Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor who in any way, shape, or form! I do, however, own my OC, Katerina Draganova, and any other characters I make up!
Summary: After being given an ancient ring from her grandmother, Katerina Draganova's life is turned upside down. Turns out, the ring gives her the power to jump through time. Specifically, through the Doctor's timeline. And not in order, either. Follow Katerina as she attempts to get back to her own life, and watch how she unravels in the story of the Doctor.
Author's note: Hi! I just wanted to have a try at this. I am not usually good with Doctor Who fanfics, but it's only because I go in order and some episodes are really boring. But this way, I can do a bunch of fun episodes all out of order!
Oh, and Katerina is portrayed by Nina Dobrev, only because that's literally the only person I could picture as this story developed in my brain.
Dictionary-Bulgarian to English
Деца-Kids
Сестра- Sister
Бебе- Baby
Изгора- Sweetheart
A huge huge HUGE thanks to my very good friend grapejuice101 because without her this chapter wouldn't be as good as it could have been. Thank you so much!
Enjoy!
Katerina Draganova was a heavy sleeper. She always has been, and she always will be. She slept through her alarm, the TV, hell, this girl could sleep through the apocalypse.
Which is why Katerina didn't hear the sound of her bedroom door creak open, and the sound of footsteps creeping towards her bed.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KATERINA!" Was what nearly caused Katerina to die on her birthday. She gasped, flying her chocolate brown eyes open and turning to the sound of the screams. It was her family, consisting of her mother Kalina, and her younger siblings, Nikolai and Nikolina, who were twins.
"Mama!" Katerina complained, squinting. She wasn't fully awake yet. "What do you think you are doing?"
"It's your birthday," Kalina answered. "And we wanted to be the first ones to wish you."
"You also almost made it my death day," Katerina retorts, falling back on to her bed, throwing her arm over her eyes.
"Come on, Katty!" Nikolina said, shaking Katerina. Katerina was never able to get used to the twelve year old's energy. "We made your favourite pancakes!"
Katerina moved her arm an inch to reveal her eyes. "Chocolate chip?"
"With smiley faces and whipped cream," Kalina confirmed.
Katerina chuckled to herself, moving her arm back to cover her face. "Alright," Katerina said. "Get out of my room and I'll be there in ten minutes."
"Now!" Nikolai and Nikolina insisted.
"Come now, Деца," Kalina ordered, slipping into her native tongue. "Let your Сестра wake up."
Kalina ushered the kids out of the room, and Katerina picked her pillow up before crushing it to her face. Once everyone was out of her room Katerina felt one hundred percent better. Ever since they moved to the shabby little apartment in Waterville, Maine, Katerina always felt like she was being crowded.
Realizing she had to get up at some point, Kat pushed herself out of bed, threw on a sweater, switched out her shorts for more appropriate yoga pants, and slipped on her bunny slippers as she pulled her dark, very wavy hair into a large knot at the top of her head.
It wasn't a far distance from Katerina's room to her kitchen. She walked down the hall, and she was there. She plopped herself down on a chair at the small table, and her mother set down a plate of chocolate chip pancakes in front of her.
Katerina smiled up at her mother, who kissed the top of her head. "My baby is 21 today. Today, she gets whatever she wants," She said, wrapping her arms around Katerina, giving her a sideways hug.
"But tomorrow she's back to work," Katerina growled.
"That's how you go to college, Изгора," Kalina said as she went back to the stove.
Katerina looked over at Nikolai, whose face was stuffed with pancake. "Happy birthday!" He spluttered.
Kat laughed. "Nik, please chew before you talk," She said, grabbing a napkin and wiping her face.
"Listen up, troops!" Kalina announced, and her kids looked over to her. "Today, grandma Zara and grandpa Grigor invited us over for dinner tonight for Kat's birthday!"
"Yay!" The kids cheered. They loved their grandparents, but rarely saw them because they live in Belfast, a good time away from Katerina's family so daily visits aren't usually possibly. But on special occasions, Kalina would do something like this and it warmed her heart to see her children happy.
"Okay, then let's go! Take baths, get ready! We're gonna spend the whole day there!" Kalina told them.
The twins immediately dropped everything and ran to their bedrooms to get ready. Katerina rolled her eyes and quickly ate, bringing her dishes over as Kalina picked up her other children's dishes to wash.
"Has your father called yet?" Kalina asked, a tad bitterly.
Katerina took an extra second or to to finish off her milk before answering. "Not yet."
"I'm sure he will soon," Kalina said.
"I don't care if he does, Mama," Katerina said as she placed her glass on the counter next to her mother.
"Look, Бебе," Kalina said, turning to her daughter. "I know you and your father aren't on the best terms..."
"'Best terms'?" Katerina repeated. "Mama, this is the man that got another woman pregnant and ran away with her, leaving you and me to take care of two kids."
"Katerina Draganova, I don't want to have this conversation today," Kalina said as Kat bit her lip to keep herself from shouting out. "Just, please, go get ready to go to your grandparents."
