDIS? Who, in actual fact, just did something with the TARDIS I'd have never even thought of?" He appeared bewildered.
"I mean, if she was using it as well as me, that'd be one thing. Some sort of Psychic transfer maybe, giving her my knowledge, though that'd be pretty bad too… But better than me? She was using the Psychic interface like it was a glove." He moved to fall back into the seat. He lifted a hand to rub the back of his head.
"It just isn't possible. How is that possible?" He suddenly directed to Mary herself. "How can you possibly know how to do that?
She looked at him uncertainly. "… She just said it isn't a dream." She whispered.
He frowned at that. "Well of course she did. Don't change the subject, how do you know how to use my TARDIS?"
Mary simply shook her head. "Not Clara. Her. The TARDIS." She directed the monitor back to him, and he read it. Flashing in red, were the words "Not a Dream" on the front. He gave her a confused look. "So?"
"So you're real. She's real. My God, this is actually real." She started crying yet again.
But for the first time ever, these tears were ones of joy, not sadness.
The Doctor and Clara exchanged a perplexed look, and silently agreed that Clara should take over.
"Sweety… Why don't you tell us what's going on?" She asked the girl, pulling her into a hug. Mary just cried into her top.
It was several minutes later before she was coherent enough to actually talk again. Moving away from Clara, she breathed in deeply, wiping her eyes with her arm.
"M-My name is Mary Thompson, on this world. I'm a Legacy..? A Legacy of Gallifrey." She murmured. The Doctor took a sharp intake of breath at that, before shaking his head, pacing.
"No you're not. I'd know. You're human, the only way for you to be a Time Lord would be with a Fog Watch, and even then you'd be unaware of your nature." He said without taking a breath.
"I never said Time Lord." She said quietly, staring up at the TARDIS's central tower. "You were not Gallifrey's only children."
The Doctor stared at her. "What..? Yes we were." He stated.
Mary tilted her head to stare at him, giving him a sad knowing half-smile.
The Doctor suddenly got it, and burst into laughter. It was only after he realised the girl wasn't laughing with him that he awkwardly stopped.
"Wait, you're serious?" He asked.
Mary nodded. Clara gave the two a confused look, before rolling her eyes. Things always ended up being cryptic around the Doctor. "Will one of you explain what you're talking about?" She asked impatiently.
"Mary here is… Claiming," The Doctor said the word carefully, though it was very obvious just what he thought of that claim. "To be part TARDIS."
Clara just stared at him. "… What?"
"Exactly." He said, uncharacteristically rolling his eyes. "The idea of it is impossible of course. The TARDIS does have a… Soul of sorts, but it'd be impossible to contain it within the body of a human. It'd result in the mind burning out within hours, and that's if you're lucky. Normal species simply cannot handle the psychic signature of a TARDIS." He explained.
"Even Time Lords can't do it. There were experiments nearer the end of the Time War, during which things like that were attempted. Trying to put the full power of a TARDIS into the hands of a Time Lord. The test subjects invariably ended up dead, along with the TARDIS in question." He said with a stressed look. "The idea of a human containing that raw power is simply impossible."
Mary stared at her hand for a moment. "Not impossible. I'm here." She said quietly.
The Doctor stared at her, began to speak, before shutting his mouth again. He glanced at the Console Monitor, before sighing. "Okay, so not impossible. Still, if you wanted to have even a chance, you'd need to… To…" And then he got it.
"Oh of course, the Rift!" He suddenly exclaimed. "Oh that is clever. That's very clever."
Mary and Clara both looked at him curiously.
"Right, how to explain this…" He thought for a moment. "Do you know the term 'Calm Before the Storm'? It's kind of like that. Well, not really, but I'm not going to start explaining the basics of wave-particle duality when affected upon time in a trans-dimensional vortex environment, so that'll have to do." He gestured, gearing up to explain his theory.
"There is a rift in Cardiff, which was opened by the Gelth in 1869. I closed that rift, an action that sort of… Created an "Eye" of the storm. In doing that, there must have been something known as an "event wave" created, that would affect the surrounding Time and Space. So unlike a normal storm, THIS one covers a whole spectrum of time aswell. Meaning that there is a calm-point at a specific point in the 1700s, about… Ooh, 10 miles from Cardiff?" He estimated, looking to Mary for confirmation.
"Twenty." She said apologetically. He waved it off.
