Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to Doctor Who.
Annabella ©2011-2016 MamaBunyip
Everything else and story line by me but of course they're set in the Dr. Who Universe so I still hold no rights to them.
Story takes place somewhere in the 11th Doctor Era. I hope you enjoy it!
Rating: It's perfectly safe for the whole family, like the show. So don't worry.
PART 1: The Memory that wouldn't die.
The world was green.
Her shy ten-year-old eyes blinked.
It then twisted and morphed, the sun turned red and then blue. The air became heavy and she was surrounded by weird machinery in the form of floors and ceiling and walls as far as the horizon could reach, all pulsing with a purplish tint to a darkness black as a moonless night.
Her sleepy head then thought the sun was just a big lightbulb in the ceiling, a far away ceiling, as far away as the clouds usually were. It was cold, she still wore her pink pajamas and for some reason didn't have her red-panda slippers, the floor felt metallic and hard under her tiny feet.
And then a growl made her blink again. She looked aside to find, at a yet considerable distance, a monstrous being. It was approaching her at a fast pace, however, but her wavering heart caught in the throat with such fright she couldn't even scream. Let alone run.
Every alarm system her organism could muster immediately went haywire. It shook her fully awake and to the realization, the certain factual realization, that she wasn't dreaming. And then fear gripped her tighter.
The monster was big: twice the size of her father, both in height and width. It had a broad chest which shrunk into a smaller hip, as wide as her fathers', which divided itself into two legs that in turn divided into three blades each, its claws, which violently pierced the ground as it walked. The arms also stretched out to four-bladed claws, only these weren't as sharp, and had something that could be perceived as the inside of a hand connected to them.
Now to its credit, Its head was round, but then its eyes were pitch black sockets, with white spheres traveling across them, both now facing her. Its skin looked metallic hard, and was also blackened, but the eye slits were still so dark they contrasted enough to be clearly discernible.
Its arms wobbled back and forth as it stomped its paces.
It was the stuff of nightmares. She was unsure as to how she hadn't soiled herself in urine at the sight of it. She figured she was still too shocked to do even that, but apparently not too shocked to identify a marauding monster when she saw one. Her next course of action was obvious.
Alas, her legs were not the least bit cooperative with her, curious instead to see what would happen when the monster reached her. So she punched one of them, to teach it who's boss.
When she looked back, the monster was holding his arms in front, as if balancing for a leap. Throwing them backward, his legs catapulted the thing into gliding very rapidly through the air, in her direction.
Her eyes opened wide in surprise, her tiny voice managing a squeak, but she was interrupted in her attempt to panic by a hard push.
The world fell for a second, at the sound of a very loud crash. It soon came back to her as hands released her – it hadn't been a push, it had been a grab - and whatever had tackled her stood up.
She gazed at a man, covered by a light brown overcoat. He had messy light brown hair and was pointing a weird silvery gadget at the beast. It looked like a flashlight, or a really big…flashy pen.
"Not today!"
The gadget whistled and the monster shivered for a second before letting out electricity and smoke, like it had short-circuited. The monster fell on his face, unable to balance itself, and the man turned to Annabella. He leaned into her eye-level with a mix of concern and excitement.
She immediately noticed the dark tortoise-shell rectangular frame glasses on his face, a few strings of his fringe lightly rocking in front of the lenses. He had brown eyes and smiled at her in a way it made all her worries and fears immediately vanish.
"Are you ok?"
"I…yes." She could fell everything relaxing. There was a man there now, a grown-up like her father, everything would be okay.
"Doctor!"
The Doctor looked back and she leaned her head as she stood up, to see a man marching towards the doctor. His clothes were…she didn't remember, but they were dark, and the way he stood, with a sense of self-empowerment, he reminded her of a police officer. Even if he wasn't in uniform.
"More of them are coming, we need to go."
"We need to stop them, is what we-"
The Doctor was interrupted by the man who, passing by the monster, put some kind of gun next to its head and, with a second of hesitation, pulled the trigger.
Nothing happened, however. No bullet and no reaction.
"Now what did you do that for?!" The Doctor asked, annoyed, and a second later, a tiny explosion sounded out as the surface the man had pointed the gun at imploded. The back of the monster's head blew open, spilling wires, parts, and some kind of black liquid emitting a purple hue.
"We just blew our element of surprise."
"So you kill him? He was no threat!"
"'Course he was, you shorted him out, he was going to get back up."
"Not in time to do anything worthwhile."
"What does it matter?!" Jack asked, annoyed, "we have to regroup, try again later."
The Doctor sighed.
"Always with the military vernacular, Captain Harkness…" he used the title in a bit of a mockery, "have you learned nothing?"
"You wanted to save the girl, she's right there. Grab it and let's go."
"It?" The Doctor rose his voice annoyed.
"she, grab her, damn it, the package, retrieve…" The Doctor was looking at him suggestively.
"Ju-just shut up. Let's go before they get here." Jack pointed to the side, notably apprehensive. She looked and saw the horizon that was, for a lack of a better description, filled with monsters. They seemed to be floating in their general direction.
"Well, can't very well argue with that." The Doctor then crouched to look at her. "What's your name?"
