And were back!
Star, my main oc, is currently in her 6th regeneration, taller than before with long black hair falling in loose curls over her shoulders with icy blue eyes. her usual attire is usually a fitted black top with a leather jacket over the top with bigger-on-the-inside pockets, black leather pants and chunky black knee high laced boots. I imagine her to look similar to Elizabeth Gillies and at the end of the last series was around 620 years old, although she has given up keeping track.
My new oc, Marcella, Star childhood friend, is also in her 6th regeneration, a tall dark girl with short curly hair with bright green eyes. Typically dressed in a white button up shirt with black pants with boots, with a long red trench coat, a brown belt around her waist over the coat. I see her similar to Kiersey Clemons.
As always I don't own Doctor Who.
"Italics"= Gallifreyan
'Italics'= Telepathy.
"I made an oath!" the Doctor huffed as he finished working on the vault door that was now set up in the basement of St Luke's University in Bristol. The vault containing a currently unconscious, but yet, still alive, Missy.
"She's gonna kill you when you go and check on her," Star smirked.
While she and Marcella had been dealing with the Shadow Kin the Doctor had gotten a call from some religion of some kind from god knows where which he had gone and answered to. The man having found Missy and sentenced her to death for her crimes, which the Doctor knew and still went, him having been the one to kill her. Though his compassion had caused him to save her, rewiring the death machine and sending Missy unconscious after she promised that she'd be good if he just let her live. Apparently she had cried.
And so instead of being dead she was locked up in the vault for 1000 years to try and stop her raging murderous rampage across the universe and try to be good.
"You do you, Doctor," Marcella shook her head, "you do you."
"Shut up." He murmured.
"So this is reasons to avoid America then?" Star guessed.
"Yeah."
"So if you're not planning to leave her for the next 1000 years." Star began, a mischievous glint in her eyes as she watched him type the code.
"Yes, you can nip of for a trip yourselves." He rolled his eyes.
Star pumped a fist in the air in victory, turning to Marcella, grinning, "Disneyland?"
~.~
Star sulked as she led one of the young women who worked at St Luke's University in the Doctor's office, quite lovely she was, dark skin and quite large dark Afro hair. They had been here for quite a while now, almost 70 years now. Keeping a low profile, the Doctor taking the job of the physics professor, getting an office and everything. They had a few quite adventures during the nights but he never missed a lecture.
Which meant during the day the TARDIS was free and so Star and Marcella tended to nip out often. Nowhere too far or dangerous. It was mostly Star just showing Marcella the planet.
She didn't quite understand how she had agreed to lead the young Bill Potts to his office.
"I'll go get him," she smiled, "take a seat."
"Er thanks." Bill muttered sitting at the desk, looking around the room as Star disappeared into a side room.
It was quite a decent size office, big enough for the TARDIS to fit comfortably in the corner, even if the Doctor did leave an out of order sigh on it.
And the desk, he had a photo on River Song sat before him, as well as her niece Susan. He also had a recent one of her and Marcella on a distant planet, a selfie Star had taken on one of their trips with her grinning with her arm over a grumpy looking Marcella's shoulders.
"Chip girl is here," Star remarked as the Doctor stood in the small side room of the office, more like a bedroom really not they he ever slept in there, his guitar out.
"Chip girl?" He frowned at her.
"Bill. Bill Potts. You told me to get her up here. You better not have sent me down for no reason." She crossed her arms.
"Oh, Bill," he nodded, playing a cord on the guitar, "right, yes. Good."
"Where's Mars?"
"TARDIS."
"Damn." She pouted. Bill was between her and the TARDIS and with Bill there she couldn't exactly just walk into the random blue box that was sat there. It would just look weird.
"You can cope on your own for 10 minutes," he rolled his eyes heading out into the office, "Potts?" He confirmed with the woman, "Bill Potts."
She nodded, "You wanted to see me."
"Er, you're not a student at this university."
"Nah, I work in the canteen."
"Yeah, but you come to my lectures."
"No, I don't." She shook her head, "I never do that."
"I've seen you. Star," he nodded to her as she leaned against the TARDIS, planning to enter as soon as Bill left. "You've fed her chips."
"We're not students either. So we won't tell. Promise." She wanted to assure her that she never broke her promises. But sometimes her keeping her promises only ended in people dying. A promise to people that no harm would come to them except by her own hands. Look where that got Clara.
"Love your lectures." Bill gushed, knowing she was caught out, she had served Star chips multiple times and she was usually with another pretty girl in a red coat, "They're totally awesome."
"Why'd you come to my lectures when you're not a student?" He asked her, taking the seat as his desk, intertwining his fingers.