"Fine," Katerina sulked, before she went off to her bedroom.
"Katerina!" Zara and Grigor yelled as Katerina and her family walked through the door. "How good to see you!"
"It's good to see you guys too," Katerina said, giving each of her grandparents a hug as she walked inside. The aroma of her favourite foods filled her nose, and Kat got giddy with excitement. Her grandmother was the best cook, and she was very excited to indulge in it.
"Come! Come! Sit!" Zara insisted, taking Kat's hand and leading her inside. Nikolai and Nikolina went off with Grigor, and Kalina followed her daughter and her mother into the living room.
"How have you been?" Zara asked in Bulgarian.
"Okay," Katerina responded in Bulgarian. Her grandparents didn't know a lot of English, as her parents and grandparents all moved to America when Katerina was three, so Katerina made it a constant effort to speak in Bulgarian with her grandparents.
"I have a present for you!" Zara said in Bulgarian excitedly, getting up. But Katerina frowned. Those were all words that she wasn't really familiar with, so she turned to her mother for a translation.
"She has something for you," Kalina answered, and Katerina nodded in understanding.
Zara came back with a ring sized box in her hands. She sat on the couch next to Katerina, and held out a shaky hand towards her. "Here, dear."
Katerina smiled, taking the box from her grandmother. She opened it, and inside was a beautiful locket ring. Katerina gasped at it's beauty. It had a lock on the front, and inside the box was a small key so it could be opened. Katerina opened the lock, and on the inside was a clock. An actual, clock.
"What's the clock for?" Kat asks.
"For time!" Zara answered.
"Thank you, grandma," Katerina said with a big smile on her face.
"You like it?" Zara asked in English with a heavy European accent.
Katerina nodded. "I love it, and I love you."
She leaned over to hug her grandmother as her grandma said, "It will bring lots of luck."
Kat pulled back. "It's beautiful, grandma," She slipped the finger on her ring finger on her right hand. "And it fits perfectly."
A little too perfectly.
"Grandma isn't the only one with gift!" Grigor said as he walked in, Nikolai and Nikolina on his heels. He hands Katerina a rectangular box, and she smiled at him as she opened it. She gasped at the sight of it. It was a necklace, with a gold chain and black pendant, lined with tiny diamonds and a gold rod in the middle.
"It's amazing!" Katerina said, reaching back and putting it on. "Where did you get it? It looks old."
"It is old," Grigor, whose English was better than Zara's, said. "It goes back seven generations of Draganov's."
"Draganov's," Katerina said, touching the pendant. After her father's infidelity was revealed and her parents divorced, Katerina resented her father so much that she had her last name changed from Angelova to her mother's maiden name, Draganova.
"A lot of history, it has," Grigor said. "I hope you cherish it."
"I will," Katerina said, squeezing the pendant in her hands.
Katerina came home that day very content with her life. She ate until she was stuffed like a toy, then ate the delicious cake that her grandfather had baked. Zara, as usual, made way too much food (but Katerina always assumed that she did it on purpose) and Katerina's family took some home.
Once they walked through the door, Nikolai went for the television, Nikolina went for her bedroom that she shared with her twin, Kalina for the showers, and Katerina for her bedroom. She quickly changed out of her clothes into a pair of sweat pants, a t-shirt and a baggy sweater, and was about to crawl into bed when her eye caught the ring. Katerina smiled at it, but moved to take it off. She didn't want it hurting her as she slept.
But when she tried to take it off, it didn't work. No matter how hard Katerina tugged, it wouldn't budge. She tried slathering lotion all on her hands to get it to slip off, but it was like it was permanently glued to Katerina.
She finally gave up and got up to get her mother's help when it started making a humming noise. Curious, Katerina tried to open it, but it was locked. It took her a couple of seconds of tugging on the lid to realize that she actually had the key. After she fished it out of her jeans pocket, and she opened the lid.
The handles on the clock in the ring were spinning out of control. Katerina banged on it, but to no avail. It wouldn't stop. It kept spinning.
Eventually, it started to glow. Sublty, so Katerina didn't notice at first (she was debating whether she should cut her finger off), but then brighter, and Katerina couldn't help but stare at it, mesmerized. The light turned into a projection of a clock, and the handles began spinning. It showed the present day, January 28th 2014, but it started clocking back to 2013...
"All of this from a ring?" Katerina couldn't help but mutter. That's when the light began to get bigger and bigger, until eventually, it covered Katerina's whole body. It didn't occur to her to scream for help, so when she felt a searing pain flow through her entire body, she finally screamed in pain.
All Katerina could see was light at first, but then she could see a dark blue wall. She landed on her feet, but she felt so shaky that she fell all the way to the ground. Her head was throbbing like someone was bashing a hammer against it.
"Oww..." She moaned, clutching her head, occassionally rubbing the sides of her head. The throbbing stopped after a minute or two, slowly, then all together.
