Author's Note:
Welcome to the fifth installment of my OC - Minerva's - story with the Doctor (currently 11th). This story will cover the entire 7th season of Doctor Who plus the 50th anniversary special and 11's regeneration episode. Fair warning I do disregard some show details to make it work for my story! As always, I recommend to any new readers you go back and read the previous four stories in order to learn and understand who Minerva is - as well as to catch the brief beginning of this story's largest arc in the 4th installment. You don't have to if you don't want to, but it is suggested! All stories remain on my story list beginning with Next Stop Everywhere.
My OC, Minerva Souza aka Kaeya Louvier, would look like the actress Adela Noriega with long, straight ginger hair and amber-brown eyes. She has two silver crescent moon marks on her wrists (on the same side of her palms). She is currently on her 2nd incarnation and is American. However, due to the Moontsay link (another reason to go back and read the previous stories) she is on her 4th appearance.
A new feature I thought would be fun is adding a song to cover the story's theme. For this story the song is: Slipped Away by Avril Lavigne.
Another note, the following character's name (Citlally) is pronounced as 'Sit-lah-lee'/
A young woman with medium-length brown hair and brown eyes laid in a hammock holding a dictaphone in which she recounted her day, "Day 363. The terror continues," she glanced at the door that was nailed, "Also, made another soufflé."
-Very nearly-
The woman playfully rolled her eyes, "Yes, Citlally, I could do without your sass," she sighed and continued with her descriptions for the day, "I've checked defences. They came again last night. It's still always at night."
-Maybe they're vampires-
The woman, once again, rolled her eyes, "Sass, Citlally," her imaginary friend sure had some sass she would rather not deal with at times.
-Don't forget it's your mum's birthday- 'Citlally' spoke again to remind.
"Right," the woman nodded in agreement and spoke into the dictaphone, "Happy birthday, Mum. Citlally and I did make you a soufflé, but it was too beautiful to live.
There was a loud banging from the other side of the door followed by, "You will let us enter! We will enter! We are the Daleks, you will let us enter! Enter! ENTER! ENTER!"
"It's okay, Oswin, just ignore, just ignore," Citlally soothed the woman as the brunette screwed her eyes shut.
Oswin swallowed hard and nodded, "Just ignore, just ignore," she turned up the music she had ongoing in the background then covered her ears.
~ 0 ~
Minerva was in quite a distress as she and the Doctor, along with Amy and Rory, were surrounded by thousands of Daleks. Part of her was terrified of what they could do and another part was angry for their actions in the past. Even now as they, practically, begged for the Doctor to 'save them' she still couldn't quite believe they were somehow on a plan of peace (for the moment). It had all happened too fast. The Doctor had received some sort of message from a woman pleading for help, and the man being who he was, had to go see...that and the fact the woman had made the appointment place on SKARO, home of the Daleks. But the Daleks hadn't stopped there, they went to Earth and captured Amy and Rory through the same dalek puppets they'd been captured them selves.
All this just to be...saved?
The Doctor and Minerva had been led up to the prime minister Dalek's platform place, "Well?" the Time Lord raised an eyebrow, displeased with everything that had happened.
"What do you know of the Dalek Asylum?" the prime minister asked.
"According to legend, you have a dumping ground. A planet where you lock up all the Daleks that go wrong," the Doctor decided to play along and explain in the hopes of coming up with a safe way to escape.
"It's the Daleks even you can control," Minerva spat with as much venom as she could, "Yet you don't kill them."
"It is offensive to us to extinguish such divine hatred," the prime minister said as if it were obvious.
"Offensive?" the Doctor scoffed.
"Does it surprise you to know the Daleks have a concept of beauty?"
The Doctor bent over to the Dalek with a glare, "I thought you'd run out of ways to make me sick, but hello again. You think hatred is beautiful?"
"Perhaps that is why we have never been able to kill you."
Minerva nearly lunged for them if the Doctor hadn't grabbed her to stop her. At the same time, the ground underneath Amy and Rory opened up to show a translucent floor that showed the view of a planet below.
The woman that had brought in Minerva and the Doctor went on to explain the situation, "The Asylum. It occupies the entire planet. Right to the core."
"How many Daleks are in there?" the Doctor asked as he and Minerva joined her by the edges of the clear floor.
"A count has not been made. Millions, certainly."
"All still alive?" Minerva raised an eyebrow.
"It has to be assumed. The Asylum is fully automated - supervision is not required."
"Armed?" Amy joined in on the questioning.
"The Daleks are always armed."
"What color?" Rory came up with and garnered the looks of everyone, "Sorry, there weren't any good questions left."
"This signal is being received from the very heart of the Asylum," the woman replied and a sample of the what was heard came over through the speakers: Oswin's music, Habernera.
"What is the noise?" the Daleks began together, "Explain! Explain!"
"It's me!" the Doctor exclaimed, beginning to play an air-triangle with his hands.
"Sorry what?" Rory looked at him along with others.
"It's me. Playing the triangle," the Doctor gestured but stopped, "OK, I got buried in the mix."
Minerva shook her head, "I hated this song. My dad used to play it all the time at home," the Doctor gave her a confused look, "My human dad," she clarified and made everything make better sense.
"So, someone's transmitting this," the Doctor used the sonic on the transmitter from which the music was being relayed from, "Have you considered tracking back the signal and talking to them?" and then realized, "He asked the Daleks..." he mumbled before speaking into the transmitter, "Hello? Hello, Carmen? Hello?"
~ 0 ~
Oswin jumped from her seat on the hammock, nearly falling from it. At the sound of laughter she turned her head to where Citlally 'was', "Shut up," she scolded and hurried to the controls.
"Come in, come in, come in, Carmen," the Doctor's voice echoed through the room.
Oswin plopped down on the chair and took the keyboard into hands, "Hello, yes, yes, sorry, do you read me?!"
"Yes, reading you loud and clear. Identify yourself and report your status."
"Hello! Are you real?" Oswin blinked, "Are you actually, properly real?"
-That's a stupid question- Citlally remarked.
Oswin glanced again at her imaginary friend, "Quiet," she hissed.