"Annabella," she timidly spelled out.
He opened his eyes in surprise, a kind of recognition he didn't expect to experience, and then smiled comfortably.
"Alright, well, we're here to help you. If you'll come with me, I'll take you back home. Would you like that?"
She nodded and grabbed his hand once he offered it to her. Apprehensively but trusting, she put her tiny steps to follow him.
The army was approaching, she could hear the faint sounds of them crashing their claws on the ground as they made their way to them. He, meanwhile, was taking her to a police box. It looked old, and so out of place in that huge new world with the light blue sun and made of miles and miles of black silver metal and circuitry. Especially because it was so blue.
However, his hand was warm, and his care was free. He did not seem overly worried about anything.
When she entered the box, a whole new world opened to her.
The mean looking man impatiently motioned the Doctor along, closing the door behind them with a swift swing.
"So impatient," the Doctor 'tsked,' mildly amused as he approached a big circular panel, full of levers, buttons, and other techy things she didn't recognize. He turned to her to relax her worries:
"Alright, I'm just going to tell my ship to take you home now, ok?"
She nodded, her eyes big and wide with wonder.
"I need my hand, sweety," he jested and she embarrassingly let it go, instead taking her hand to her lips. She nibbled on her fist a bit in a nervous reaction. It really wasn't a dream, it all felt very real.
"Alright, and here…we…go!"
The ship rumbled, glowed, and she felt herself being pulled into something, being somewhat twisted, but it didn't hurt and it vanished as soon as she felt it.
The Doctor grabbed her hand again, pulling her focus.
"Come, I want to show you something."
They left the mean man behind and headed for some stairs.
They crossed a corridor, turned a left at some piece of machinery that was fuming, apparently having a bad time, and walked across another. Suddenly he turned her around and her mind was blown.
A window, roughly the size of her bedroom, opened her eyes to the universe. Things she had seen in crayon drawings, but real, and up close. She was so young she couldn't think or process it, she could only stare… completely and utterly in awe.
An enormous vessel stood in the midst of space with a smoldering black planet, and the sun as its background, a green sun, huge and flaming. Streams of colors then rushed at her, the whole space in front of her bending upon itself until it was just a line on the horizon.
"And here we go."
The rest she could never put into words. She had drawings of smudges and blurs made out of as many colors as she could get, but nothing did her memory any justice.
Even on that day, 22 years old, 12 years later, she looked at the pile of drawings she had made across the years with tired eyes but a never-ceasing yearning heart.
"It was real, wasn't it?"
She didn't remember anything after the light.
She didn't remember getting back, or being dropped off; she just woke up on her bed like nothing had happened. And decades of normal life had…what decades? Mere days had shaken her faith in her memory, in her experience, and decades later she only had year-old ugly drawings to remember it all by.
Of the monster, of the light show, of the mean man in black and of the Doctor… all the drawings she had of him, he was always smiling. On some, she had been carried under his arm, others by hand, others in both arms like a bride.
Her hair still glowed orange, though now long enough to envelop her shoulders. Her skin had lost its freckles and gained a snowy tint. Her eyes blue, her lips pink, herself matured into a healthy, tall, and slim woman's body with all the curves in its places, all a helpful plus in her waitressing job in Dundee.
She felt ridiculous, saving all these drawings, looking over them once every couple of months, before throwing them around in frustration and deciding to throw them in the garbage.
But she never did. She always put them back in the box, and the box under her bed. And that's what she was doing then.
Her one-bedroom flat looked small. Everything looked so small ever since she had seen the inside of that police box, and what was outside of it. After that, how could she have an interest in anything that could be confined to a house, or to a bank, or to her belly?
She was thinking how silly she was, and how she was letting a stupid little dream ruin most of her youth, and how if she didn't stop it, it would ruin the rest of her life. She would die a waitress without ever accomplishing anything, or opening up to anyone.
She sighed.
And as she sighed, a knock came at the door. She raised an eyebrow as the second knock sounded out.
Who could that be? I don't know anyone around here.
"Who is that?" She asked out loud, casually approaching the door.
"Annabella?" A seemingly English accent sounded out, male and ripe and, more importantly, unrecognized.
"Yes?"
"It's me, the Doctor," it said, with a playful tone.
Before she gave the claim any reasonable consideration, she was already unlocking the door and flinging it open. But the man that was expecting her was very different. His hair was brown, his overcoat was beige, was that a difference? His fringe was, it was much more evident, his eyes much clearer, his face considerably more square and, actually, different. She was definitely certain he hadn't seen him wearing a silly red bow tie, but an actual tie.
She frowned confused and suddenly very aware she had opened the door to a complete stranger. Still, her curiosity remained, why would he announce himself as "the Doctor?"
"Doctor Who?" She asked, confused.
The man smiled mischievously, notably holding back a giggle.
Wouldn't you like to know?
Part End: Thank you for reading, please consider leaving a review if you have the time.
Alright so this had more of the 10th, but I promise I meant it when I said 11th! Next up, we actually start with the whole thing, after all, a spooky alien race doesn't just kidnap a little girl for no reason! Reasons are abound, read on to discover them.
Also don't worry, the story is fully written. Next update will come up next week, God willing.