"Ok, so my first day here, in the canteen, I was on chips." She began to explain, "There was this girl. Student. Beautiful. Like a model, only with talking and thinking. She looked at you and you perved. Every time, automatic, like physics. Eye contact, perversion. So I gave her extra chips. Every time, extra chips. Like a reward for all the perversion. Every day, got myself on chips, rewarded her. Then finally, finally, she looked at me, like she'd noticed, actually noticed, all the extra chips. Do you know what I realised? She was fat. I'd fatted her. But that's life, innit? Beauty or chips. I like chips. So did she. So that's ok."
"That's not an explanation," Star remarked, "that's just you gushing about a crush."
"Yeah," she winced lightly, "I was hoping something would develop. What's that?" She nodded to the TARDIS behind Star, "A police telephone box? Did you build it from a kit?"
"No, it came like that." The Doctor replied.
"Then how did you get it in here? The door's too small and so are the windows."
"I had the window and a part of the wall taken out and it was lifted in."
"What, with a crane?"
"Yeah, with a crane. It's heavier than it looks. Why do you keep coming to my lectures?"
"Because I like them." She shrugged, "Everybody likes them. They're amazing. Why me?"
"Why you what?" He countered.
"Well, plenty of people come to your lectures that aren't supposed to. Why pick on me?"
"Well, Star noticed you and so did I."
"Yeah, but why me?"
"Well, most people when they don't understand something, they frown. You smile."
"I'll tell you what I don't understand." Bill frowned instead of smiling, "You've been lecturing here for a long time. Like, 50 years, some people say. Nabeela in the office says over 70..."
"Yeah, and you're thinking," the Doctor smiled, "Well, he doesn't look old enough."
Star looked away at that painful reminder, recalling how he had compared him and Clara to looking the same age when they first met Danny Pink.
"No." Bill shook her head, "I'm wondering what you're supposed to be lecturing on. It's like the university let you do whatever you like. One time, you were going to give a lecture on quantum physics. You talked about poetry."
"Poetry, physics, same thing."
"How is it the same?"
"Because of the rhymes."
"What are you doing at this university, anyway?" Star cut in, another painful reminder that Clara Oswald was still in the Doctors head. Poetry was something learnt in an English class. Clara had been the English teacher. It was bad enough he was teaching, let alone teaching something Clara had no doubt taught someone.
"I've always wanted to come here," she murmured. Back when she had been doing her exams she had known this was the uni she wanted to study at but she just couldn't afford it, even with the student loans, never would have been able to pay them back. Getting the job inside was the best she could do.
"Not to serve chips, though?" Star eyed her.
"So, anyway, am I nearly done?" Bill huffed, not liking how much they were trying to peek into her personal life.
"Do you want it to be?" The Doctor countered.
She stood up and moved to the door, "see ya."
"If you ever get less than a first then I stop immediately." He called, shifting through her assignments, the ones she had completed and handed in despite not being a student and having no need to do so.
"You what?" She paused and frowned at him.
"A first, every time." He held up her rather excellent scores, "Or I stop immediately."
"Stop what?"
"Being your personal tutor." He beamed at her.
"But I'm not a student. I'm not part of the university. I never even applied."
"We'll sort all that out later." He waved her off.
"You kinda have to sort that out earlier." If he was going to tutor her, something she would actually quite like, then he needed to sort that out. If he got caught tutoring her when she only served out the chip they'd both be in big trouble, but if he spoke to the governors soon it wouldn't be as bad and they'd probably enroll her.
"Leave it with me. I'm assuming that it's a yes."
"Yes!" She laughed.
"I'll see you at 6pm every weekday. I don't care who's dying, never, ever be late. I'm very particular about time."
"Really?" Star looked at him, "even though you were late for your own wedding?"
He sighed heavily, "so she did tell you that story did she?"
"I can't believe mother still agreed to marry you," Star shook her head, disappearing into the TARDIS.
"Oh, er." Bill blinked as she watched Star head in the box, a thought hitting her stopping her from leaving, "People just call you the Doctor? What do I call you?"
"The Doctor." He answered.
"But Doctor's not a name. I can't just call you Doctor. Doctor what?"
"Exactly," he nodded, ushering her out, "6pm sharp." and he shut the door on her rolling his eyes at how Star couldn't have waited until she was out to go and find Marcella. Honestly.
~.~
"Light," the Doctor handed a small lantern to Star as she, the Doctor and Marcella stood in the dark cellar of the university in the darkness, before a large vault door.
She rolled her eyes and left it to hover in the air before them for a better light. "So Bill..."
"Stop it," he muttered.
"You're tutoring her."
"So?"
"So why are you getting involved in her life if you so badly refuse to take on another companion."