~ 0 ~
"Who are we speaking to, exactly?" Minerva asked slowly, already confused.
"Oswin Oswald, Junior Entertainment Manager, Starship Alaska. Current status - crashed and shipwrecked somewhere... not nice. Been here a year, rest of the crew missing. Provisions good, but keen to move on."
"Hold on, did you say a year?" Minerva blinked and looked at the Doctor, now equally confused, "And are you...under attack?"
"Some local life-forms, I've been keeping them out," Oswin answered rather nervously.
"Do you know what those life-forms are?" the Doctor curiously asked.
"I know a Dalek when I hear one, yeah."
"What have been doing, on your own, against the Daleks for a year?!"
~ 0 ~
"Making soufflés," Oswin glanced back at the messy kitchen.
-Among ignoring the Daleks- Citlally added but of course wasn't heard by others besides Oswin.
~ 0 ~
"Soufflés?! Against the Daleks?" the Doctor nearly gawked, "Where do you get the milk?"
"This conversation is irrelevant," the prime minister Dalek interrupted.
"No, it really isn't!" Minerva snapped, "Because clearly a Starliner's crashed into your Asylum, and someone's got in. And if someone can get in, then everything can get out... a tsunami of insane Daleks. That's something even you don't want that, even if you completely deserve it."
"The Asylum must be cleansed," Dalek supreme said at once.
"Then why is it still here?" the Doctor challenged, "You've got enough firepower on this ship, to blast it out of the sky."
"The Asylum force-field is impenetrable."
"Turn it off," Minerva ordered.
"It can only be turned off from within the Asylum," the trap-woman explained.
"So, then send a small task force that could sneak through a force-field," the Doctor shrugged and joined hands with Minerva to head down the ram away from them, "Send in a couple of Daleks," and then he stopped when he realized, "Oh! That's good. That's brilliant. You're all too scared to go down there!" he accused the Daleks, "Not one of you will go! So tell me - what do the Daleks do when they're too scared?"
"The Predator of the Daleks will be deployed," Dalek supreme said.
"You don't have a predator. And even if you did, why would they turn off a force-field for you?"
"Because you will have no other means of escape," the prime minister answered.
"May I clarify," the trap-woman stepped up to the Doctor and Minerva, "The Predator is the Daleks' word for you," she pointed at the Doctor.
"Me!?" the Time Lord cried, "Me!?"
"You will need this," the woman gestured as two more Dalek puppets arrived and snapped bands on the traveler's wrists.
"What the hell is this?" Minerva was ready to take it off for fear it would harm her and the baby.
"It will protect you from the Nano-cloud," the woman explained, "It won't do anything," she gestured to Minerva's stomach, knowing that was what upset Minerva.
The dalek puppets took the Doctor and Minerva by the arms back to where Amy and Rory were, the trap-woman coming behind them.
"The gravity beam will convey you close to the source of the transmission," she explained on the way, "You must find a way to deactivate the force-field from there."
A bright beam of light rushed up through the floor that would send them to the asylum planet.
"You're going to fire me at a planet?" the Doctor blinked and then felt horrified, "No, hold on, you're going to fire my wife at a planet? And then we're supposed to magically fix the planet!?"
"In fairness, that is slightly your MO," Rory quietly added.
"Don't be fair to the Daleks when they're firing us at a planet," Minerva softly responded, "And, since we're asking questions," she glanced at the trap-woman, "What do you want with them?!" she nodded to the humans as they were being branded the nano-bands.
"It is known that the Doctor requires companions," Dalek supreme answered the question.
"I better not be on that list," Minerva muttered.
"Don't worry, we'll get through this I promise. Don't be scared," the Doctor whispered to her and the others.
"Um, actually, I think someone's pretty darn excited," Minerva cleared her throat and looked down at her stomach to where she felt a rash of repeated kicks.
The Doctor started chuckling, "That's my boy!" his last word echoed as he was pushed into the beam first.
"She's a girl!" Minerva shouted after him before being pushed into the beam next, Amy and Rory following right after her.
~ 0 ~
On a snow-covered planet, a periscope popped out from underground. It swiveled for a couple seconds then went down. It popped out from a couple feet away and did the same. It went like that for a couple more times before it found two bodies a several feet away from each other.
It was the Doctor who woke up first and saw the periscope near him, "Hey! What...?"
The Habernera started playing from the speakers. It was then that the Doctor heard Minerva stirring, "Someone turn that crap off," she ordered with a groan.
"Minerva!" the Doctor sat upright, his mind connecting back to the present, "Clever Girl!" he scrambled up to go help her, "Are you okay? Does anything hurt?"
"Yes, my ears!" Minerva made a face as she sat up and turned her head to the periscope, "Soufflé Girl turn that off!"
"Sorry, sorry, it's off," came Oswin's voice, "And you know, you could always call me Oswin, seeing as that's my name. You OK?"
"Don't know, I kinda like it," Minerva remarked in thought while the Doctor went to go study the persicope, "Souffle Girl, Clever Girl..."
"Oh, I like that one," Oswin cut in, "But I think I like the name 'Mins' better."
"Mins?" Minerva made a face, "No one's called me that one before."
"I'll be the first one, then," Oswin proudly declared, "Mins!"
"How are you doing that?" the Doctor tapped the glass of the persicope, pretty much ignoring whatever the two women had been conversing about, "This is Dalek technology."
"Well it's very easy to hack," Oswin sounded casual about it, as if it were an everyday thing.
The Doctor took out the sonic and used it on the periscope, "No, it isn't. Where are you?"
"Ship broke up when it hit. Somewhere underground, I think. You coming to get me?"
"Doctor!" they heard Amy from a distance, "Minerva!"
The periscope started sparking which meant the connection was failing, "Oi! Soufflé girl! Come back."
"Amy!" Minerva struggled to stand on her own but eventually did and just in time to greet Amy. Amy came along with a man that was clearly not Rory, "Where's Rory?"
"There was another beam," the man, Harvey, pointed to the left side, "There, over there!" the trio of travelers went off in the direction Harvey had pointed to, "Are you the rescue team?!" Harvey went after them.