"Close enough. So, 20 miles and 130 years or so from the rift, and you have this point of intense calm. Almost totally still, in terms of the Event Wave-function. It means that even everyday events become calmer at that point in time. Which, IF you were very very clever, could POSSIBLY give you the chance to maybe, with a lot of luck, meld the psychic signature of a TARDIS with that of a human." He finished with a sigh. "Though it'd have to be done while their psyche had not yet formed. While they're still in the womb, in other words."
The Doctor looked at Mary for a long moment, not really knowing what to say, now that his explanation was finished. She gave him a simple smile in return.
"Now that you're here, you can take me back. And I can be put into an unused shell, and finally be whole." She said, looking happier than the Doctor had ever seen someone. And it broke his heart into pieces, just for that alone.
"I can't take you back." He whispered, to which Mary faltered.
"W-What..? You have to! Please, please take me back!" She begged in a panicked tone.
"Gallifrey is GONE. There IS no back." The Doctor said in a voice that stopped Mary dead. "The planet was annihilated in the Time War."
"No… I-It can't be. I have to get back. I HAVE to." Mary whispered. It couldn't be gone. That was blatantly impossible. Gallifrey held the single most powerful race in the Universe, except perhaps the Eternals. How could they possibly be gone?
"W-Well… No matter, you have a TARDIS. We'll just go back to when it was still intact, yes?" She asked desperately, even though she knew what his next words were going to be. It was the only way Gallifrey could be gone permanently as he said.
"The planet was timelocked. It can't be accessed anymore." He said quietly.
And the hope that Mary had so recently experienced, was ripped away from her as she fell down to the ground.
There was no way for her to get a shell. Even if she built one, which she couldn't without components made only on Gallifrey, there was no way to extract herself from this body. The knowledge of how to do that was something contained exclusively within the Secret Archives of the TARDIS Keepers, the Order dedicated to growing and cultivating the TARDIS.
She was well and truly stuck. So close, and yet so far from her goal.
No. This was wrong, there was something wrong about this. Closing her eyes, she took a shuddering breath. She needed to think. Keep her rationality.
Her existence wasn't down to chance, the odds were simply too low. Someone had created her, and that meant that someone needed her for something. She had to have had a purpose, things didn't make sense otherwise. Why had she been created? Who placed her in this prison of a body?
Well, rationally speaking the only answer was someone on Gallifrey, before the Fall. That narrowed it down. Someone with knowledge of how to separate a TARDIS, which meant the Order of TARDIS Keepers was involved somehow. What else? She didn't know. Her knowledge of Gallifrey had massive holes in it, she simply didn't have enough information.
All she had were bits and pieces of a history she'd never known.
That said, she was in a TARDIS currently. There was probably a library in here somewhere. A library with books, and information. Gallifreyan information, no less…
She stood up, the other two both looking like they didn't quite know what to do. "I am going to the library for research. Do not disturb. Will need sustenance in three hours time." She ordered, before starting to walking away. Pausing for a moment, she looked back. "No eggs. I detest eggs." She said in a mutter, before disappearing off to find the library.
It took several moments before the Doctor or Clara managed to speak.
"… Well. That was… Interesting…" Clara said slowly, giving the Doctor an odd look. "So, explain this to me since I'm having a bit of trouble here – She is a TARDIS? Like your ship?"
The Doctor rubbed the back of his head. "Well… Possibly. I'm still having trouble believing it myself, but it is in theory possible." He sighed. Clara simply gave him a look.
"I know what you meant. The TARDIS… It isn't just a ship. They weren't created or built, not in the way you would think. They were grown on my homeworld. They evolved alongside Time Lords, and had a sort of… Symbiotic relationship with us. We fitted them to our needs, somewhat similar to how Humans did with Dogs, only over a much, much longer period of time." He explained, a forlorn look on his face.
"They are, or were, living creatures of the Vortex. The only creatures in existence that could live entirely within it, see its full expanse. Time Lords can to a small degree, but we're just flesh and blood, like anything else.
"The TARDIS's are gone now though. Except for mine, they were all destroyed along with Gallifrey." He said, speaking quietly. "Well… And her, I suppose. I've no idea where she came from though. An experiment, maybe, that got left over after the war." He shrugged.
"So what are we going to do?" Clara asked. "Take her with us?"
"Of course not." The Doctor said, shaking his head. "She has a family here. There isn't anything we can do for her, except leave her with people to love her. What she wants just isn't possible."
Clara nodded in response. It was sad to think, but the Doctor was right. They couldn't just take her away from her family like that.
Mary was busy in the library, going through the book lists at a lightning pace. There were literally billions of books in the expansive library, but she'd narrowed the list down to around 70,000 potentially useful ones in the last hour. It'd take time to sort through those 70,000 and identify which ones would actually be useful, but she wouldn't rest until she had. If she started now, she estimated she could get through them within the next twelve hours or so.
