Strange Man in a Blue Box

by TEi Has Pants

"That device you're holding isn't magitechnology. You introduce yourself as 'just the Doctor;' no actual name, just a title, and you expect us to go along with it." Who is this strange man with his strange, blue box?

Tales of Symphonia/Doctor Who

Strange Man in a Blue Box

Author's Note: Tales of Symphonia and Doctor Who are copyright Namco-Bandai and...uh...I guess the BBC, respectively. I own neither, and this story is non-profit, written for entertainment purposes. Nothing more, nothing less.

The story takes place during two specific events: for Raine and the Tales of Symphonia cast, it's when she and the rest return to the Balacruf Mausoleum so Sheena can form a pact with Sylph, assuming the player puts it off until after the first trip to Tethe'alla. For the Doctor, he's only recently emerged from the Last Great Time War, has regenerated into his ninth incarnation, and has not yet met Rose Tyler.

SCENE DIVIDE

"Well, this is a fine mess." The Doctor pursed his lips and hunkered down, scrutinizing the seam between the stone floor and the heavy door that had slammed down from the ceiling, sealing himself and his new companion off from the rest of their traveling party. More to himself, he added, "You'd figure after nine hundred years, trap doors would stop surprising you..."

His companion, the silver-haired woman with brilliant blue eyes wearing an orange coat draped over a white tunic, folded her arms over her chest. Raine, her name was - Raine Sage. Even though the Doctor wasn't looking right at her, he could feel her gaze pressed against him, examining him, trying to piece him together. It wasn't the first time this'd happened; wind up in an unfamiliar world with a regressed-yet-fascinating culture and different tech, and there'll always be one astute enough to notice you're not from around these parts. Humans were an amusing lot, always so willing to turn a blind eye to the obvious, secluding themselves from reality within their bubbles of denial. Oh, it was always a mass terrorist attack with drugs in the water (the Doctor didn't know the full story there just yet, but he had the feeling he would in time), or a massive government conspiracy (one of UNIT's favorite parlor tricks), and rarely did anyone stop to think about how aliens could all be real.

This one, though...well, the Doctor had the niggling impression that she wasn't human, at least not fully so. Nobody had said anything about it so far, and though the Doctor felt like species was a source of tension amongst Raine's group, he didn't want to make waves.

"Professor! Doctor! Are you alright in there?"

A voice from the other side of the thick stone door - muffled, but still clear enough to be heard.

'In there' constituted as a narrow hallway currently closed off at each end, made exclusively of stone; the floor, walls and ceilings were all made of beige bricks, while the doors were made of a strange, green rock, each with elaborate, circular patterns carved into them. Within the larger circles were three smaller circles arranged in a triangle around the very center, and three, swooping slash marks, akin to a pinwheel's blades, spread out along the circle's diameter, stretching out from the circle itself. The walls were lined with this world's version of hieroglyphics, and two torches hung on each side of the wall, casting flickering, glowing firelight, illuminating the area. The hieroglyphics themselves spoke of an ancient legend, a tale of elemental wind spirits and monsters, of the Chosen One's journey to regenerate the world...all fascinating stuff, if the Doctor had the time to read it. The TARDIS had had trouble with the native language of the planet at first, but that problem had been circumvented thanks to the locals speaking English even without the TARDIS' help. A sample of written language provided by the verbal translation had solved the entire issue.

(This place - the Balacruf Mausoleum - was supposedly the home to aforementioned wind spirit, explaining the howling winds within the dungeon. It was like somebody'd left all the windows open in a typhoon, only without the rain or thunder.)

"We're fine, Lloyd," Raine called from just behind the Doctor, her voice confident and sure - an adult's, through and through, even though she couldn't be any more than twenty-five.

"This trap wasn't here the last time we came to the Balacruf Mausoleum," Lloyd moaned. "Did somebody come and put it in?"

"Or, maybe you didn't trigger it," lilted another voice. "Honestly, I'm surprised you country folk didn't just bumble right into it the first go-round."

"Shut it, Zelos."

"Lloyd, listen." Raine walked to the door and pressed one hand against it. "The Doctor and I will be okay. Take the others and battle the Sylph; Regal and Zelos know healing artes, so they can stand in my place."

"But - "

"Listen to her, lad," the Doctor said, pulling the sonic screwdriver from a pocket inside his leather jacket. He leaned forward on his hands and knees and set the sonic screwdriver to the proper setting, shining the light on the crack in an attempt to coax the door into opening up again. "We'll be out of here in no time, but there's no use in you waiting for us."

"I...okay." The Doctor heard Lloyd's resolve strengthen, and allowed himself a small smile. Fantastic, this lot was (even if a few of them, Lloyd in particular, were a little on the daft side). "We'll be back, I promise!"