~ 0 ~
Unfortunately, it seemed like Rory had fallen through some kind of hole that went underground. Harvey led the way back to his team's hatch and explained their situation, "We came down two days ago. There is 12 other escape pods. I don't know what happened to them," he bent down and went to open the hatch.
Meanwhile, Amy rubbed off some snow from the top of the hatch with her foot and found the name 'Alaska' written over it.
"Alaska? That's the same ship as Soufflé Girl," she looked at the alien couple.
"Right, but didn't she say she'd been here for a year?" Minerva raised an eyebrow, now suspicious of that Oswin woman.
Harvey was the first to climb down the ladder into the pod, "We should have some climbing rope long enough for that hole," he went over to the locker while the others came down.
"Won't you introduce us to your crew?" the Doctor glanced at the crew members sitting still in their chairs.
"Ah yeah, sorry. Guys, this is the Doctor, Minerva, and Amy," Harvey called but the crew remained motionless, "Guys?"
The Doctor patted the shoulder of one of the crew and it turned out to be a dried-out, mummified corpse.
"What the hell!?" Minerva cried at the realization of the entire members being dead.
The Doctor took out the sonic to scan them all, "They're dead. All of them."
"That's not possible. I just spoke to them," Harvey frowned, genuinely confused, "Two hours ago, we were doing engine repairs!"
The Doctor reached for a hood of a member and pulled it down to reveal skeletons, "You're sure about that, are you? Cos I'd say they've all been dead for a very long time."
"But...but they can't have been..."
"Well, they didn't get in that state in two hours," Amy gestured to the rest of the dead members.
"Oh, of course," Harvey blinked, "Stupid me."
"What? What is it?" Minerva looked at him, confused of his sudden smile.
"I died outside and the cold preserved my body. I forgot about dying," and just like that, a Dalek eyestalk grew out of his forehead and suddenly there was no more Harvey but instead a killer Dalek puppet that wanted to kill the travelers.
The Doctor snatched off a fire extinguisher and fired it on Harvey, "Minerva, the door!"
Minerva nodded and pushed the button open a door of a small closet. The Doctor forced in Harvey and locked him away.
"Explain!" Amy ordered at once, "That's what you're good at. How did he get all Daleked?"
"Because he wasn't wearing one of these," the Doctor held up his wrist that wore the band, "Oh-hoho! That's clever! The nano-cloud. Micro-organisms that automatically process any organic matter, living or dead, into a Dalek puppet," he patted one of the dead members, "Anything attacks this place, it automatically becomes part of the on-site security."
"Hold on..." Minerva blinked as her mind processed his words.
"Living or dead?" even Amy was realizing the big problem that was about to loom over them.
"These wrist-bands protect us," the Doctor moved around, still clueless, "The only thing stopping us going exactly..."
"Doctor, shut up!" Amy exclaimed, "Living or dead?!"
"Yes, exactly, living, or, or..." and the light bulb went off inside the Doctor's head, "...dead. Oh, dear," and he started climbing over the seats, kicking the bodies to pave a clear way for Minerva and Amy.
The two gingers hurriedly went after the Doctor as the bodies were becoming active. On the way to the door, Amy was grabbed by one of them. The Doctor reached out and pulled her inside the cockpit, shutting and locking the door. Both he and Amy leaned on the door, breathless while Minerva leaned across from them.
"Is it bad that I've really missed this?" Amy looked at the two aliens with a bright smile.
"Absolutely," Minerva looked at her like she'd lost it.
"Good," Amy chuckled.
"'Unauthorised personnel may not enter the cockpit," came Oswin's voice through the speakers.
"Shut up!" the Doctor ordered.
-Well someone's Mr. Grumpy- Citlally remarked and made Oswin chuckle.
"Oh, Citlally, and that's a bad combo," Oswin said in the midst of laughter.
Minerva raised an eyebrow, "Who's Citlally? I thought you said it was just you that was trapped?"
"That's my imaginary friend, Citlally!" Oswin exclaimed, completely cheerful about it.
"...how old are you?" Minerva made a face while looking at the others.
"Shut up," Oswin frowned. She was quite used to the questions about her age when talking about her imaginary friend, but it still didn't make her one bit happy that because she still had an imaginary friend it somehow made her crazy.
"Give her a break, if she's been here an entire year on her own it's no surprise she created a friend for herself," Amy shrugged casually, knowing pretty well what happened to one when they were left stranded on an alien planet with no one but theirselves.
Oswin opened her mouth to clarify that Citlally had been an imaginary friend since she could remember, not just one she'd created since her crash, but when she looked at Citlally she saw her shake her head, -They wouldn't understand- Citlally shrugged, -Let's just focus on the important thing, that chin!-
A laughter broke out from Oswin's lips and quickly confused the others in the cockpit, "What's so funny?" Minerva looked up.
"Citlally made a point on the chin," Oswin explained.
"What is wrong with my chin?!" the Doctor frowned.
"Well for starters, it's the fact you just automatically knew it was you we were talking about," Oswin pointed out, "Careful, dear, you'll put someone's eye out," Amy fought not to laugh there and then, "I'm scanning you. You're on another of the escape pods from the Alaska, right? Same ship I was on."
"How can you hack into everything? Should be impossible, you're in a crashed ship!" the Doctor looked around the small room.
"Long story. Is there a word for total screaming genius that sounds modest and a tiny bit sexy?"
The Doctor swayed his head around and ended up looking at Minerva who instantly blushed, "Shut up," she crossed her arms and looked to the side, completely self-conscious. She was a bit touched he still found her attractive even in the state she was in. Frankly she felt like a blown up balloon.
"Check the floor," called Oswin, "I'm picking up a breach at floor level, there could be a way out. See you later!"
The Doctor and Amy cleared a spot at the center of the room and found a hatch. The Doctor bent down and looked at it closer, "Looks like it's been used already, and they tried to block it off behind them."
"Can't imagine why," Amy shrugged sarcastically.
"The lower part of the pod is buried, so this must go straight down into the Asylum."
"Where Rory is?"
"Speaking of Rory..." Minerva stepped forwards with a hand on a hip, letting everyone know it was serious time, "Anything you want to share with us, Amelia?"
Amy rolled her eyes, "Are we going to do this now?!"
