A/N: Thank you for choosing to read this! Just a quick short story I've had in my head for a bit. Might turn it into a story if I ever get the time to write more. Please don't hesitate to review. I'm itching to write more of this character, the short twelve minutes that the Doctor and her know each other simply isn't enough time to show as much as I want to.
"No, I'm telling you! Lovely beaches, not such great sea life. Mind the water. Might get a few toes bitten off!" The Doctor swung open the Tardis doors, expecting bright orange skies with black sand. Instead, the smell of burnt skin and gasoline assaulted him.
"If this is what the beach smells like, I think I'll need an oxygen mask!" Rose joked, pushing past the Doctor for a look outside.
She froze instantly, her hands raising above her head with a nervous smile. The Doctor peeked his head out of his little blue box. A pair of sunglasses rested on the bridge of his nose and a lei of white flowers dangled from his neck.
"Oi! This isn't Oltana!" He yelled out, his eyebrows coming together in confusion at the several plasma guns pointed at him and Rose.
"State your name and intent." One of the guards shouted.
"Well, this is not what I was expecting." The Doctor replied with a grin, although he was definitely more excited for an adventure.
"Sometimes I think you do this on purpose." Rose told him with an exasperated sigh. All she wanted was a nice day at the beach.
The Doctor smirked at her, his hands raising above his head in surrender.
"Look, look, we mean you no harm and what not. Just tell us where we are!" The Doctor called out, struggling against the two men holding him. They did not reply, continuing towards the front of the ship.
Everything around them seemed to be sparking or smoking, if not flashing a bright red light. He had stumbled right into the middle of a crashing ship, if looks were anything to go by.
"Captain, these are the intruders." Their guards pushed them forward, into a large console room, with giant metal shutters covering a large portion of the wall. The Captain's chair up front spun around, revealing a tiny brunette girl in a blue space suit.
"Got any ID on you?" She asked, not hesitating to stand up and walk straight towards them. The Doctor wriggled around his captor's arms, reaching for his psychic paper as they finally let him go. He opened it to her, and she reached up and took it out of his hands, staring at the front for a moment before flipping to the back, and then back to the front. Rose stood behind the Doctor, her nerves twisting at the emotionless stare of the girl in front.
"Is this a joke?" She asked, throwing the wallet off to the side. It skittered in the near silence. "Blank paper does not constitute identification!" She scolded. The Doctor's mouth dropped open, suddenly baffled.
"Who are you?" He asked in both horror and fascination. There were only a handful of humans that could see past the psychic paper.
The girl ignored the question, her eyes burning a hole into the pair. She pulled a small plasma gun out of the holster on her hip. "I am giving you one chance and one chance only to leave. You've got twelve minutes and thirty two seconds. The rest of you, back to work." She kept her gun aimed at the Doctor, not wavering.
"Who ARE you?!" The Doctor asked more firmly this time. He took a step forward, but the girl cocked her gun while the guards that had dragged them in left the room without further question. Rose shook her arms free and straightened her jacket, taking a step beside the Doctor.
"I do not have to answer to you, mystery man. Now, heed my advice and get. Out." She dropped the gun to her side, turning her back to them and heading for the console. The Doctor knew that there should have been large windows ahead, but the metal coverings kept the view hidden.
The Doctor slipped the Sonic Screwdriver out of his pocket and aimed it at the windows, the high pitched frequency causing the mechanism to raise the metal blockers up. The girl turned as soon as the sheets started lifting, her hands and eyes glowing an orangeish yellow color. Behind her, the sky was bright with burning gases, the Nebula around them breaking down on itself around them. The Doctor and Rose stood before this tiny girl, seeming to stand so much taller than she had just a few minutes ago. The literal fire in her eyes glowed the same orange as the gases burning outside, anger growing in the pit of her stomach at these two travelers who insisted on delaying her.
"I warned you." She threatened, her eyes the same color as the energy from her hands. The Doctor dropped all pretenses of being polite, storming forward while Rose stood back, shocked.
"I order you by the Shadow Proclamation, who are you?" The Doctor yelled. The girl did not falter, but a laugh escaped her lips.