Then, the sound of footsteps leading away - gone, leaving Raine and the Doctor alone in this sealed-off corridor, the only sounds a howling wind outside of the trap, the crackling of the torches, and the sonic screwdriver's buzzing. The crack between the floor and the door wasn't yielding any results...maybe there was a control panel in one of the walls. He grunted and pushed up to his feet, walking over to the left wall, his shoes scraping the stone floor. He pressed a hand against the wall, cool and rough beneath his palm and fingers, and set the sonic screwdriver to detect any hidden panels or inconsistencies in the stonework.

"You're an unusual man."

The break in the silence caught the Doctor off-guard. He allowed himself a small smirk. "I hear that a lot."

"No, I'm serious." Raine walked beside the Doctor and gave him a quick glance before examining the wall as well, her jaw crooked between her thumb and forefinger. "That device you're holding isn't magitechnology. You could speak our language but couldn't read it until I translated a passage about the history of the Kharlan. You took that translation into your blue, wooden box, and not a minute later, you reemerged and were able to read the same tome back to me without a problem. You introduce yourself as 'just the Doctor;' no actual name, just a title, and you expect us to go along with it."

"It's worked in the past," he noted.

"You certainly don't dress like you're from around here, either," Raine concluded, ignoring the Doctor's interruption.

"Ah, good eye." The Doctor's smirk broadened into a grin. "But I've seen lots of different kinds of dress in this world. What makes you think I'm not from someplace more foreign?"

"For one, you just said 'in this world,' which leads me to believe that you're not a native." Raine furrowed her brow and shuffled a few feet to the left, running a hand across the stone. "You don't even dress like you're from Tethe'alla."

"Sheena wears ninja clothes."

"A valid point, but it doesn't negate mine." Raine hiked an eyebrow. "You're being coy."

"It's one of my charms."

"It's obnoxious." Raine glanced over to the Doctor and allowed a small, knowing grin. "I like it."

The Doctor grinned back. "Looks like you've got this side covered," he said, and walked over to the opposite wall. "I'm afraid you've caught me red-handed. You're too clever for me."

"It's not like you were trying to hide it," Raine riposted, chuckling.

Silence settled over the pair again, and the Doctor narrowed his eyes trying to find some way to undo the trap they'd stumbled into. He'd made it about halfway down when Raine said, "You don't have any reason to follow us on the journey, though. So...why?"

"It's an adventure," the Doctor said, a smile quirking on his lips. "Lots of running, lots of exploring, lots of learning. Your cultures are fascinating, nothing like I've ever seen before - and I've been around, let me tell you. It's fantastic."

"Is that what you do with your life?" Raine posited, boots scuffing the floor. The Doctor could hear her smirking; he'd gotten pretty good at that with this regeneration, figuring out what facial expressions a person made just by listening to them speak. "Just going from one adventure to the next?"

"Something like that, yeah."

Raine chuckled again. "It must be great, being so unburdened."

"Who's unburdened, then?" The Doctor whirled to face Raine and marched over to her on his heels, hands folded behind his back. "Oh, sure, I'm free to go and do as I please, but there's always somebody out there that could use a Doctor. Particularly this planet called Earth - makes Sylvarant look like Buckingham Palace, but I'm still fond of it."

The silver-haired woman shook her head and sighed, letting the comment about Buckingham Palace slip away. "You don't get it, do you?"

"I'd like to think I'm clever enough, but try me."

"I'm just as free to leave as you are." Raine's brow furrowed, her fingers ghosting over the wall, lingering across the hieroglyphics. "If I wanted, I could run away from this quest to save the world."

"But you don't." The Doctor scratched one ear before folding both arms over his chest. "You can't."

"That's exactly what I mean." Raine let her eyes slide shut and took a slow breath through her nose - probably relishing these scent of musty, stony corridors, of the burning oil of the torches. She was a ruins maniac, after all - something the Doctor had witnessed back in the Triet Ruins. The Doctor empathized with Raine's fascination with history and long-dead cultures; hell, it was that sort of stuff he lived for, traveling back and forth through time, from ancient Greece to the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. "Lloyd...needs me. I know it sounds awfully presumptuous to say something like that, but the others are too soft-hearted for their own good. They need somebody with a level head, with the ability to see clearly from point A to point B without emotions getting in the way. It makes me seem cold to them, but it's a necessity. Besides, I'm the only one amongst us who specializes in healing and defensive artes."

The Doctor nodded, then allowed himself a small chuckle. "You're right, it does sound presumptuous. Ow!" He brought a hand up and rubbed his arm where Raine had slapped him. With a grin, he added, "Well you said it first."

"Honestly, there are times when I wonder why I'm still here at all." Raine pursed her lips. "Shouldn't you be sweeping the other wall?"

"Ah, right, pardon me then." The Doctor meandered back to his side of the corridor and whipped the sonic screwdriver out again, sweeping the wall with careful, scrutinizing motions. "Carry on!"

"Every once in a while..." Raine drew a deep breath. "I stop and think. Is what we're doing really for the benefit of the world? It started out so simple...we could have let Colette sacrifice herself and allowed the cycle of Sylvarant and Tethe'alla vying for mana to continue. It's evolved from there, almost out of control - first, trying to cure Colette from her Angel Toxicosis, then trying to find a way to end the cycle of World Regeneration, then finding a way to cross from one world to the other. Try as I might to keep on top of it all, it gets...intimidating."