"What the hell happened?" Minerva skipped straight to the point, "Christmas time, everyone was happy, Ponds were together."
"We split up," Amy looked around, clearly wanting to avoid the topic, "What can you do?"
The Doctor looked up from the hatch, serious as Minerva, "What can we do? "
"Nothing!" Amy exclaimed then sighed, "It's not one of those things you can fix like you fix your bow tie. Don't give me those big wet eyes, raggedy man. It's life. Just life. That thing that goes on when you two are not there."
"This is just...wrong," Minerva pointed, "And you're wrong, we can fix it. You'll see."
Before Amy could respond, the Doctor opened the hatch and allowed them a view of a deep hole with a ladder hanging down. Minerva stepped closer and peered down, "Someone else has already been here."
"So let's go find them," the Doctor stood straight, not too pleased.
The trio were startled when a bang on the door rattled. They looked at the screen beside the door that showed the other room. The undead bodies were standing in front of the screen from the other side, one of them banging something on the door.
"What's that?" Amy pointed to the thing that didn't look so clear yet.
"One of these," the Doctor blinked as he gestured to his wrist, "Where'd they get it?" he quickly looked at Minerva's wrist and came to the relief to see her completely fine. Unlike him, she could very well be affected by the invisible microorganisms.
"They got it from me!" Amy cried as she looked at her bare wrist, "What's going to happen to me? Seriously, tell me, what?"
"Are they teasing us?" Minerva raised an eyebrow as she looked at the screen to where the corpse holding the band was seemingly waving at it, "Oh they're so lucky they're dead cos I would've killed them for that."
With a huff from the ginger, the Doctor forced her to let it go as there was nothing to do and just get climbing down the ladder. He went down first, of course, in case something surprised them below. Just as they were nearing the end, Amy began to talk...again.
"So, tell me. What's going to happen to me?" she glanced down at the Doctor then up at Minerva, "And don't lie, cos I know when you're lying to me and I will definitely fall on you."
"Ha, can't do that to meee," Minerva sing-sang as a tease.
The Doctor sighed and just answered Amy for the sake of it, "The air all around is full of micro-machines, robots the size of molecules, nanogenes. Now that you're unprotected, you're being... re-written."
One by one, the trio stepped off the ladder into a dark corridor. Amy took a pause as she looked at her bare wrists, "So, what happens to me? I get one of those things sticking out my head?"
"Physical changes come later," the Doctor said passively as they started down the corridor.
"What comes first, how does it start?"
"With your mind. Your feelings, your memories and I'm sorry, but it's started already."
Amy blinked, "How do you know?"
Minerva sighed, struggling to be nice about it, "Amy, we've had the same conversation four times already."
"OK. Scared now," Amy concluded with wide eyes.
"Well hang onto scared. Scared isn't Dalek," the Doctor hugged her in comfort.
A door in front of them slid open, allowing a new room on the other side. Minerva peered inside and saw no Daleks but quickly retracted at the sound of them.
"Okay then," the Doctor yanked her completely back and, thankfully, the doors shut off the room, "Don't open this door, got it Clever Girl?"
"Oh I wasn't planning on it, believe me," Minerva shook her head.
"Oswin?! Oswin, can you hear me?!" the Doctor called to the woman, hoping the speakers would be active in the corridors as well.
On the other side, Oswin was there and working along with them, "Hello, the Chin!" she greeted, "I have visual on you!"
"Why don't we have visual on you?" Minerva wondered, "Why can't we ever see you?"
"Limited power," Oswin shrugged as she looked around.
-And bad hair day- Citlally added.
Oswin chuckled and touched her hair, "Yeah, that too."
The Doctor frowned, "What?"
"Citlally said something, don't worry," Oswin dismissed it and missed the odd glances between the Doctor and Minerva. Still, as Amy said, if Oswin had been alone for an entire year it was no surprise she created a companion, "There's a door to your left, open it," Oswin instructed and the Doctor did, "Going to send you a map to that screen. I've put your little friend somewhere safe, I can get you to him."
"Oh, you'be found Rory?" Minerva asked with relief.
"I call him Nina," Oswin shared, "It's a personal thing - hush now."
"How many Daleks directly ahead of us, right now?" the Doctor seriously asked.
"10, 20, hard to say. Some of them are catatonic, but they do have firepower."
"So how do we get past them?"
"Amy!" Minerva let out a cry as she saw the human ginger in another room.
She and the Doctor rushed to go get her but found the Daleks were nearby, still 'sleeping' but still dangerous. However, Amy didn't seem to notice as she was in some sort of trance.
"Shhh. It's OK. It's just people in here," she motioned to the Daleks, "It's just people."
"Amy. It's the nano-cloud, it's altering your perception,"the Doctor urgently said, "Look again, look again - those aren't people," Amy did so and realized they were completely correct.
"Amy, come back here, now," Minerva hissed and motioned for the ginger to hurry back to them.
Once Amy had returned the three made a run for it, back to the ladder. When they got there the ladder was rattling as the undead bodies were coming down.
"They're coming down," Amy looked up in horror.
"Ah, yes, they are!" the Doctor agreed and turned them back for the room only to see a Dalek coming out.
"Intruder!"
"This way!" Minerva went off into a side niche door.
There, they hid as the Dalek came for them, "Intruder! Intruder!" it fired but nothing happened.
Curious, the Doctor stepped out and glanced at the Dalek, "It's damaged."
"How do we get rid of it?" Minerva came out but the Doctor motioned for her to stay there.
"Identify me," he ordered the Dalek, "Access your files, who am I? Come on, who's your Daddy?"
Minerva sighed, "Did you really just say that?"
"You... are... the Predator," the Dalek answered slowly and distortedly.
"Access your standing orders concerning the Predator."
"The Predator must be destroyed."
"And how are you going to do that?! Dalek without a gun - you're a tricycle with a roof!" the Doctor scoffed, "How are you going to destroy me?!"
"Self-destruct initiated," the Dalek announced and quickly the Doctor used his sonic on it.
"What's it doing!?" Amy exclaimed in terror.
"It's using its last weapon," Minerva stepped forwards, "It's going to blow itself up and us with it."