Groaning, Katerina pulled herself to her feet, dusting herself off. It wasn't until she was standing did she realize that she wasn't standing in her bedroom anymore.
Instead, she was in a rather large room. Bigger than the house Katerina used to live in when she lived in Los Angeles. The room was a dark blue, with a strange sort of console behind her, with a bunch of different controls on them. The entire top of the room around was lined with white lights that were in rectangle form that was flashing.
There were three levels as far as Katerina could see. A staircase led to an upper balcony that was looking down over the console in the middle that judging by the doorways at the ends of them, led off into rooms. The level that Katerina was standing on had the console, a seating place, and doors everywhere. A stairway led to the final level that was too dark for Katerina too look down.
The console had 6 sides to it, and a bunch of different glowy stuff and levers and buttons that Katerina didn't dare touch in case they blew something up. In the center of the console was a clear tube, that stopped almost at the ceiling, where it was lead off into a large circluar tube with strange circular markings on it.
"Ah! You're here!" A voice said, and Katerina nearly fell back to the ground as she spun around. It was a man, who looked like he was in his thirties. He had dark hair, greenish grey eyes, and was wearing a dark tweed jacket with a purple bowtie, and had a large grin on his face. "I just got done the internet with Clara, where are you coming from?"
"Who are you?" Katerina asked with widened eyes. "Where am I? What have you done with me?"
The grin disappeared from his face almost immediately. "This is your first, isn't it?"
"My first what?" Katerina questioned.
"Your first jump," He muttered to himself, pulling out a little black book from his coat pocket and flipping through it.
Katerina ignored it. "Why didn't you answer my questions? Who are you? Where am I?" Her eyes widened at a thought. "Did you kidnap me?"
"What? No," He said. "I'm the Doctor."
"Doctor who?" She asked. What kind of name was 'the Doctor'?
"Just the Doctor," the Doctor said with a dismissal wave.
"Nobody can be just 'the Doctor'," She said, but shook her head. "You know what? Never mind. I don't care why I'm here, I don't care how I got here, all I care about is going home."
The Doctor looked down when she mentioned going home. "You can't."
"Why not? Take me home or I'm calling the cops," She said, digging into her pocket of her sweatshirt for her phone. Of course, she forgot it at home.
In three long strides the Doctor was in front of her and taking her right hand. "Hey!" Katerina protested. "What do you think you're-"
He cut her off by raising her hand in front of her. "Did this glow before you came here?"
The foggy memory eventually made it's way back to her. "Ye-yeah," She stuttered. "What does it have to do with anything?"
"This ring," He said. "Brings you to me."
"Why?" Katerina asks, ripping her hand back.
"We haven't figured it out yet," He said.
"'We'?" She asked.
"You and me."
"What do you mean? I've never met you before!" Katerina exclaimed.
"You haven't," the Doctor agreed. "But your other selves, however, could say differently."
"What do you mean, my other selves? I'm only one person, you know!" She exclaimed. "Why can't you just take me home?"
"We've been trying to figure it out, Kat," He said calmly. "I'm sorry."
"So, you're saying that I'm stuck here?" She asked, her voice shaking. "Wherever here is?"
The Doctor nodded slowly.
"Where is this place, anyways?" She asked, looking up at the room.
"It's called the TARDIS," He answered.
Katerina rolled her eyes. "Why do you not seem like a real person? What's a TARDIS?"
"It stands for Time and Relative Dimensions in Space. It's my time machine."
"Time machine?" Katerina repeated, her eyes wide.
"Yup," He said, popping the p.
Katerina could only look around herself in awe, before looking back at the Doctor. "What are you?"
"A Time Lord," He said.
"Okay, now you're just being ridiculous," Katerina said with a hysterical laugh. "What's a Time Lord?"
"I'm an alien, from the planet Gallifrey," the Doctor said.
"So you're not human?" She asked, crossing her arms.
"No," the Doctor said as he shook his head.
Katerina scoffed. "Huh, just perfect," She said. Her dream was getting the better of her. "Okay, this is totally going to make a great story when I wake up."
The Doctor scrunched up his eye brows. "Dream? This isn't a dream."
"Of course it isn't," Katerina mumbled, before clearing her throat. "Okay, until this passes, what do I do?"
The Doctor grinned, standing up straight. "That's where the fun stuff comes in!"
He claps his hands before spinning on his heels. He starts pulling a bunch of stuff and pushing so many buttons that Katerina had a hard time keeping up. "What are you doing?"
"I'm going to travel to tomorrow, so we can go with Clara somewhere!" The Doctor said, running to the other end of the console.
"Wait!" Katerina said, following him. "Who's Clara?"
"You met her-" He stops himself. "Right, you haven't met anyone, have you?"
Katerina shakes her head. "Right! Well, go change, because I doubt you will want to run around wearing your night clothes, and when you come back we'll be at Clara's tomorrow!"
"Wait!" Katerina said again. "A couple things first."
"Okay, what?" the Doctor said.
"Where do I change?" She asks.