"I do not operate under such rudimentary laws!" A louder voice echoed over her normal voice, shaking Rose to her core. The Captain stepped away from the console and towards the Doctor, the light leaving her hands and eyes as she did. "I am giving you one last chance to leave, intruder. Any longer on this ship and your human friend here will suffocate." Rose stiffened, and the Doctor immediately turned to face her, checking that she was still okay. "Starting to feel dizzy, child?" The girl asked, peeking her head out from behind the Doctor.
Rose shook her head, although she could feel a headache forming in the back of her head.
"What are you doing to her?" The Doctor stormed up to the girl, his Sonic Screwdriver pressed underneath her chin in a threat.
"I am doing nothing. It's carbon monoxide poisoning. The whole crew is already dead." The Doctor tilted his head, wondering how the crew could be dead with the guard that had escorted them here still being alive. "Get out of here while you still can." She shoved the Doctor away from her, striding past Rose with one parting glance. "Do it for your own safety." She whispered to Rose before walking out of the console room.
Once she was out of the room, the Doctor practically ran to Rose, dragging her out the way they had come.
"What? We're just going to listen to her?" Rose asked in shock.
"You're going into the Tardis, where it's safe. I'm going to find out what's going on out here." The Doctor replied, her hand gripped tight in his.
"You can't get rid of me that easily." Rose replied with a light smile. The Doctor turned on her, stopping them.
His brown eyes burned into hers, trying to convey the seriousness of the situation. He had no idea what kind of alien this was. Judging by the raw energy and its refusal to comply with the Shadow Proclamation, he knew it was dangerous for Rose to be jumping in the way.
"Please." He pleaded, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. "Just stay in the Tardis for ten minutes. I'll be right back." Rose seemed to fight with herself for a moment before nodding.
They stood outside of the Tardis for a second longer. Rose pulled his forehead down to hers, whispering to be careful. Once inside, the Doctor locked the doors from the outside, in case this Captain tried to break in.
The Captain stood at an evacuation pod, supervising everything that the crew members were stowing into the tiny space.
"Alright then, Captain." The Doctor called from behind her. She turned to see him standing at the entrance to the hall, a smirk on his face. "Eight minutes left until what?" He leaned against the doorway, confidence practically oozing out of him.
The Captain fought back her urges to knock him down a peg or two. "Eight minutes and fourteen seconds left until the nebula lights up, becoming a star. Taking down this ship and all of its crew." He nodded, taking a step forward with his hands in his trench coat pockets.
"Right, okay. So, how come you are not boarding the evacuation pods?" He asked, taking another step forward.
"Because there are no survivors." She answered, taking a step towards him. She was young, maybe late twenties or early thirties.
"Yes, you said the crew was already dead. But here they are, still working?" The Captain had a grin on her face now, enjoying this man's curiosity. "Perhaps they are part man, part cyborg?" He held his Sonic Screwdriver out towards a passing man, but the man kept walking as though nothing had happened. The readings the Doctor had picked up was 100% human.
"Wrong." The girl laughed, and the Doctor was struck with the thought that this woman in front of him might be insane. "Would you like me to give up the trick?" She asked, using her hands to gesture to the people running about.
The Doctor didn't answer, and the woman raised an eyebrow. "Seven minutes." She stated. The Doctor pulled his reading glasses out of a pocket in his trench coat, placing them on his nose as he looked at her.
"What are you?" He asked, looking deep into her eyes. She smirked and pulled away from him, walking back to her crew to close one of the pods.
"I'll answer your questions if you answer mine." She replied. She came back to the Doctor, who hadn't replied. "Who are you?" She asked, leaning in for his answer with a smile on her face.
"The Doctor." He replied, crossing his arms. "What are you?" He asked again, his eyes burning into hers.
"I am the creator of the suns and the stars, Doctor." She whispered, emphasizing his name. His eyebrows raised, not believing her for a second. "How did you get on this spaceship?" She asked, walking back to one of the evacuation pods that pinged it was ready to escape.
"But that's not a creature. That's just gases burning up." He replied, not answering her question.
"Oh, but Doctor, I am the spark." She took a step back to him, and for just a moment he might have believed her. "I am the beginning and the end." She took another step forward, the yellow fire flashing in her eyes for just a moment. "I am Scieppan." She stood right in front of him, her eyes seeming to be made of fire. "I am a Sun God."