"You haven't told any of the others about this, I assume." The Doctor narrowed his eyes. "Not even that Regal fellow."

"There's no point in me burdening them down with self-doubt. It's just silly, niggling illusions that I clear away after enough time. It'd be foolish bringing any of that to light."

"I'm familiar with that," the Doctor murmured. He sighed through his nose. "I've...traveled with companions in the past, and sometimes I've had to keep certain key facts to myself to let history play out smoothly."

"You truly are an enigma, Doctor." Raine gave a light, bittersweet chuckle. "There's so much about you I don't know. Every time I get an answer, two more questions pop up in its place."

"Oh, that's just part of my charm!" The Doctor beamed. He began to tap the switch on the sonic screwdriver, a circle of indigo light splashing the stone, the familiar, high-pitched buzzing whistling in his ears, almost, but not quite drowning out the wind just beyond the stone. If he could just find the right frequency... "But...if you wanted, I could take you away from all this."

Ah, here it was: entering that familiar, yet forbidden territory, asking somebody to come away from their current life to join him, just like so many had before. The Doctor had yet to find a companion in this regeneration; he'd spent a lot of time moving ever since the end of the Last Great Time War, even moreso than usual. The time he'd spent on Sylvarant had been the longest so far...and for the first time since the war, he felt like he could calm down, return to time-hopping and exploring and running (the good kind of running, anyway).

"Funny thing, about that little wooden box of mine." The Doctor quirked his head to the side. "It can travel through space, across worlds...but it can also transcend time itself. You want to see the Balacruf Dynasty at its height? No problem. You want to see the Kharlan War unfold right before your very eyes? History is only history because you're stuck in place, busy living your life, plodding along as this rock orbits the sun, spinning away for eternity. But not for me. For me, history can just as easily be the present, as can the future."

The Doctor cast a glance over his shoulder to see that Raine had stopped; still facing the wall, she had one hand pressed up against the stone, but made no move to keep searching. "You...drive quite a hard bargain, I'll give you that. I would give anything to see those events...to experience history firsthand. It'd be...wonderful. Incredible! It'd be..."

"Fantastic," the Doctor supplied.

"Yes. Fantastic. But..."

"But you've still got obligations to Lloyd, and to your worlds." The Doctor crossed his arms over his chest again and spun, leaning back against the wall. "Sylvarant and Tethe'alla could very well get along without Raine Sage, and yet neither will last if you're not here to keep it all straight."

"Precisely." Raine sighed. "Maybe...when this madness is behind us..."

The Doctor's ears perked, and he raised his eyebrows - but said nothing. This was the part where his would-be companion made their final decision.

"...in any case, I don't think I'd be a wise choice to bring to the past." Raine shook her head, her shoulders slumping. "I've got a long life ahead of me."

"Oh?"

"I'm a half-elf." Raine turned around, meeting the Doctor in the eye. That confirmed his suspicions about her race, then - he'd already heard of the tension between humans and half-elves on Sylvarant and Tethe'alla, so it was no surprise that Raine, and the others from her traveling party, had been hesitant to out themselves. Kind of ironic, really, given the circles the Doctor traversed. "We don't live as long as pureblood elves, but...if I'm going to spend it, it's best that I spend it in the present and working towards the future, letting history stay where it is. Besides, a few hundred years from now, this will all be considered history as well."

"A long life, hmm?" The Doctor sighed and smiled, shaking his head. Under his breath, he added, "Nine hundred years..."

"Hmm?"

"Nothing, just mumbling to myself is all."

He turned around once more, swept the sonic screwdriver across the wall - and with a small "aha," he focused its power on a faint indentation set into the wall. With a clattering of gears and the grinding, gnashing sound of stone grinding against stone, the doors on each side of the corridor retracted into the ceiling. He could feel it rumbling up his legs, all the way to his hips, yielding to his command - revealing the remainder of the corridor. A cool breeze whistled past, and the Doctor pocketed the sonic screwdriver.

"Nicely done, Doctor." Raine sidled up beside the Time Lord and grinned. "It looks as if the others have cleared out all of the monsters ahead, but we should be swift nonetheless. Shall we?"

The Doctor returned her grin and held his arm out. "Let's shall."

Raine looped her arm around the Doctor's, and led him deeper into the catacombs of the Balacruf Mausoleum.

SCENE DIVIDE

Don't pay attention to the next few paragraphs...I'm padding the document's word count so I can double-post the story to both here and the Doctor Who sections without drawing attention. I blame the faulty nature of the "Crossover" section on ; there's no reason that a "crossover" story should not appear in the individual categories that it crosses over with. The audience I have for this particular short story is depressingly small because I'm stuck to using the crossover section if I want both fans of Doctor Who and Tales of Symphonia to read and enjoy this, and not many people actually go to the crossovers section. The actual story is between the big bold SCENE DIVIDEs.

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...Yeah, I think that works.