"Oh! Your bedroom is upstairs, second door on the left," He answered.
"I have a bedroom?" Katerina asks, raising her eyebrows in surprise.
"Well, where else would you stay?" He responds with a question.
"Right," Katerina said, though she wasn't really paying attention to that.
"And the next?" the Doctor asked.
Katerina leaned closer. "Can I trust you?"
The Doctor's eyes trailed down to her lips, before slowing a huge lump in his throat and looking back up to her eyes. He reached into his coat, not taking his eyes off of her. He pulls out a letter, and hands it to her. "This is for you."
"Who's it from?" She asks, taking it from the Doctor.
"You and I talked once about what we'd do when I met you at a point where you had no idea who I was," he said. He pointed to the letter. "That's from yourself."
"So I wrote a letter to myself?" She asked.
He waved his hands. "Wibbly wobbly, timey wimey."
"Great," Katerina muttered to herself, turning around and walking towards the stair case. "I'm stuck in a dream where the man I've been held captive by doesn't even speak proper English!"
Upstairs, second door on the left, Katerina carefully turned the doorknob, and stepped in. She flicked on the light, and gasped.
Despite the moody appearance of the rest of the "TARDIS" as the Doctor had put it, Katerina's so called bedroom was full of colours. Literally. Three walls were painted a bright red while the last was painted white. Pictures covered the entire white wall, and Katerina wandered over to look at them.
There were a lot of pictures with the Doctor, Katerina seemed to notice. There were some with a short brunette woman, some with a red headed girl and a brown haired boy, some with a dark skinned dark haired woman, and some with a blonde girl. But Katerina noticed that most of the pictures weren't even of her. They were of other people. Some of the redheaded woman and the brown haired boy, some of the blonde girl, but they were mostly of the Doctor, doing random things. There were some of another man, sometimes he's wearing a blue suit, sometimes a pinstriped one. Katerina didn't understand how those pictures could have been taken if she didn't remember taking them.
Shaking her head, she headed over to her closet, and when she opened it, she almost fainted at the sight of how big it was. It was as big as her apartment back home, if not bigger.
She went in, and picked out a long sleeved, collared dress that was white on top, with an overlapping flowerprint, a belt at the waist, and the bottom is black and short. With a pair of beige stockings, she put on white boots. For her accessories, she wore a bowtie necklace, and metal feather earrings. She put on her black, rimmed fedora to finish it off. When she examined herself in the mirror, she noticed that she was still wearing the necklace that Grigor gave her. Katerina shook her head as she touched it. She couldn't believe it; because Katerina was forgetful, she had something of her grandparents to remember. She decided that day that she was never taking the necklace off.
Katerina turned to leave, but noticed the camera sitting on top of her dresser. She looked back at the wall of pictures, and grabbed the camera. Katerina loved taking pictures, which probably explained the wall o' pics.
She was about to step out the door when she remembered the letter. She walked back inside the closet, grabbing it off of her vanity mirror. She ripped it open, before unfolding the letter.
Dear Katerina (aka myself, I guess)
This is probably your first jump if the Doctor is giving you this letter. I'm not going to tell you anything, but what I AM going to tell you is, trust him. He might not seem like the most stable man at times, but he's good hearted and knows what he's doing (most of the time).
And if it's your first jump, I'm sorry. You've still got a long way to go. I wish you luck with it.
Katerina
PS. I've instructed the Doctor and all of his companions (the people that he travels with besides me) that they're not to tell you anything of any of the experiences that they've had with you. You could find something out and unknowingly alter the timeline, which could have great consequences.
PPS. The pain that you feel when you first jumped? Sorry, that's going to get a lot worse.
Great, Katerina thought to herself as she dropped the letter onto the desk that she had in the corner. This dream is getting realer by the second and I really want it to stop. I also sound crazy.
She was walking down the stairs right when the Doctor pulled a lever, and the floor suddenly jerked underneath her, causing her to fall to the side. She screamed as her hat fell off and she clung to the railings.
The violent shaking stopped after a couple of minutes, and Katerina sank against the steps. "What was that?" She asked.
"It was the TARDIS," He said. "She does that when we go into flight."
Katerina grabbed her hat from the ground before plopping it back on. "A warning would have been nice."
"I'm sorry," the Doctor said in a sarcastic tone. "Next time, I'll tell you."
"That's all I ask," Katerina said, clasping her hands together. She walked around the Doctor so she was on the other side of him. Her hands fiddled with the controls, but she didn't push or pull anything. "Who is this, 'Clara' chick you keep talking about?"
"She's the one that is going to be travelling with us today," He said.
Katerina scoffed. "What, do you pick a new one up every day?"
"No, of course not!" the Doctor said, clearly offended. "I forgot how much attitude you had in the early stages."
"Early stages?" She repeated.
"Never mind," the Doctor muttered before speaking up again. "I never know at what point you end up with me, so I do have several different people over the years travelling with me."
"Wow, you sure work hard, don't you, Doctor?" Katerina said as she moved to sit down.
