Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who.

Author's note: So this is a story I've wanted to write for quite some time. It takes place post-New Series 4 but before the specials. Tenth Doctor, naturally. This is the start and focuses on the Doctor only, but don't worry. The next chapter will be all about Rose...

Collision of Worlds...Again

Chapter I

He wasn't sure how long he had spent inside the TARDIS, sitting, doing nothing except sensing every little bit of his loneliness, but it must have been considerable time. He had spent enough time to mourn the loss of all of his recent companions, particularly the two who were the most important to him and the most lost. Now that he was done with wallowing in self-pity, as he described it to himself, he forced himself to get up. He chose the future rather than the past, for no particular reason (except that maybe the past was a little too painful and raw right now). At random, he chose the date and pressed the appropriate levers down, remembering with a sort of masochistic pleasure a time when there were enough crew mates to manoeuvre the TARDIS properly.

His hearts beat faster, in time with the new sounds and hum and clangs of the TARDIS now moving through time and space. It made him feel a little more alive, a little rejuvenated but his thoughts strayed back to those who had something better. And to the one who had lost everything – Donna. She'd helped bring him back from the brink after losing Rose the first time. Who would bring him back from the brink this time? The thought brought a shooting pain through both of his hearts but there was optimism there now. After all, he had lost so many companions in the past. Granted, none of it had been such a horrible, sudden blow (and he had never fallen in love with a human woman and seen her kissing someone who looked like him but wasn't him)...but he had survived those, hadn't he? He'd survive this too! Dimly, he realised the thoughts were probably so influential because they were sometimes in Rose's voice and other times Donna's, but he ignored the thought. He'll find another companion in the future, he decided, because he did need one – Donna'd been right. He did need someone to stop him, hold him back from wreaking havoc when he was trying to deal with his grief and anger. And right now, he had plenty of both to commit genocide at least twice over. So that's what he'd do; go to the future, find a companion and everything would be ok – at least for now, and that was all he needed.

The TARDIS shook to a stop and, almost gleefully, the Doctor opened the door to stare into a darkened metal room of some kind, with a sobbing girl in front of him.

"What?" He uttered with confusion.

"Who're you?" The girl sniffled.

"Wait, where are we?" The doctor had already stepped outside the TARDIS and was inspecting the metal room with interest, wondering where the background insistent humming was coming from. The technology that he could spy was far too advanced for the year he had chosen, so presumably, the TARDIS had landed a couple of centuries in advance.

"Who are you?" Her voice was no longer trembling. "How'd you get in here?" And now, it was bristling with suspicion.

"I'm The Doctor." He replied and flashed her a smile before it faded, once he realised she'd been crying. "You ok?"

"Yes – no – I'm fine." She stuttered, standing up. She was a short thing, a couple of inches over five feet. "Doctor what?"

"What year is it, could you tell me?" He ignored her question. He made a mental note to ask her why she was crying later but right now, he wanted to get his bearings sorted out. "Oh, what's your name, by the way?" He added a little absently.

"Faye."

"That's a pretty name." Again, it was said absently, but this time, he was thinking of another pretty four-letter named girl, who was probably living her happily-ever-after with a man who was him but wasn't him. Trying to brush off the stab of pain, he said brightly, "What year did you say this was?"

"It's 2074, I think, but who are you? And how'd you get in here?" There was a little less suspicion in her voice now.

"2074...wait, what d'you mean 'you think'? Don't you know?" He turned his whole attention to the girl. She was young – similar age to Rose when she'd first joined him, a regeneration ago. Or did it count as two regenerations ago? She had big eyes, green though, not like Rose's. And her features were more delicate, with thin, carefully shaped (and painted) lips. She wasn't like Rose at all, really, except in age.

"Well, I'm not sure. Why does it matter anyway? And how'd you get in here?"

"Why does it matter?" He pursed his lips to stop himself from stating just how stupid and idiotic she was, to think so little of time. It reminded him of Donna in some ways – Donna before her eyes had been opened. Another sharp pang of pain that he chose to ignore. "Never mind. You wouldn't get it."

As he resumed his examination of his surroundings, Faye, pouting, placed her hands on her hips. "I wouldn't get it? I WOULDN'T GET IT? Who the hell do you think you are? You didn't know the year either!"

She shouted a bit like Donna too, the Doctor thought as he turned to look at her. "Good point. But I have a justification for being unsure about the year. What's your excuse?"

"What's your justification?" Faye retaliated, jutting her stubborn chin out.

He didn't know quite what to say to that. Tell her that he was a Time Lord, the last of the Time Lords? Tell her that he could travel through time and space? Instead, he opted for, "Well, I was sort of...in a place and now I'm here and I really don't know what the date is or anything." And saved the worlds too, but he kept that smug thought to himself.