"Self-destruct cannot be countermanded," the Dalek said as the Doctor opened its lid and used the sonic.
"I'm not looking for a countermand, dear," the Doctor remarked with a smirk as he let the lid close shut, "I'm looking for reverse."
The Dalek went backwards into the other room where it exploded and with it the rest of the Daleks. A distraught Rory nearby felt the explosion with the rock and hurried back to its origin, all the meanwhile calling to Oswin for an explanation.
"Oswin?! What happened?! Who killed all the Daleks?"
"Who do you think?" the Doctor called as he entered carrying Amy and Minerva beside him.
"Don't get cocky," Minerva warned, the last they needed was for him to over-compensate.
They hurried to get Amy somewhere safe (for the moment) and thankfully the Doctor found a teleportation which served just right.
"Will sleeping help her? Slow down the process?" Rory asked in concern after hearing Amy's band had been stolen.
"You'd better hope so. Because pretty soon, she's going to try and kill you," Oswin spoke up through the speakers.
Rory relaxed only slightly as Amy began to wake up, "Amy?"
"Ow," the ginger groaned.
"Amy, you're still with us," Rory leaned down and stroked her head, "Amy, it's me, do you remember me?" his answer was a slap on the face, "She remembers me. "
The Doctor smiled, "Same old Amy."
"Do you know how you make someone into a Dalek?" Oswin asked, "Subtract love, add anger. Doesn't she seem a bit too angry to you?"
"Well! Somebody's never been to Scotland," Amy scoffed.
The Doctor looked up at as he spoke to Oswin, "What about you though, Oswin? How come you're OK? Why hasn't the nano-cloud converted you?"
Oswin rolled her eyes, "I mentioned the genius thing, yeah?"
-You're sounding conceited- Citlally warned her.
"I'm shielded in here," Oswin settled with a sigh. Sometimes Citlally acted more like a mother than a friend!
"Clever of you," Minerva remarked, impressed if it was actually true.
"Now this place - the Daleks said it was fully automated," the Doctor looked around the room, "But look at it, it's a wreck."
"Well, I've had nearly a year to mess with them and not a lot else to do," Oswin pointed out.
"Except come up with imaginary friends," mumbled Amy as she sat upright.
"I wouldn't talk, Amelia Pond," Minerva shot her a look, "I seem to recall a little girl that had plenty of imaginary friends-"
"I get it," Amy rolled her eyes and looked to the side.
"Now, a junior entertainment manager, hiding out in a wrecked ship... hacking the security systems of the most advanced warrior race the universe has ever seen," the Doctor relayed his information, "But you know what really gets me about you, Oswin? The soufflés! Where do you get the milk for the soufflés? Seriously, is no one else wondering about that?"
"No," Rory answered, "Frankly, no. Twice."
"I wonder about it," Minerva raised a hand, making the Doctor beam.
"That's why I married you," he pointed at her, causing her to laugh.
"So, Doctor, Minerva," Oswin cut into the moment, "I've been looking you two up."
"I don't have a twitter," Minerva passively remarked with a face.
"No, but you have a kingdom under your rule," Oswin informed, sounding impressed, "Nice."
"Thanks," Minerva smiled.
"And you, Doctor, why do the Daleks call you the Predator?"
"I'm not a predator, just a man with a plan," the Doctor shrugged.
"You've got a plan?"
"We're all ears," Rory called.
"There's a nose joke going, if anyone wants to pick that one off!" Amy exclaimed afterwards.
"In no particular order," the Doctor began, "We need to neutralize all the Daleks in this asylum, rescue Oswin from the wreckage, escape from this planet, and fix Rory and Amy's marriage..."
"OK, I'm counting three lost causes, anyone else?" Amy pretended to look about and ignored Rory's frustrated leave.
"Oswin, there's a Dalek ship in orbit," the Doctor ignored Amy's comment.
"Yeah, got it on the sensors."
"The Asylum has a force-field. The Daleks upstairs are waiting for me to turn it off. Soon as I do, they'll burn this world and us with it. So, Oswin, my question is this. How fast can you drop the force-field?"
"Pretty fast. But why would I?"
"Clearly for the telelport, Oswin, do keep up," Minerva gestured to the teleportation Amy was still on and made the ginger look down with slightly widen eyes.
"It's internal use only," Oswin clarified.
"I can boost the power, though," the Doctor knelt down in front of the teleportation and studied it, "Once the force-field is down, and we can use this to beam us right off this planet."
"But you said, when the force-field is down, the Daleks will blow us up," Rory felt like reminding him of the detail just in case he'd forgotten that among everything else.
"We'll just have to be quick," Minerva shrugged, not at all troubled.
"Fine, we'll be quick, but where do we beam to?" Amy raised an eyebrow, already half guessing the answer.
"The only place within range. The Dalek ship," the Doctor shrugged.
"Where they exterminate us on the spot."
Rory frowned, "This is the kind of escape plan where you survive four seconds longer?"
"Rory, are you new? That's how all his plans work," Minerva crossed her arms.
The Doctor had to agree and so moved on, "Oswin! How fast can you drop the force-field?"
"I can do it from here," she replied, "As soon as you come and get me."
"Why don't you just drop the force field and come to us?" Minerva wondered, thinking that would save them a lot of time.
"There's enough power in that teleport for one go. Why would you wait for me?" Oswin sounded troubled and frankly in disbelief.
"Why wouldn't we?"
"No idea, never met you. Sending you a map so you can come get me."
"This place is crawling with Daleks," Rory reminded once again.
"Yeah. Kind of why I'm anxious to leave. Come up and see me some time."
Rory moved to where the Doctor and Minerva had gone to and spoke in a hushed voice, "So? Are we going to go get her?"
"I don't think that we have a choice," the Doctor shrugged.
~ 0 ~
Oswin leaned back on her chair with a big smile on her face, "We're leaving Citlally, we're finally leaving," she whispered in utter joy.
Citlally placed a hand on Oswin's shoulder and smiled back, -Good for you, Oswin-
~ 0 ~
"Ok, soon as the force-field is down, the Daleks will attack. If it gets too explodey-wodey in here, you go without me, OK?" the Doctor handed the teleport control to Minerva.