"Hey!" the Doctor said, offended again.
"Whatever, when is she gonna be here?" Kat asks.
"Right now," the Doctor said. He went over to the main doors of the TARDIS, and pulled it open. Rolling her eyes, Katerina got up to follow him. They were on a regular street, and they were parked in front of a house. Huh, nothing too alien, she thought to herself. But when she turned around to shut the door behind her, however, she got the shock of her life.
The box was smaller on the outside.
"What?" Katerina breathed. She turned around to face the Doctor. "I so did not think it would be smaller outside."
"What?" the Doctor asked.
Katerina turned around to face him. "You didn't think to mention that your time machine is like a clown car!"
The Doctor looked at her with scrunched eyebrows before he looked up, and his eyes brightened with understanding. "Right! The whole, 'bigger on the inside' thing." He nodded. "Sorry."
Katerina rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Go get your friend, I'm waiting inside."
The Doctor nodded, and continued up to the house. When he was gone, Katerina ran all the way around the TARDIS, inspecting every side of it. It was still the same size, no matter how many times Katerina ran around it.
"Impossible," She muttered to herself as she walked back inside to the giganticness of the TARDIS.
Right when she got back to the TARDIS console, the door opened, and the Doctor and the same short, brunette woman that Katerina had seen in one of the first photos she saw was following behind him.
"Clara! You remember Katerina," He said, pointing to her.
"Sure!" Clara said, coming over to Katerina to give her a hug.
"Whoa," Katerina said, stepping away from Clara's hug. "Way too fast, kid."
"What?" Clara said, confused. She turned to the Doctor.
He was just looking from Katerina to Clara, and finally caught on when both girls looked at him in confusion. "Right!" he said, scrunching his face in realization. "Katerina, this is Clara. Clara, Katerina. I know you met her before, but this is her first time meeting you."
"How does that work?" Clara asks.
"Remember when we first met and I told you about her ring that makes her jump in my timeline?" the Doctor asked her.
Clara's eyes light up. "Oh, yeah! So, this is her first time?" She asked, turning to face Katerina.
"I guess so," Katerina said.
"Well, don't worry," Clara said, taking Katerina's hands. "I promise I'll make it a good one."
"Okay," Katerina said, slipping her hands out of Clara's. "I get that you're a touchy feely kind of person, but I'm not. So let's keep it to standing next to each other with the very occassional hug, okay?"
Clara nodded, and the Doctor started pulling stuff on the TARDIS's console. Once the Doctor got everything going, he leaned back against his console. "So we're moving, through actual time?" Clara asked.
"Apparently so," Katerina said, going over to the little bench that the Doctor had and sat down. "I'm still waiting to wake up. I'm surprised my mother let me sleep so long on a work day."
Clara looked back at the Doctor in confusion at what Katerina said, but he just shook his head, prefering not to talk about it.
Clara just looked back at the TARDIS doors. With a grin on her face, she ran up to the Doctor. "So what's it made of?"
She continued without letting the Doctor answer. "Time. I mean, if you can just go right through it it's got to be made of stuff. Like jam's made of strawberries, so what's it made of?"
Katerina just shook her head at Clara's eagerness. She laid down on the bench as the Doctor and Clara kept going. "Well. Not strawberries. No. No, no, no. That would be unacceptable." He straightened his bowtie before turning around. Subconsciously, Katerina played with her bowtie necklace.
Clara ran around the other side and stopped in front of the Doctor. "And we can go anywhere."
"Within reason," he nodded. "Well, I say reason..."
"So we could go backwards in time," Clara suggested.
"And space," the Doctor agreed. "Yes."
"And forwards in time."
"And space," the Doctor added.
"Oh, for God's sake!" Katerina said, getting up. "It's a time machine. It can go anywhere!"
The Doctor and Clara turned to face her, a bit surprised by her outburst. The Doctor tapped Clara's arm and she turned her head to face him. "It's her first time. I remember in her first days she could hardly stand the sight of this place."
"I always will," Katerina said, her arms crossed.
"Well now that that's all cleared up," the Doctor said, clapping his hands. "Where do you want to go?" He asked, spinning on his heels and walking back to the front of the console. Just as eagerly, Clara went the other way, and Katerina just calmly followed. "What do you want to see?" He asked as they came face to face.
The eager smile on Clara's face dropped as she said. "I don't know."
"Well isn't that helpful?" Katerina said.
Clara looked between the two of them. "You know when someone asks what's your favourite book and then suddenly you forget every single book you've read?"
"All the time," Katerina said at the same time the Doctor said, "No, totally not."
The two frowned at each other before turning back to Clara. "Well, that's a thing," Clara sighed. "That, happens."
"And?" the Doctor urged. "Back to the question."
"Well, it's Katerina's first time too, isn't it?" Clara asks, motioning to the dark haired girl. "Why don't you pick?"
"Oh please, I really couldn't care less," Katerina said. "Pick somewhere, I really don't care."