"What kind of place?" Her eyes were narrowed, partly with suspicion and partly with curiosity, and the Doctor found himself warming up to her.

"Just this place...far away, long time ago..." His voice drifted into silence but he was careful to not do the same with his thoughts. Now was definitely not the time to take a trip down memory lane. There was silence, except for that incessant humming, and he was now on his feet, peering at the wall and any hole he could find, with interest. It took him a while to recognise them – bullet holes. And there were bullet shells on the ground. What had been going on here, and who was this girl?

She spoke up, abruptly breaking the silence. "Were you..." Her voice was hesitant, tentative, her lips seemed unsure of the words they were forming. "Were you...cryogenically frozen...too?" Her words were quiet, barely a whisper but there was hope there, and a vulnerability that suddenly made her seem like a child.

But her words had grabbed his attention and sent his Grey Matter into overdrive. Too? "Were you cryogenically frozen then?" He asked, avoiding her question.

"Yeah...and I woke up now," Said with a careless shrug of the shoulders, or was it just pretence?

"In 2074?"

"Well, no, a few years ago."

Her eyes were large, he noticed, and she was young. But apparently, she had seen enough for there to be bullet holes in the place around her and bullet shells on the floor, and she wasn't really young, not even in age. Not if she had been cryogenically frozen...and in time to be unfrozen by 2074? Now what had gone wrong with the world?

He came to a decision. "Faye, have you ever been inside a TARDIS?" He asked her brightly, throwing a charming smile in her direction. At the shake of her head, he beckoned her over to the small blue box.

"It's tiny." She said, but the Doctor was quick to notice that there wasn't derision or disgust in her voice. It was just a genuine, impartial comment. He was beginning to really like this girl.

"Yeah...it does look it, doesn't it? Why don't you take a look inside?"

He waited and it was rewarded. He heard the sharp intake of her breath, the gasped out "wh" as a half-question. And he said, in an intentionally casual voice, "Yeah, it does seem a little bigger on the inside, doesn't it?"

"Yeah," She agreed, but he was surprised to not hear her asking questions. She'd been an inquisitive thing earlier, but why wasn't she curious about this? He decided to push her towards the questions himself.

"Wanna know what it does?"

"Sure. Does it fly?"

"Er...sort of. You could say that. Through space. And time." He waited for her reaction, watching her as her eyes widened and as her mouth fell open, nowhere enough for it to be an 'o' but wide enough for some of her white teeth to show through.

"Through space and time?" She asked faintly, looking around the inside of the TARDIS.

"Yup. Want to come on a trip with me?" She nodded with fervour in response, her back turned towards this odd man that had come to her in her moments of despair. "Where do you want to go?"

It didn't take her a moment to think or reply. The words were leaving her lips before she fully realised what she herself was saying. "The headquarters for the Red Dragons. Tharsis City." She turned to look at him questioningly. "Do you know how to get there?" Then she added, almost a little shyly, "Can you get there?"

"Sure thing," He grinned at her, dimples appearing in his cheeks. Something had gone wrong, terribly wrong. Tharsis City...was on Mars. And humans shouldn't be on Mars yet. They shouldn't have the ability to cryofreeze people either. And he was going to have to save the world again, with this little thing beside him. He pulled some levers down, pushed some up, pressed a button here and there, pressed one of them a few times in succession and soon, they were rearing to go. It was only then that he noticed what she wore. "Wow. You're wearing..." He coughed uncomfortably. "That's quite an interesting outfit." He said, lamely. It was a poor description of what she wore: little ankle white boots, thigh high stockings with suspenders, tiny yellow shorts that didn't reach the top of her stockings and a tiny yellow top that didn't cover up her abdomen or much of her buxom chest. She was certainly a sight. How had he not noticed before, he wondered, with his cheeks warming at the thought.

He knew the answer. And it was the reason he'd come to the future in the first place, searching for another companion. It was two reasons, really, primarily. But no matter. And she was oblivious to him comments about her looks, looking around with interest and expectation.

Onto the next great adventure, he decided, as the TARDIS began to move through space and time, excitement pumping through his veins now,, despite the dull ache that persisted...

Next working on: So a quick author's note at the end and a shameless plugging of another one of my stories. The girl that the Doctor meets in this chapter is Faye Valentine, a character from Cowboy Bebop, one of my favourite fandoms and characters. But don't worry. This isn't a cross-over; it's more like a momentary merging and winking of two fandoms to each other. I really hope you like the start and I hope you will comment on it; any feedback is appreciated. Tell me what I did well or what I did poorly, or tell me that my writing is so bland, you're indifferent to it. Trust me, I'll appreciate it all.

And to now shamelessly plug another story of mine, I'll be next working on Sparkling Onyx.