The only problem was translation. The TARDIS refused to use English in its interface, and she didn't speak Time Lord. Which left using the Psychic Interface to decipher the books' meanings. That was slower and much more tedious though.
Still, it was better than nothing, which was what she'd had only this morning. She might as well get started.
It was about three hours in, a time marked only by Clara bringing her some food (she had tried to start a conversation, but Mary had ignored her and she eventually left her to work), at which point she was finally taking a break.
She was tired, and going through thousands of titles and sorting their relevance was mind-numbing. She'd made good progress, but she'd underestimated how difficult it was to sustain a link to an interface meant for a Time Lord's mind. She'd hoped that it wouldn't be a problem, but at this rate she may not able to finish until tomorrow.
Trying to relax her head, she took a gentle walk through the quiet shelves. She loved libraries. The endless knowledge within a hand's grasp, hidden within the books and tomes, gave her a chill down her spine that she couldn't quite explain.
That chill increased as she walked. And before she knew it, her feet had led her to a dead end, where lay a big, closed tome upon a pedestal. Tome, that was the word. Book did not do it justice. There was something about it that caused the human side of her to shake, quiver with fear at the forbidden element of it. Urging her to look away, ignore the book and continue on her walk.
The TARDIS in her didn't say that though. It wanted to read it. She felt excited somehow, though she didn't know why. It drew her in, as she took another step forward. Enticing her to read, to know the secrets it held.
Stand in front of it, she slowly touched the cover, sliding her fingers over its leathery surface. Carefully taking ahold of it, she slowly bega- SLAM. A hand shut the book firmly, causing her to step back in surprise, her heart pounding.
"What are yo-"
"No." The Doctor said simply, staring at her. Mary's head felt almost blank.
"… Why not..?" She asked after a moment.
"I don't know whether you are a TARDIS at heart or not, and but it doesn't matter. Your body is human, and that book would rip your mind apart." He said seriously. Mary shuddered. Somehow, a part of her already knew that.
"What is that book?" She asked. He gave a sigh.
"Its title is 'The Secrets of Time'. I don't know what's written inside, but I do know that every creature that has tried to read it has lost their mind, or lost their life. Time Lord or not." He said quietly, "Every TARDIS has one. It's the only book in this whole place that cannot be removed. It cannot be changed, or destroyed, or even damaged." He carefully straightened the book out on its pedestal, before stepping back.
"Not that I suggest you try. She tends to get… Irritated at people that do." He said diplomatically, stroking one of the shelves with his hand, before shaking his head to clear his thoughts.
"Anyway, I was sent by Clara to tell you that Dinner's ready. You'll have to come to the Kitchen to get it." He said. Mary gave him a curious look at that.
"You don't have a Dining Room? I would have thought the TARDIS of all places would have such a thing…" She asked in a confused tone. The Doctor shrugged.
"Clara's from the 21st Century. People usually eat food in the Kitchen, in her era." He explained. Mary gave him a somewhat sceptical look. That seemed uncivilized to her, but it didn't matter.
What did matter, was the book. It stayed in the back of her mind, and though she avoided asking questions about it… Something seemed familiar. She was quite sure she'd never seen any books that looked like it before, but it had a certain quality to it she recognised from somewhere.
Nostalgia, perhaps?
They walked together to the meal that Clara had prepared. It didn't look anything like Mary had eaten before, but there were so many new things today she took it in her stride. She was willing to try something new.
Taking a seat at the Table, Clara was putting the food onto a plate for her. "Chicken Korma. A personal specialty." She grinned at Mary. The girl nodded silently, taking in the smell of the food. It smelt nice.
Trying a small portion of the food, her eyes widened. It was good! She'd never tasted something like this before, but it was very tasty.
Clara watched her expression with amusement. She had figured the girl might enjoy that. It was probably not anything the girl had tried before, but trying new food was always nice. The girl took her time to eat, but after a few moments Clara had concluded it was more due to good manners, than her not being hungry.
Serving portions for herself and The Doctor, they settled down to the meal. Around halfway through, Mary suddenly stopped. Her hand stayed midway between her plate and her mouth, as she stood perfectly still. Clara gave her a questioning look.
"T-The book..." She whispered tentatively. The Doctor's eyes peeked up from his own food, at that. "I recognise it."
Aaaaaand that's where I'll stop, I think. Cliff-hanger! Or something, I don't know. This was a weird story, but I kinda like it. I think it has the potential to be very interesting.
What do you guys think? Is it worth continuing?