"Okay," Clara said slowly. "So...so...so..." She turned to the door, pacing as she began to think out loud. "I'd like to see, I would like to see, what I would like to see is..."
"You ever going to finish that sentence?" Katerina asks as she watched the Doctor bounce up and down on the balls of his feet.
Clara turned around with a smile on her face, saying, "Something awesome."
The Doctor snapped his fingers, throwing his arms up in the air as he turned around. He pulled two levers down, making a big show of it which made Katerina roll her eyes, but she followed him as he continued pushing things and pulling things. If Katerina was honest, it kind of mesmerized her, watching him running around.
The Doctor's hand landed on a lever. He turned to Katerina. "Are you ready?"
Katerina smiled, for real since the first minute she got here. She put one hand on a bar, gripping tight, and stuck the other hand on her head so her hat wouldn't fall off. "Let's go!"
After a few seconds of the TARDIS shake, it stopped, and the Doctor lead the two girls to the front. He insisted that both girls closed their eyes. Clara did it without hesitation, but Katerina needed a bit of persuasion to do so, and she rolled her eyes as she did it. The Doctor took both their hands before leading them outside. Katerina on the right, the Doctor in the middle, and Clara on the left.
Katerina stepped outside, and felt a harsh light on her eyes. She inwardly shrank away from the light, which probably made her look weird to people with their eyes open.
"Can you feel the light on your eyelids?" the Doctor asked eagerly.
"Is that a real question?" Katerina asked, while Clara simply nodded.
Katerina could feel the Doctor's hands on her shoulders. She wanted to shrink away from him, but she forced herself to relax when she remembered her own advice to herself to trust this man. But he was getting stranger by the second and it was getting harder to do so.
"That is the light, of an alien sun," the Doctor said, and Katerina felt one hand disappear from her shoulder, and she assumed it was so the Doctor could take Clara's hand and guide her, because they were moving again.
"Forward a couple of steps," the Doctor said, and both girls complied.
"Okay," the Doctor said. "Are you ready?"
"Yes," Clara and Katerina said at the same time. Really, Katerina just wanted it over with. The Doctor made a huge fuss over it, so she just wanted to see what the fuss was about.
"No," Clara suddenly said.
"What, are you serious?" Katerina asked, her eyes still closed.
"Yes?" Clara said again, although it sounded like more of a question.
"Oh, for heaven's sake," Katerina said, and, completely fed up, she opened her eyes to see what the big fuss was about. And the sight literally made Katerina gasp.
She looked over to Clara, who had the same expression as her, before her gaze fell on the Doctor. "Welcome, to the Rings of Akhaten."
Right in front of Katerina's very own eyes was a huge orange sun. An alien sun, she repeated to herself. There were huge pieces of rock that were a part of the rings floating about, and Katerina had to control the urge to lean forward and grab one. Instead, she reached into her pocket and took out her camera, quickly snapping a picture.
"I'm really awake, aren't I?" Katerina whispered, and it took her a moment to realize that she had actually said this out loud.
"You really are," the Doctor answered her.
"It's..." Clara trailed off.
The Doctor laughed with giddiness. "It is! It so completely is. But wait! There is more!"
"More?" Katerina and Clara said at the same time.
"Wait," the Doctor said, looking down at his watch. "In about five, four, three, two..." At two, the Doctor's hand briefly grabbed Katerina's, but he quickly dropped it when he realized which Katerina this was. It was one who looked down at her hand and then back to the Doctor in bewilderment. It was the one who stared at the Doctor in confusion, before she pulled her hand away and crossed her arms, stepping a bit farther away from him, focusing on the space in front of her.
A largish asteroid that seemed to have some kind of city on it, passed to reveal another another with a rather large pyramid on it, glowing from the light of the close sun.
"What is it?" Katerina asked, displaying interest for the first time.
"The Pyramid of the Rings of Akhaten," the Doctor explained.
"Huh, clever name," Katerina commented. "Not very creative, were they?"
"I guess they didn't really take time to name it, Kat," He said. "It's a holy site for the Sun-singers of Akhet."
Clara glanced over at the Doctor. "The who of what?"
"Yeah, it's like you automatically assume that we know all of this stuff," Katerina pointed out.
"Ignoring that last comment," the Doctor started, which made Katerina roll her eyes. "Seven worlds orbiting the same star. All of them sharing a belief that life in the Universe originated here. On that planet."
"All life?" Clara repeated.
"In the Universe," the Doctor confirmed.
"Did it?" She asked.
"Well, it's what they believe," he said with a smile. "It's a nice story."
"Can we see it?" Clara asked. "Up close?" She looked over to Katerina. "If you would like to, too."
"You know what?" Katerina said, peering closer at the planet. "Yeah, I would."
The Doctor offered Katerina his hand, and after a moment's hesitation, she took it, and then turned and took Clara's as the three of them ran back inside the TARDIS.