"I'm just teaching her."
"Turn," Marcella cut in before the conversation could turn dark.
"What?" He glanced at her.
"Turn and press."
"Yes, I know." He pulled out the sonic, using it on the door when there was a loud clatter from behind them.
They turned but couldn't see anyone in their sight, "the door upstairs," the Doctor remarked to Star quietly, "how did you set the security?"
"You said you were doing that." She countered.
"No, I said I wanted you to set the security."
"No. You said you were doing it."
"So there's no security?"
"Share the blame?" She suggested.
"Deal." He nodded.
"Hold on," Marcella shook her head, "does that mean there is no security and anyone can walk down here?"
"To be fair who's going to come down here?" Star countered, "besides Bill."
Because clearly who else could it had been, the woman had been in the Doctors office every night for a few weeks now and could see how much of an odd trio they were. Star and Marcella were always walking in and out of the TARDIS and as Bill didn't know just how big the TARDIS was must have thought it was pretty weird. Seen them running through the grounds and decided to follow them.
"You know it is just a door and lock, right?" Marcella confirmed, just a simple door and lock and passcode they made to look a lot more difficult than it actually was. "You can pick a lock and guess a passcode."
"You haven't guessed the passcode." Star pointed out.
"I'd rather not go in alone if I'm honest."
"Scared of the Queen of Evil." she teased.
"This is not any of my concern nor my business."
Whatever the Doctor was hoping to achieve in the next 900 years was nothing to do with her.
~.~
"Open it," Star grinned, thrusting the blue and gold wrapped box in Marcella's arms. It was Christmas at the university now, the Doctor was still teaching Bill. Hopefully it would actually be a quiet Christmas, which would be a first. "You'll love it."
"Is this my Christmas present?" She asked.
"I know it's a human holiday and you don't really care about it..."
"You do."
"I know," she rolled her eyes at Marcella's small interruption, "still. It's a Christmas present cuz I celebrate it as it's also to make up for all those birthdays I've missed. Open it!"
Marcella smiled at Stars excitement as she removed the golden bow and carefully unwrapped the small black box, removing the lid to see the jar, "oh!" Her smile widened as she held up the marbled candle. "Thank you."
"Ah, you haven't seen the best bit!" She pulled out a small lighter from her jacket pocket and lit the candle, instead of the usual red flame, the flame was rich purple and smelt like freshly cut grass, "the flame changes colour depending on your emotions and the smell," she inhaled sharply, "it's never the same twice."
"It's wonderful," Marcella breathed, her eyes reflecting the purple flame as she stared at it, "I have something for you too."
"Really?" Star blinked.
She nodded, blowing out the candle and setting it down as she led Star out of the console room and down to her room where she picked up a simple box, "I know how you love purple."
"Something that never changes even in death," she nodded.
"But you're in black and leather and it's just..."
"To dark?" She guessed. Everyone said that, or called her goth.
"Exactly! And I saw this a while ago. And I just thought of you."
"Oh," Star smiled at the purple fabric Marcella held up to her.
How she knew her so well after all these years was just impossible.
~.~
"What do you think?" Star burst out of the TARDIS and out into the office where the Doctor got the Christmas crackers out, Bill had invited herself to Christmas dinner with them, well, she had suggested it and the Doctor had agreed before he realised what she had said and it had been too late to say no. So the woman was coming round in a few minutes.
And so as soon as she had been given the dress she had worn the dress, just to impress Marcella and ensure she knew she loved it. She really did love it.
A corseted dress, a deep purple, with long draping bell-like sleeves that reached a few inches above her knees with black lace detailing around the waist and neckline, still in her usual boots, and her jacket which was now sleeveless to keep the dresses sleeves loose and flowing.
It was just so her style!
He blinked as he looked over at her, Marcella smiling softly as she stepped out and shut the door behind her. He frowned, there was something different, a big difference that if he didn't catch, he would never let it down.
"You're back in purple!" He gasped, pulling her into a tight hug. Even he had missed the purple, the leather was just so not his shining star but of course she still had the leather jacket, this version just sleeveless for the dress sleeves. "Thank you," he mouthed to Marcella only to get whacked in the face by the sleeves.
"I'm going to enjoy this!" Star smirked.
"Sorry," Marcella mouthed behind Stars back, wincing. She hadn't thought that the loose sleeves could be made as a weapon against him.
Oops.
~.~
"It's a rug." The Doctor stated as he took the gift Bill had given him when she had arrived. The four sitting around the desk with drinks and snacks, the Doctor in his chair, Bill opposite with Star and Marcella opposite each other at the narrower ends of the desk, each with a cracker hat on their head, "Haven't got you anything."
