Title: Do I Dare Disturb the Universe?
Summary: Bella Swan's been running her whole life. After two years of standing still she meets a wonderful man who tells her to run for her life. She does. And it sets in motion a series of events that will eventually lead to her death. Same Doctor. New Companion.
Pairing:Bella/Nine/Ten
Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who. I am not Stephen Moffat or Russell T Davies. I also do not own the Twilight Saga. If I did own either of these creations, I sure as hell wouldn't be writing stories on the internet for fun. So don't sue. Unless you want digital copies of the new series, in which case sue. I have backups. ;)
AN: This story should encompass Seasons One and Two as well as the specials in between. Might break the seasons up into different stories though, depending on content. Probably be a sequel sometime later on that discusses the crossover events, if you've seen most of Doctor Who, of season 4, since technically season three never really happened.
Watching the show won't be necessary, but for those of you have seen the show, hopefully this will diverge enough from the original episodes to still be entertaining and worth reading. This story isn't going to be the original transcripts for the new series except for the fact that I've changed the name Rose to Bella. There will be new scenes and dialogue, as Bella, while she might find herself in some of the same situations, will find herself in different ones as well, and will also react differently. I've got some plans for this story. Plans I tell you. With plans like these I feel like a Super Evil genius.
First bits first person, since it's directly from Army of Ghosts, Rose Tyler's way to set up the two part story. Voice over's from DW will be in first person throughout the story.
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P R O L O G U E
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Planet Earth, this is where I was born, and this is where I died.
The first nineteen years of my life nothing happened. Nothing at all. Not ever.
And then I met a man called the Doctor. A man who could change his face and he took me away from home in his magical machine. He showed me the whole of time and space.
I thought it would never end. That's what I thought.
And then came the army of ghosts. Then came Torchwood and the war. And that's when it all ended.
This is the story of how I died.
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Isabella Swan lived a perfectly mundane life. If it wasn't for her gypsy mother uprooting their family every two months, when a relationship failed or the seasons changed or she simply felt like it, Bella would have blended into the background. But having been so many places, having seen so much of the world, she'd been cast into the spotlight. She'd always been in the spotlight.
Living somewhere for two months, that always equated to just enough time to make some acquaintances and settle down. That wasn't ever enough time to blend in, for the gossip to die down, for people to stop being interested in all the stories, all the different destinations.
Two months meant famous; two months meant legendary. Two months meant that no one could accurately sort through the abundance of rumors; two months meant that there was something about her, something that someone else had probably made up, that everyone liked. Two months meant popular. Whether it was people wanting to know her in order to leech off the popularity she'd always seemed to accumulate or to attempt to commandeer insider knowledge so that they could dethrone her, two months meant people paid attention.
Ben from Oregon thought that she had body piercings and tattoos hidden underneath her clothing. Angela, his girlfriend, also from Oregon, knew Bella never do something like that to her body and admired her ability to ignore everything that was being said about her. Two months meant that she was the Dos Equis guy with a vagina.
Two months meant it didn't really matter what people thought, she'd be pleading to deaf ears if she tried to inform them of any discrepancies. It was a Catch-22. She'd tried normal once, tried pleading, tried refuting, people thought that she was humble. Humble was endearing. The more that she denied the outrageous things that someone had made up, the more that people believed them. The more it seemed like an inside joke that everyone was a part of. The more that she wanted to be left alone, the more friends it made her. The same way that people used her as their gateway to the top, but wound up unbalancing the scales instead of leveling them. The same way that people like a hot girl who doesn't think she's pretty.
She'd never had a real high school experience. Whether it was her fashionable clothes, whether it was the fact that she'd shoplifted to buy them, whether it was the fact that she'd killed her father for his inheritance in order to fund her extravagant lifestyle. There were stories about everything. Stories explaining everything. Because it might not be true, but who was going to refute it? And who would believe them? The storytellers sought to share her fame by leaking 'information' about her. If they couldn't find out anything true worth sharing, they'd share something made up instead.
She'd had 17 high school yearbooks, all filled to the brim with jovial words and accompanying signatures. Of those 17 only a fifth of which actually had her picture in them. The rest had a blank spot instead and the words "photo unavailable." Two months meant that she had the most signatures out of anyone. It was a way of getting noticed, a way of saying look, I know Bella Swan. Two months meant knowing everyone; two months meant hundreds of people with nothing bad to say. At least not that they'd put in your yearbook for the next person to see.
When Renée was engaged to a popular French photographer he took her head shots and her mum glued in copies over top of the words "photo unavailable." This is why Bella loves her mother. Her mother is a constant.
Every time they move into a new house, Renée donates Bella's old bed sheets and clothes and purchases new stuff depending on their new location. Depending on the season. Depending on how she's feeling. Its a few less things to have to worry about fitting into a box.
Living somewhere for two months, that always equated to just enough time to finish unpacking all of her belongings before she had to stuff her entire life into boxes and travel to the next destination.
..
It isn't until Bella Swan has graduated from high school that they finally settle down. And it isn't by choice. At least not at first. At least that's the way it seems, the way her mother wants her to perceive it. But sometimes Bella wonders if maybe it wasn't too easy.