After a quick trip, the trio ran back out of the TARDIS. Clara had let go of Katerina's hand, and when Katerina tried letting go of the Doctor's, he just clutched tighter. They came to a sudden stop, almost causing Katerina and her hat to fall to the ground.
Katerina's eyes widened at all the different things going on around her. There were aliens. Legitiment, aliens.
Well, the Doctor's an alien, One half of Katerina's brain said.
Yeah, but does he look like them? The other half said as a person with a purple head turned to greet them.
"This isn't weird," Katerina said, and finally managed to get her hand out of the Time Lord's hand.
Clara was looking all around herself in wonder. She turned to face Katerina, grabbing her hand. "Come on!"
"What did we say about touchy feely?!" Katerina said as Clara lead her off, the Doctor chuckling as he shook his heads at those two.
Clara came to a full stop, causing Katerina to fall a bit forward and actually lose her hat this time. She quickly leaned over and picked it up before it could be squished by somebody. "Probably a bad idea to wear a hat," she mumbled to herself as she stuck it back on. Before she knew it, Clara was dragging her all the way back to the Doctor, and came to another full stop, but this time, Katerina was able to keep herself from falling over.
"Where are they from?" Clara asks while Katerina finally frees her hand.
"Oh, you know," the Doctor said with a shrug. "The local system mostly."
"And what do we call them?" Clara asked, glancing at Katerina.
"Well, let's see," the Doctor said as his eyes scanned the crowd. "Oh!" He said, pointing at an alien with a purple head, beady black eyes, pointy ears, a pointy nose, and a dorsal finlike thing on it's nose. "There goes some Panbabylonians."
He then pointed at a dinosaur looking alien. "A Lugal-Irra-Kush."
Then he was pointing at yet another alien grouping of aliens, "Some Lucanians."
"A Hooloovoo!" He pointed excitedly at an alien with it's collar practically all the way up to it's ears.
"Ah!" he said as he started walking, and the two young women followed him. "Qom Votivig!"
The Doctor did some weird looking handshake thing, bumping his stomach to the other's. "That chap's a Terraberseker of the Kodion Belt," He explained to Katerina and Clara, but really only Clara was paying attention, as Katerina was too busy taking photos. "You don't see many of them around anymore."
"Oh ho!" the Doctor said excitedly, running up to another alien. "That's an Ultramancer!"
"Are you always this excited or is today a special day?" Katerina asks, crossing her arms.
"I'm always like this, which you should figure out better soon enough," he answered, spinning around and walking back to Katerina and Clara. "You know, I forget how much I like it here, we should come here more often!"
"You've been here before?" Clara asks.
"Well, Katerina and I have been here before, and once, a long long time ago," He answered, and this time, Katerina didn't bother asking what he meant. "With my granddaughter," He said, walking away from the two of them.
Katerina widened her eyes in surprise at the new information, before turning to look at Clara, who had the same expression as her. "Hang on!" Clara shouted, and the two of them followed him, trying not to run into any aliens.
Before they could get there, a booth with jewelry caught Katerina's eye, and she waved Clara off. Katerina walked up to the stand. All of it was so...exotic, that Katerina couldn't help but smile. There were necklaces and earrings and rings of all different sizes and shapes and made of all different things, not just jewels. Katerina took out her camera and started taking pictures of them.
Katerina came across a red heart necklace, and her eyes widened at the sight of it. It looked like the one that her grandmother constantly wore, as it was a gift from her grandfather to her on the day that they got married.
She tucked her camera away into the purse she had brought with her, and lightly took the little heart in her hands. She touched the center of it, and fought the urge to cry. Would she ever see her grandparents again? Her mother? Her siblings? Hell, Katerina even wondered if she'd ever see her father again.
"That's a lovely necklace," the Doctor said, and Katerina looked to her left to see the Doctor standing there, holding a basket of neon blue...things that looked like cupcakes.
"Yeah," Katerina said, looking back to it. "It looks like one that my grandmother has."
She sniffed, and when she looked back at the Doctor, he was lifting his hand to her face. She was about to ask what he was doing when she looked down and saw that he was wiping a tear that had managed to escape her.
When the Doctor brought his hand back, she lifted hers to wipe any excess tears on her face. "I would get it, but I haven't got any money. You would have thought that my ring would have at least given me the time to grab my wallet." Before the Doctor could say anything, Clara came up to them, and she was about to say something when she noticed the basket the Doctor was holding. "What is that?"
"Exotic fruits of some description," he said, pulling out some wand from his coat. Katerina was beginning to believe that he must have the entire world in that coat. He pressed a button on it as Clara and Katerina each took one, and it made some sort of buzzing noise as he waved it over the fruits. "Non-toxic, non-hallucinogenic. High in free radicals. And low in other stuff, I shouldn't wonder."
Katerina took a bite out of hers. The texture was like a slushy, and it had a tangy sort of flavour, that Katerina couldn't really describe. It tasted...off. Katerina didn't really like it, so she shook her head and put it back in the basket.