"Ha, you wish," Minerva handed over the control to Rory, disappointing the Doctor, "And don't give me that look, Martian. I am not letting you go on your own to greet some stranger woman. I'm coming."
"But-" the Doctor tried to make a compelling argument but Minerva covered his mouth and looked at Rory, "Like he said, if it gets bad just go without us."
"And leave you to die?" Rory raised an eyebrow, not fond of the idea.
"I wouldn't worry about us," Minerva lowered her hand from the Doctor, "You'll be beaming up to a Dalek ship to get exterminated."
"Minerva, I swear," the Doctor sighed and went to the teleport platform to get the wires ready.
"Fair point, love this plan," Rory followed him with Minerva, "What about Amy?"
"Keep her remembering, keep her focused, that'll hold back the conversion," Minerva explained, "And add a little making up that'll fix the marriage."
"Pass," Amy called, "What can I do? And I mean seriously," she warned for them to stay off the marriage topic.
"You heard what she said. They're subtracting love. Don't let them," the Doctor said before taking off, hoping Minerva would change her mind and stay back but two seconds later she was at his side.
~ 0 ~
The Doctor was slightly ahead of Minerva in the corridors and Minerva felt like it was an attempt to avoid her, making her feel bad in all honesty, "Are you mad at me?" she quietly asked him, partly quiet for fear of his answer and partly because they could hear Daleks not too far away. The Doctor glanced back at her silently, "Cos I'm here?" Minerva continued and gestured to her current spot.
"I'm not mad," the Doctor clarified and turned back for her, "Upset that you're in more danger, yeah, but not mad."
"I'm not trying to put myself in danger, I promise. I just...It's gonna sound corny," she warned sheepishly, "I feel safer when...I'm with you."
Well, at that, the Doctor felt like he couldn't continue being upset, "I absolutely love that you feel like that," he reached for her hand and held it tight, "There's just moments where I feel like I'm putting you in danger. And now it gets worse because our baby is in this."
"Well I'm sure she would agree that it's safer with you than anywhere else," Minerva stepped forwards, taking his other hand, "We love our Martian."
Of course the Doctor was going to let it go after hearing that. It wasn't even for being conceited or smug, he was just happy to hear that his wife felt safe with him, and honestly he couldn't wait to hear what his baby had to say on the matter. Would he/she feel protected as well?
"So are we okay now?" Minerva asked after a moment of silence had passed by between them.
The Doctor stopped his thoughts and smiled down at her, "Yes," he answered and gently kissed her lips. He let go of one of her hands and held onto the other as they continued their way down the dark corridors.
~ 0 ~
"Are we almost there? My feet are killing me," Minerva felt like a child when she made those complaints she made but she couldn't help them.
"You're almost there," came Oswin's voice through the speakers.
~ 0 ~
Oswin was clearing up a couple of things in the kitchen, more like picking out things she would want to take back home - well, if she even had a home anymore. Her parents had both died early in her life and so she lived alone in a small flat, her and Citlally anyways. But Oswin was pretty sure that after a year the landlord probably re-rented it to someone else who actually paid rent. Still, in the end, all she wanted to do was go home.
"So your feet can almost rest," Oswin said in amusement.
~ 0 ~
"You have no idea how good that sounds," Minerva sighed.
"Out of curiosity, what are you naming your kid?"
Minerva opened her mouth...only to realize...she didn't know. She looked at the Doctor in question and saw he was going through the same reaction. "I don't...I don't know," Minerva finally answered.
"You don't know?" Oswin sounded surprised, "Blimey, I thought that was like the first thing you guys did."
"Well we've spent most of our time arguing if it's going to be a boy or a girl," the Doctor realized their mistake, "So we haven't actually considered names..."
-They do know there's tests for that, right?- Citlally asked Oswin in genuine curiosity.
"Citlally would like to inform you that there are tests to figure out what your baby's going to be," Oswin informed the couple.
"We want to be surprised," Minerva huffed, "But I guess we really should start thinking," she glanced at the Doctor, "Cos I have no clue..."
"Well, first, I'm afraid you're going to have to go through the Dalek's intensive care," Oswin regretted to tell, "You're about 20 feet away now, but be careful."
And so, when the shut door in front of the pair opened, they slowly walked inside. Inside were Daleks chained up in stalls/cells, some not, and were all oddly quiet.
"And dare I ask what makes these so special?" Minerva was looking around intently for anything that might pop up.
"Dunno," answered Oswin, "Survivors of particular wars. Spiridon. Kembel. Aridius. Vulcan. Exxilon. Ringing any bells?"
"All of them," the Doctor said grimly.
"Yeah? How?"
"These are the Daleks who survived me."
The Daleks suddenly started awakening, and of course their first word being, "Doc... tor... Doc... tor... Doc... tor... Doctor..."
"That's weird. Those ones don't usually wake up for anything," Oswin said in surprise.
"Special visitor and all," Minerva said before she was yanked to a door across the room.
The Doctor had pulled out the sonic to get the door opened, but, "OK, door, but it won't open. You can't be far away though..."
"Hang on, not quite sure," Oswin was working on the panels in front of her, "There's a release code, let me, let me just... Anything happening out there?"
"No!"
"Hang on, I'm trying a thing," Oswin continued working on the controls, hoping she could get it working in time.
"D-Doctor," Minerva tugged on the Doctor's sleeve and pointed back.
The Daleks that hadn't been chained up were breaking through their stalls and coming for them, "Doc... tor... Doc... tor... Doc... tor..."
"Oswin, get this door open! Oswin open this door!" the Doctor began shouting in panic. He grabbed Minerva and stuck her in-between him and the door. He kept glancing back at the nearing Daleks while calling out and pounding on the door, even Minerva joining in.
"Oswin, hurry up!" the ginger cried, her heart beating at light-speed as the Daleks continued coming towards them.
"Oswin! PLEASE, GET THIS DOOR OPEN!" the Doctor screamed and turned to face the Daleks, making sure to keep Minerva behind and pressed to the door, "OSWIN! OSWIN! PLEASE, GET THIS DOOR OPEN! HELP US!"