Renée, who funded their somewhat extravagant lifestyle by writing a series of vampire novels geared at teenagers, had been running since Bella was born. Even when Bella's dad had still been alive, Renée had been living her life in 60 day increments.
Bella knows that her mother would be running regardless of how much money was in the bank. Bella didn't think that anything would be able to stop their running, their traveling. She tries not to think of what her mum would have done if they were poor. How she would have bought their meals, where they would have slept. Because nothing could have kept Renée from running when the grains of sand trickled to the bottom of the glass.
The books, and the movies by default, are Renée's life story. Uncut. The whole truth and nothing but the truth. Except for the fact that mainly she's pushing a bunch of lies. Her life story times ten.
Bella's glad for the novels. For the movie adaptations that were made. The popularity they've amassed. Everyone and their uncle had read Renée's novels or watched a film in the franchise. The characters, the romance, the story. She's glad for the leniency it's allowed them. Glad for the leniency it's allowed her mum's flightiness.
The fact that Renée, her mum, is the writer. That the main character is based on her, even though she is named after a flower. This is something that Bella never lets anyone know, but everyone seems to find out anyways. She thinks Renée secretly tells people even though she denies it.
Phil, a former semi-professional football player, Renée's on again off again, currently on, boyfriend is the one person in the universe who hasn't read the books. The one person who hasn't fallen in love with the vampire/human romance. The one person who truly hates what so many people love. Bella Swan likes Phil a lot. So does her mum. She makes it really easy.
It's not hard to convince her. Truly taking candy from children must be harder than this. Managing to persuade her to stay past her two months period is easy. Even for a seasoned grifter like herself. Even after her and Phil break it off. There's always the chance they'll get back together.
London, the place where Bella Swan was born. Her home, the first real home she'd ever have and the last.
It was easy to convince her mum to let two months become six. Turning two to six was just as effortless. And soon six months was a year, and then it was two years. For the first time in forever, they'd surpassed two months. It should have raised flags, but excitement overpowered any other emotion that might have been present.
Honestly, Renée didn't even put up much of a fight and that should have been the first clue.
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"Too late now, I've missed it. Midnight. Jake's going to be calling me every minute. This is your fault!" Isabella Swan moans to her mother as they walk down the snowy street. Her arms are crossed tightly across her chest. A dark purple beanie, a thin purple jacket and a patterned scarf do not a warm and toasty getup make.
"No, it is not!" Renée protests. Indignant. "It's Phil! He said he was gonna give us a lift and then he said his axle's broke! I can't help it!"
"Get rid of him, Mum! He's useless!"
"Listen to you! With a mechanic! Be fair though. In my time of life, I'm not gonna do much better."
"Don't be like that." She tells her mother, rubbing her shoulder. She tucks a stray hand of her mum's choppy hair behind her ear. "Never know, there could be someone out there."
"Maybe." Her mother says, looking into the sky, her expression thoughtful. "One day." The woman says with a small smile. It morphs into a proper one when she remembers what the day is. "Happy New Year!"Renée exclaims, her face alight.
"Happy New Year!" Her daughter returns the sentiment with a giant smile plastered onto her face. The pair pull together and embrace, and it's easy for Bella to forget that she was freezing cold just moments earlier.
"Don't stay out all night!" Bella tells her mother as she pulls away from the tight embrace. Her finger is pointed accusingly at her mum.
She quickly hurries away, turning back to shout, "Try and stop me!"
Bella strides through the snow, heading towards the flat she shared with her mum. As she's passing through a shadowed area a grimace draws her attention and she turns towards where a man stands, one hand pressed against his mouth and the other gripping onto a doorknob tightly.
Concerned, she asks the man, "You all right, mate?"
The man replies, "Yeah." Even though it seems to take a considerable effort to sound normal.
"Ah," She says, understanding, still smiling brightly from her conversation with her mum. "Too much to drink?"
"Something like that." He responds, and there's something in his tone of voice that draws her eyes to his face, his features shrouded in darkness.
"Maybe it's time you went home." She tells him.
"Yeah." He says dismissively and she gets the distinct impression that something is going on here that she's unable to understand. She squints, trying to discern the angles of his face. The only part of him that she can make out, are the dull resigned eyes. The rest of his features, obscured by shadows, change as he moves.
"Anyway, Happy New Year!" She exclaims jubilantly. Her features bright and her smile affectionate.
"And you!" The man tells her from the darkness.
She starts to walk away and head inside but the main calls after her, and there's something about his voice that makes her turn around.
"What year is this?" The man questions from the darkness.
"Blimey," she says laughing softly, her teeth gleaming, "how much have you had?"
The man shrugs dismissively in place of an actual answer.
"2005. January the first." She tells him, slightly incredulous and with laughter in her voice.
"2005." He says thoughtfully. She nods impatiently in response. Wrapping her arms even closer to her chest. The warmth she had felt earlier gone. A chill taking over her body. "Tell you what." The man continues. "I bet you're gonna have a really great year!" He says, and his voice is choked up like he's crying and even in the darkness she can see silver lining his face.