"But those are just myths, they're not real." He scoffed, coming closer. The fire was gone as quickly as it had started.
"Six minutes." She replied, pushing a box filled with handwritten journals into one of the escape pods. The Doctor picked one up, flipping through it. It was just a bunch of information on the planet they had been visiting, temperatures and acidity in the soil and weather patterns.
"Why are you putting this stuff in escape pods?" He asked. She shook her head, grabbing the book and tossing it into the escape pod before closing the doors.
"How did you get on this spaceship? There was nothing around us for miles." He stared at her hard for a moment, unsure of whether or not to answer.
"I was aiming for the beaches of Oltana when I picked up a distress signal." He finally replied. Her eyebrows came together in confusion for a moment.
"But that's five hundred light years away. Not to mention about three hundred years too early. The radiation hasn't died down yet." She walked away for a moment, one hand on her chin in thought. "Unless you are traveling through time. . . But that's impossible. All Time Lords are locked away." She turned back to him, realization dawning on her as she took in his appearance. "But there had to be someone outside of the war to detonate the time lock. . ." Silence filled the air around them as neither said anything for a moment. "I've never met a Time Lord before." She finally stated, coming to stand in front of him again.
"I've never met a Sun God before." He replied, and they stared for a moment. "I thought you were all just myth?" He asked, smacking himself in the head for wasting time with a question.
"Well, if people knew that we existed, we would be sought out and used as weapons. Better to stay a myth and undetected." She replied. "Why are you still here?" She asked, tilting her head at him.
"I wanted to see what all the fuss was about." She smirked again, enjoying this mysterious man. "So tell me, you said the crew was all dead. . . Why are they still up and running about?" She raised an eyebrow at him, and suddenly all of the crew dropped to the ground lifeless.
"I was stimulating their brains so they could do themselves a favor." The Captain replied. She turned away from the Doctor and went to the last few escape pods, closing them and setting their coordinates.
"What favor is that?" The Doctor asked. She didn't reply, instead walking past him.
"I don't think I have any more questions for you." She said, leading the way to his ship.
"Oh, come on now. You can't leave me hanging like this." The Doctor replied, a smile on his face.
"Four minutes." She replied, a steady pace back to the control room. The Doctor continued following her past the Tardis, counting down in his head with enough time to get the Tardis out.
"Okay, so you're blowing up this Nebula, fantastic that I'm here to see it, by the way. Never thought I'd watch it explode. And there's a ship traveling through, with a bunch of information on planets they've visited. And you've taken it upon yourself to send the information back to Earth. Why? Why are you helping them?" The Captain turned back to face the Doctor, determination shining in her eyes.
"They deserve their information to make it back home. If this information doesn't make it back, they won't fly out and land on the planet and live for many more generations. They deserve to flourish, don't they?" She replied, leaning on the console. It was quiet for a moment as they took in each other's appearance. "Doctor, it's getting close to time. I'd suggest leaving now." The Doctor strode up to her instead, pulling her into a hug.
"You are brilliant." She smiled and wrapped her arms around his thin waist, not minding the physical gesture. "So how come you're in a human body, burning it up?" She shrugged and pulled away.
"It feels like I'm wearing a suit three sizes too small. I am so much more than this tiny physical body. But it's the easiest way to control the crew" She replied, the fire in her eyes burning. "Now go, Doctor. Get out of here before I take you down with this ship." He grinned again, the fire of the Nebula burning around them raising the temperatures.
"What's your name?" He asked instead. "I want to meet you again, someday. I want to tell the people of the planet you are saving the story of the Sun God that saved them." She grinned at the controls on the ship, turning a knob uselessly.
"Eliadora." She answered after a moment of thought. "But you can't tell anyone I did this. It's illegal to interfere in any situations." He nodded, taking a step backwards now, knowing time was running out.
"It was nice meeting you, Eliadora." She nodded at him, warmth filling her body, but still standing frozen at the console. He began backing out of the room, neither of them breaking eye contact. When he had left the room, Eliadora faced the controls, launching all of the escape pods back to Earth. She stood for a moment, before turning to where the Doctor had begun walking away. His little leather booklet with the blank paper was resting up against the wall, and she ran to pick it up. She had known it wasn't blank, but instead it was psychic paper, a simple street magician trick. After opening it for a moment, she started running where she knew the Doctor's ship was parked.