"Doc... tor... Doc... tor..." the Daleks struggled to say but there was no apparent struggle to get closer. Just when they were mere inches from the pair, they froze...and then left them.
Oswin felt quite proud of herself and even high-fived Citlally, "Oh, that is cool. Tell me I'm cool, Mins and the chin boy."
But on the other side, things weren't so amusing as the Doctor was with Minerva trying to re-stabilize her emotions. Minerva felt a discomforting pain in her stomach due to the sky-rocketed emotions she had just gone through in the last two minutes. Calm emotions were key in a healthy pregnancy. The opposite could go as far as a miscarriage or even premature labor. The Doctor had no intention on seeing either of that happening. He'd already been responsible for one incident and he was intent on making sure she was as calm as possible.
"What did she...do?" Minerva was having trouble regaining her normal breathing pattern. Every time she breathed the pain increased.
"Hang on, I think I've found the door thingie..." Oswin began but even the Doctor was adamant on finding out.
"No, tell us what you did!" the Doctor ordered.
"The Daleks, they have a hive mind. Well they don't, but they have a telepathic web. I hacked into it. Did a master delete on all the information connected with the Doctor and even of good ole Mins for safety measures."
"You made them forget us?" Minerva blinked, looking up at the Doctor who was even more shocked than her.
"Good, eh? And here comes the door!" Oswin cheered and finally got the door opened.
"I've tried hacking the Path Web. Even I couldn't do it," the Doctor remarked, not quite ready to let it go.
"Come and meet the girl who can."
The couple turned around and found a bright, white room on the other side...plus one special, important, thing...
~ 0 ~
Oswin was cleaning up to greet them when she noticed the two were just standing outside, "Hey! You're right outside, come on in."
"Oswin...we have a problem," Minerva shook with sadness.
"No, we don't! Don't even say that," Oswin nearly warned, "I joined the Alaska to see the universe, ended up stuck in a shipwreck, first time out," she dashed and leaned on the back of her chair, "Rescue me, Mins and chin boy, and show me the stars."
"Does it look real to you? " the Doctor wondered curiously.
"Does what look real?"
"Where you are right now. Does it seem real?"
"It is real," Oswin argued.
"It's a dream, Oswin. You dreamed it for yourself, because the truth was too terrible," the Doctor sighed, "You even dreamed yourself up a friend to keep you company."
"Where am I?" the real Oswin, a dalek, questioned. The Dalek was chained up at the end of the room and...was Oswin, "Where... am... I? Where... am... I?"
"You're a Dalek," Minerva swallowed hard.
"I am not a Dalek! I am not a Dalek!" Oswin argued through her real Dalek voice, "I'm human."
As she could, Minerva went for the Dalek she assumed would be benign, "You were human when you crashed here. It was you who climbed out of the pod - that was your ladder."
~ 0 ~
Oswin's eyes flickered to the side and remembered that moment.
She climbed down the ladder of the pod and hopped into the corridor. Citlally was already waiting for her there and was shouting, "Daleks!" and pointing to the nearing Daleks coming for them.
"Where are we?" Oswin kept asking, knowing she wouldn't ever get a response, "Where are we?"
"I'm... human..." the Oswin-Dalek declared slowly.
"Not anymore," Minerva felt awful of saying that, but it was the truth, the cold hard truth.
"You're right, you're a genius," the Doctor reminded, "And the Daleks need genius. They didn't just make you a puppet, they did a full conversion. Oswin, I am so sorry. But you are a Dalek. The milk, Oswin. The milk and the eggs for the soufflés, where, where did it all come from? It wasn't real. It was never real."
~ 0 ~
Oswin looked around the room and let her mind wander back to the real world and what happened during her last moments as...human.
Oswin was being hooked up for the Dalek conversion. her eyes rapidly flicking to one side to the other, "I am not a Dalek...I am human, I am not a Dalek..."
"Oswin!" Oswin managed to hear Citlally's voice before she vanished completely.
"Eggs... term... in... ate," the Oswin-Dalek raised its gun.
"Oswin?" Minerva blinked and instinctively stepped back with the Doctor.
"Eggs... term... in... ate. Exterminate! Exterminate!" the Oswin-Dalek broke free from its chains and went for the couple.
"Not again," Minerva put her hands on her stomach as she felt her fear cause another pain to shoot up.
"No, no, no, Oswin, Oswin listen...Oswin!" the Doctor desperately called as he moved back to the door with Minerva, "You don't have to do this!"
"EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"
"Oswin! Oswin!"
But just like that, the Oswin-Dalek stopped in front of them, no longer threatening them with extermination.
~ 0 ~
Oswin was on the floor, against the door, sobbing with her hands over her head. All her repressed memories were flashing through her mind, overbearing. "Citlally," she called and looked up for her imaginary friend. However, she came to the confusing realization that she was alone. Completely alone.
"Citlally?" her shaky voice called out again, but no one responded. "Citlally, where are you?"
~ 0 ~
"The dream is breaking," Minerva whispered her assumption, her heart breaking for the woman as she realized she was tragically alone.
"Why do they hate you so much?" the Oswin-Dalek asked, presumably for the Doctor, "They hate you so much. Why?"
"I fought them. Many, many times," the Doctor answered.
"We have grown stronger in fear of you."
"I know. I tried to stop," the Doctor sighed in guilt.
"Then run."
That made the couple look at each other in shock, "Hold on, what?" Minerva was the first one to ask.
"I've taken down the force-field. The Daleks above have begun their attack," the Oswin-Dalek informed them, "Run!"
The door behind them opened up, giving them their access to freedom.
"Oswin?" the Doctor raised an eyebrow, "Are you..."
"I am Oswin Oswald. I fought the Daleks," she declared, "And I am... human. Remember me."
"Thank you," Minerva smiled softly.
"Run!"
With that, the Doctor took Minerva's hand and ran off to finally get home.
~ 0 ~
Oswin leaned back on her chair, a sad smile on her face, "Run, you clever girl and boy...and remember..." she looked around her empty room, having to resign that her friend had disappeared twice. Well, if there was one thing about Citlally is that she had always been with her till the last moment.