"Yeah?" The girl wonders, amused at the man's strange prophecy.
He smiles. And even in the darkness she can tell that he's got a great smile. Something in his smile, in his eyes and the streaks, something about the reminiscent tone in his voice, it makes her smile too.
"See ya!" She says finally, sensing that the conversation is over, departing for her flat. She glances back at the man in darkness after stepping inside of her building, still exuberant, she watches him through the door as it closes. She runs up the stairs quickly, glancing at him still through the panel of windows that line the wall adjacent to the courtyard where the man stands. A solitary figure in the dark. Tears glistening in the whites of his eyes, tears staining his face.
She tries to put the man out her head. And it's not until she's changed out of her slightly damp attire, a victim of the snow outside, and walking towards Jake's flat, that somehow, with a shake of her head, despite the nagging in her mind, in her heart, that she manages to forget.
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N E X T T I M E
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"Hello? Hello, Wilson, it's Bella. Hello? Wil- Wilson?"
Bella pauses outside of a fire door for a moment before opening it. She fumbles around in the dark for the light switch. When she manages to turn on the lights she gasps. Momentarily startled by the presence of the dummies from the shop. Especially since she'd passed a few of them upstairs wearing Henrik's clothing as she descended to find Wilson.
"Wilson? Wilson?" She calls as she continues to walk further into the room.
Bella tries to enter another door but turns when the fire door through which she entered closes abruptly. Shocked she runs back towards the door and shakes the handles. When they don't budge, she shakes them even harder. Panic morphs her features. When she hears a small ruckus she turns around, her hands behind her back still trying to open the fire escape. Her eyes searched around but seeing nothing but the dummies. She steps away from the door, traveling through the throng of dummies to where the sound seemed to originate from.
"Is that someone mucking about?" She questions loudly, trying to keep the fear out of her voice. "Who is it?"
Behind her, a dummy slowly turns its head of its own accord. Bella turns around just in time to see it step out of its alcove and towards her. She backs away slowly, trying to head towards the doors of the fire escape.
"Heh... you got me, very funny." Bella says, adding a very frightened, very fake sounding laugh.
The mannequin says nothing and continues on. Two more join it in advancing towards her.
"Right," She continues, panicked. "I've got the joke! Whose idea was this? Was it Derek's?"
The dummies still advance - another joining in from behind.
"Derek, is this you?"
The rest of the dummies seem to come to life all at once. They all seem to have a purpose, a target. Bella Swan. She backs up from the encroaching dummies and trips over a box in her haste to escape them. She quickly pulls herself up again and backs against a wall. The dummies are standing right in front of her now. The dummy that came to life first, who seemed to be the leader of the other mannequins, lifts its arm up to strike and she closes her eyes, her face scrunched in anticipation, prepared for the blow.
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AN #2: I hope Bella's high school popularity isn't off putting. It does have a purpose. If the explanations in the prologue weren't satisfactory, there is going to be more about Bella's life, before Nine, and Ten ;), talked about later on in the story. I am aware that Bella wasn't very popular before Forks, something Meyer alludes to as being because the people there watched her grow up and couldn't reconcile the beautiful teenager with the gangly, awkward child, but after the middle school awkwardness she went to a new high school in a new place. And considering Twilight cannon, I'm hoping that it's not unrealistic, to assume she'd be popular in High School. Middle school not so much. But again, more about Bella's life will be talked about later on. The exchange students at my old high school were well liked and popular among the masses. So I really don't think that it's too farfetched for this foreign girl with a lot of mystery and intrigued to be so well liked. Especially since teenagers, fickle little things they sometimes are, like to gossip their little hearts out. Even if everyone doesn't like her I don't think it's not unrealistic to assume people would pretend to do so, in order to gain popularity or to gain insider information to use later as blackmail or whatever. So I'm hoping that this isn't too weird of an introduction or too Mary Sue or anything.
It's also a way to mirror Twilight, and the way that Meyer alludes to Bella being born to be a vampire, but with Doctor Who instead. Bella is pretty much shaping up to be a pretty damn fine companion if I do say so myself. She's been pretty much running her entire life, like the Doctor. So she's used to traveling and meeting people that she'll never meet again. She's also used to a little bit of role playing, and all this traveling has made her good with fake accents, and maybe even a couple of languages, something that should be fun later. So it really is rather clever if you think about it, at least I think so. We get Bella the Fantastic Companion, instead of Bella the Abnormally Perfect Vampire. ;) The final scene always breaks my heart. For those of you who watch the Doctor Who, you know what that scene means. For continuity purposes, since it happened before Nine, I figured it'd be a nice add for the prologue, rather than something to add later. Now you have officially met Bella. And a sad man in the dark. Nine comes in next chapter, which will parallel the episode Rose, but have some Twilight twists added in.
Thank you for reading. I'd love to hear what people think about the idea of a Twilight/Doctor Who Cross with a Bella/Nine/Ten romantic pairing. :D