She made it to his spaceship just as he was putting a hand on the door. It was a little blue box with "Police Box" written across the top.
"Doctor?" She called out. He turned back to face her, confusion filling his face. "I just. . ." She held out the little wallet with both hands, urging him to accept it. He took it from her hands, a sad smile on his face as they stood apart from each other. "Goodbye." She finally said. He nodded at her without saying anything, unlocking the door and stepping in. Eliadora leaned against the wall across from it, watching it begin to fade away at the same time she felt the familiar fire burning her limbs. As she walked away, thinking of her new friend, flames engulfed everything she touched, the metal melting underneath her fingertips as she glided out of the doorway.
The feeling of burning a star normally felt like stretching after a long period of sleep, her mind reaching out over the stars as she turned from a physical being into an almost mental being, floating through the stars back home. This time, however, it began to feel like she was being pulled, slightly at first, until she was scrambling to grasp at anything, being sucked into a small space, the fire extinguishing from her and everything going black.
"Oh no." Eliadora heard a voice mutter. She opened her eyes suddenly, realizing she was in a physical form. But that couldn't be right? She scrambled around for a moment, her eyes taking a moment to adjust being used. She felt like she was spinning in circles. Eliadora grasped onto a pole, using it to keep her steady as she looked around for a moment. "Oh, she's about to kill me." The voice muttered again. It almost sounded as though it was under water.
Eliadora shook her head again, taking in her surroundings. It was a spaceship. It was definitely a space ship. She looked down at her body, only slightly surprised to see she had no clothes on. When she looked up again, the Doctor that she had thought was her friend was standing with the Sonic Screwdriver towards the ceiling, the other hand on a lever. The Rose girl that had left earlier was standing behind him, her eyes wide with shock and her mouth dropped open.
Eliadora looked down at her body once again, letting go of the pole and staring for a second before focusing her attention on the Doctor. "WHAT did you DO to me?" She yelled in disgust, her hands and eyes glowing yellow. The Doctor sputtered an answer out as she rounded on him, long and curly brown hair cascading down her back.
"I- I don't quite know, you kind of just appeared?" He stuttered out, as she threw a bolt of energy towards him. She felt the dizziness begin again and stumbled up a step, falling onto the cold ground as the Doctor and his human companion scrambled away. But all she felt was anger. She had given him time to escape, been kind to him, and then he tried to capture her? No Sun God would stand for that. He would pay for his crimes.
"You have taken advantage of me and now you will pay!" She yelled with a tinge of fear shaking her voice, throwing another bolt of energy, this time missing by a good few feet.
"Eliadora, stop!" He yelled out, trying to figure out why she had appeared in his Tardis. "I'll help you get back to normal!" He yelled, pushing Rose farther out of the way.
"You will pay!" She yelled from the ground, although she knew she didn't have enough energy left to kill him. He seemed to realize that she was unable to attack him again. She was shivering on the ground, her hands grasping at nothing as she tried and tried to summon her power forth again. The Doctor crawled to her quickly, cupping her head in his hands, scanning her with the screwdriver while tears streaked down her face at her fate.
"Shh, it will be okay. I'm not going to hurt you. I'm going to help you, okay? I promise." Eliadora couldn't formulate a response, sobs racking her body as she grew terrified of what her Elders would say if she went back like this.
Rose stood back, a hand covering her mouth at the terrified girl who looked just a few years older than herself. They had just been ready to head to the real beach while the Doctor brushed off Rose's questions, when the Tardis began shaking and sputtering more than normal. There was a streak of white light above their heads, and by the time they were looking around to see what had happened, the naked girl was curled into a ball near the doors into the Tardis, twitching awake. Rose knew in her heart that the girl wasn't so angry as much as she was terrified and lashing out, like an animal backed into a corner.
"You can't. You can't." She kept pleading, grasping onto the Doctor's sleeves and pulling him closer in hysteria. The Doctor wasn't sure if she meant he couldn't help her or he couldn't hurt her, but he was certain that there was a way to fix this. There is always a way.