~ 0 ~
Minerva and the Doctor ran into the teleportation room just in time as the explosions behind them increased. They came to surprise of finding Amy and Rory kissing and any other moment they would have been cheering...but this was literally life or death.
"Oh give me that!" Minerva snatched the controls from Rory and pushed for them to go.
~ 0 ~
The Doctor was loving the fact the Daleks in the ship were going crazy after they managed to escape. He stepped out of the TARDIS and looked around the thousand Daleks, "You know, you guys should really have seen this coming. Thing about me and teleports, I've got a really good aim. Pin-point accurate, in fact. Or to put it another way..."
"Suckers!" Minerva poked her head out from the doorway, giggling, "God I really wish you guys had facial expressions to take photo."
"Identify yourself! Identify! Identify!" the Daleks ordered.
"Well, it's me! Us?" the Doctor gestured to himself and Minerva, "You know us! The Doctor! The Oncoming Storm? The Predator?"
"Kaeya? Queen?" Minerva added and looked at the Doctor with confusion.
"Titles are not meaningful in this context," the trap-woman stepped forwards, "Queen of what? Doctor who?"
Soon, the other Daleks began repeating her words until it became a chanter.
"Oh, Oswin," the Doctor smiled, "Oh, you did it to them all! Oh, you beauty!"
"What do you know? Maybe she was a Clever Girl after all," Minerva chuckled and reached for the Doctor to pull him inside the TARDIS.
~ 0 ~
After dropping off Amy and Rory, who seemed in a much better place than earlier, the Doctor had taken Minerva straight to the Monsoon to be checked for anything that may have gone wrong after the Asylum. Thankfully, everything seemed fine but Minerva did have to be on rest for a couple of days. The Doctor would have preferred to return to the TARDIS but he knew that if something did go wrong he didn't want to run the risk of not knowing something and harm her or the baby. That was the special detail about their pregnancy, the fact that a pregnancy like that hadn't happened since the beginning of the Monsoon, neither he nor Minerva knew how the pregnancy would go or what consequences could happen. So, any chance they got they spent their time on the Monsoon where Minerva had guards and family close to her.
That was why Minerva was laying down in their bedroom of the palace, trying to get some of that rest. The TARDIS had been once again set at the corner of the room where she and the Doctor could easily have access to it.
The Doctor came out of the TARDIS holding her sketchpad and a packet of her colored pencils, "Look what I have?" he waved them for her, "Because I know that instead of sleeping you're actually going to stay up."
Minerva smiled brightly as she sat up and rested against the bed headboard, "And that is why I married you," she giggled as she took the things from him.
"How you feeling?" he asked after placing a kiss upon her lips.
"Better, my feet stopped hurting," she shrugged, "And my stomach feels better, too," she patted her stomach.
"Well that doesn't mean I want you walking around when you don't need to," the Doctor took his place at her side and wrapped his arms around her to bring her closer, her back to his chest, "Can you stay still for just a minute, please?"
Minerva chuckled, "Oh, ha, ha, look who's talking? The man who never stays still."
"You don't fall that back, love," the Doctor pointed out, "Now c'mon, relax and draw something. Maybe for the baby?"
"Actually..." and instead of Minerva drawing, she ended up writing the words 'Boy' on one side of the page and 'Girl' on the other.
"What are you doing?" the Doctor raised an eyebrow, questioning her drawing skills for the moment.
"Oswin was right, we have to come up with names," Minerva shrugged, "I mean, we don't have much time. These last months are going to fly by and when the baby's here we're not going to have a single name!"
"You're right," the Doctor agreed.
"And, you know, I was thinking we follow the Time Lord's tradition of naming," Minerva tilted her head up to look at him, "What do you think, Theta?"
The Doctor smiled, "Oh my Kaeya, I think that's wonderful," he dipped her head back enough to where he could give her a kiss.
"Plus that kinda gives us the option to give two names," Minerva innocently said as she returned to her sketchpad.
"So do you have any ideas?" the Doctor asked as he pushed some of her hair back to rest his chin on her shoulder.
"Actually, I kinda do..." Minerva admitted.
"Really? And what are they?"
"Well, they're girl names, first of all..."
"...of course..."
"...but I think they're good ones, at least for like the name that everyone else would call her."
"What are they?"
Minerva smiled excitedly and began reciting some names as she wrote them down. "I really like the names Kara and Irina. Oh, but Graciela is another one! Then there's Belén and Cadence."
"I think those are beautiful names," the Doctor remarked, chuckling at her enthusiasm. "So you have anything for boys?"
"I'm sorry, I just...I really want a girl," Minerva admitted with a sigh, "My mind is so set on that little girl."
"Minerva, what would happen if it turned out to be a boy?" the Doctor curiously wondered.
"Well, first of all, I would throw out the pink booties I will hopefully have finished knitting by then," she answered and made him laugh, "But then afterwards I would tell him how much I love him. Look," she became serious and turned her head to look at him, "You know my thoughts on children have never been exactly positive and that's changed, a bit- I mean, I'm still terrified of what I'm going to do when I'm carrying my baby for the first time, but...hopefully, I won't be that bad. Whether it's a girl or boy I will love my baby to bits and pieces."
"You can't be a bad mother if you think like that," the Doctor whispered to her honestly.
"Then I'm off to a good start," Minerva pecked his lips, "Now give me ideas for names! I'm going to write them down," she tapped her pencil to the paper, "C'mon Martian, we have a lot of work to do!"
The Doctor chuckled and agreed, so they began the list of names for their arriving baby.
Author's Note:
And here we are with the beginning of my next fave companion arc - Clara! But, what's this? She has an imaginary friend? Why does that sound so familiar hmmmm ? You know it's important because this is the first story not to feature on the cover either Minerva nor 11 (not counting Next Stop Everywhere) :o Just a random fun fact, a few of the names Minerva listed for their baby are actually future OCs from my other stories being drafted lmao, excited? (I am!) ;)).
Just to remind, this story will be updated every 2 weeks! Other than that, once again welcome to the newest adventures of Minerva and hope you enjoy it! Especially because this is technically the last story involving 11! *sobs*. Leave your comments and thoughts if you wish! :)