She looked over to Clara, who was shaking her head at the taste. "No?" the Doctor asked, looking at the two of them, who both shook their heads again. Clara put hers back down as she asks, "So, why is everyone here?"
"Ah!" the Doctor said, wrapping an arm around each of them as they started to walk. "For the Festival of Offerings," he explained. "It takes place every thousand years or so when the rings align. It's quite a big thing, locally. Like, Pancake Tuesday!"
Katerina just shook her head at the strange man. Was this really what she was going to look forward too?
A bark and snarl interrupted Katerina's thoughts, and she and Clara swivled around to see an alien. She and the short brunette immediately shrank into each other.
"Doctor!" Katerina yelled.
At the sound of her cry, the Doctor rushed right over and began yapping at the alien until it had backed off.
"What's happening?" Clara asks, shaking her shivers off. "Why's it angry?"
"That isn't an 'it'!" the Doctor said. "It's a she."
"That isn't weird," Katerina said, still shaking a bit at being so close to it. She still wasn't used to being around aliens and she guessed she never would.
"Dor'een, meet Katerina," He said, pointing to the girl. "And Clara."
"Doreen?" Clara repeated.
"Loose translation," the Doctor said, waving it off. "She sounds a bit grumpy, but she's a total love, actually, aren't?" the Doctor cooed, reaching out and tickling Dor'een's chin affentionately, like you would a puppy. "Yes, you are."
"Anybody ever tell you how creepy you are?" Katerina asked.
"Several times, a long time ago," He answered.
"Well, allow me to be the first in a long time," Katerina said as she continued to eye Dor'een.
"She's just asking if we fancy renting a moped," the Doctor translated, and Dor'een backed up and gestured behind her where a big, snowmobile looking machine sat.
Clara nodded, and gave a deep bark, and Dor'een barked back, and the Doctor grinned at them.
I'm surrounded by freaks, Katerina thought to herself.
"So, how much does it cost?" Clara asked him.
"Not money," the Doctor said. "Something valuable. Sentimental value. A photograph, love letter, something like that. That's what's used for currency here. Psychometry. Objects psychically imprinted with their history. The more treasured they are, the more value they hold."
"Taking someone's treasures?" Katerina asked. That was awful!
"It's horrible," Clara agreed.
"Better than using bit of paper," the Doctor said.
"Then you pay," Clara said simply.
Katerina laughed. "Okay, I am starting to like the way that you think."
"With what?" the Doctor asked.
"You're a thousand years old, you must have something you care about," Clara said, turning around to look at something.
Katerina turned around too, to snap a picture of a rather odd looking plant that she was going to look up later, but when she turned around, the Doctor was gone, leaving just her and Clara.
"Doctor?" Katerina called, walking over to Clara. She had no idea where she was, but at least she'd be with someone she sort of knew.
"Doctor!" Clara tried, and the two young women started walking, looking for him.
"Great, just what we needed," Katerina muttered and when she turned around she ran almost smack into someone.
"Sorry," she said quickly, not wanting to offend whoever she almost crushed, but when she took focus, she saw that it was a little girl in a red robe, with reddish blondish hair, who looked panicked.
"Oh," She said. The girl appeared to be Nikolai and Nikloina's age, so she was very familiar on how to deal with kids that age. "Are you okay?"
Without answering her, the little girl took off, pushing right past her and Clara. They looked after the girl, and Clara turned and gave Katerina a look of bewilderment.
The sound of something jangling made Katerina and Clara turn around, and it was two men, who were wearing the same red robe as the little girl that just passed them.
"Have you seen her?" The man on the left asked them.
"Who?" Clara asked.
"The Queen of Years," He explained.
Katerina and Clara exchanged looks. "Who?" Katerina asked as she faced the men again.
Realizing that the women didn't know anything, the man on the right motioned to the man on the left, and they both left.
"How odd was that?" Clara asked as they watched the men disappear.
"Wait," Katerina said, something dawning on her. "The little girl that just passed us was wearing the same robes as those two men."
"So?" Clara asked.
"So, maybe that's who they're looking for," Katerina explained.
"Then let's go tell them," Clara said, moving to find one of the men.
"No!" Katerina protested, grabbing Clara's arm. "Did you see how frightened she looked? She was terrified. Maybe she's running from them."
"Then we should go find her and help her," Clara said excitedly, grabbing Katerina's hand to pull her away.
Katerina was prepared this time, though. "No! Why should we get caught up in someone else's mess?"
Clara looks at her in disbelief. "The first time I met you, you said that helping people was what you and the Doctor did."
"I did?" Katerina asked, perplexed.
"Yes, you did. Now, come on!" She said, gripping Katerina's hand harder, and Clara tugged her along in the direction the little girl went.
When is my day going to get better? Katerina asked herself, struggling to keep her hat on as she ran.
TBC...
And that's the first part! It is really super long, and I was going to put the whole episode in this until I actually realized how freaking long this was.
SO, the next part is going to follow up quickly, because I'm already working on it!
Katerina's outfits on Polyvore! (Link in my profile)
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