"It's ok, it was cheap." Bill waved him off, "it's just a sort of thank you."
"Oh," he blinked before frowning as he turned to Star, "we're no longer doing presents, are we?"
"Why?" She quickly gulped her drink, "did you get me something?"
"No..."
"Oh thank god. I didn't get you anything either."
"Good."
'How about you promise not to die at Christmas again.' She suggested in his mind.
'Deal.' He nodded.
"Going anywhere for Christmas?" Bill asked. They were certainly an odd bunch. The Doctor was a physics lecturer who ended up talking about poetry and Star was his daughter who didn't even go to the university just lived in his room and took the food and her friend Marcella who was hardly ever around when she was. And then there was that box in the corner. The box that the two tended to hide away in and then come back out a few hours later. She dare not speak aloud of what they were doing in there in the dark. What family didn't do Christmas present when they celebrated the holiday?
"We never go anywhere." The Doctor shrugged.
"That's not true. You go places, I can tell. My mum always said, 'With some people you can smell the wind in their clothes.'"
"Oh. She sounds nice."
"She died when I was a baby." Bill murmured looking down at that.
"Oh."
"I lost mine when I was young too," Marcella offered her a small supportive smile.
"I ended on bad terms when mine was killed," Star added, always wanted to one up everyone else. She caught the Doctors gaze in the corner of her eyes and refused to explain to him. It had been far too long since she had mentioned the family and their deaths. She knew why, he thought that saying it aloud meant they were really gone, which was true, but ignoring it was so disrespectful. And now she had Marcella on her side, well, it had been Marcella who said that the talking could help. And talking to someone who knew her family was far better than the humans who couldn't even imagine what they had all seen and done. "If she died when you were a baby," she frowned at Bill, munching on a biscuit, "when did she say that?"
"In my head." Bill admitted, "I'm supposed to look like her, but I don't really know. There's hardly any photographs. She hated having her picture taken. But if someone's gone, do pictures really help?"
~.~
"Right on time!" Star cheered from the chair in the corner, her nose in a book as Bill walked in as the clock chimed 6pm.
"Happy new term!" Bill grinned.
"With you in a moment." The Doctor called from the side room.
"You said you needed a crane to lift your box." Bill mused, noticing the rug she had gotten them for Christmas was partly under the TARDIS.
"Reading," Star called, ignoring her.
They had, after Bill had left, gone back in time and managed to persuade Bills mother to have a few photos taken back when she was Bills age. People were right, she really did look like her mother. A bit like she did, as much as she was so alike the Doctor personality wise, by appearance she was her mother, every regeneration was very similar to her mother when she was in the number. She never made it to number 6. And now every future body of hers would just be a reminder of what her mother could look like if she was alive. But no, the stupid Cybermen couldn't allow her that, could they?
"Sorry, what did you say?" The Doctor stepped into the room, clapping his hands together, "right, new term new topic."
~.~
"And so I was chained to the wall, the Doctor in the Pandorica, everyone gone and frozen from the end of the universe when Rory arrives and..." Star came to an abrupt halt from her story to Marcella, the pair curled up in the window sill, as the door opened and Bill entered, looking upset.
The Doctor looked up from his marking as the room fell silent only to see Bill there, "what's wrong?" He asked her.
She took a deep breath as she began to explain about Heather, a young woman with a star in her eyes from a defect. How she had shown her a puddle near the construction site that had been there for months, said there was something wrong with it. How she had gone to see her earlier, found her looking at the puddle but when she had joined her she was gone, "She said it was a defect, but what kind of defect puts a star in your eye? But that doesn't even matter because she was right. There was something wrong when you looked in the puddle. That was definitely my face. I see my face all the time. I've never liked it, it's all over the place. It's always doing expressions when I'm trying to be enigmatic…"
Star tugged Marcella off after the Doctor as he jumped up and ran out of the room to find the puddle himself. They squeezed though the fence and over to the puddle, peering into it.
"Why do you run like that?" Bill panted as she caught up having followed them, seen them running from the window.
"Like what?" He frowned.
"Like a penguin with its arse on fire."
"Ergonomics." The Doctor replied as Star snorted at the woman's words, "That's my face, yeah?"
"You seem a bit flexible on the subject."
"Oh, you've no idea."
"Maybe it's got to do with that thing in her eye." Bill suggested.
"How?" Marcella glanced at her.
"Maybe she's like, affected by something."
"By what?"
"I don't know." She huffed at the questions, "Look, I know you know lots of stuff about, well, basically everything, but do you know any sci-fi?"
"Oh, just a little." Star shrugged her off.
The Doctor straightened to meet her gaze, "Go on."
"Well, what if she's possessed." Bill guessed, "Something like that."
"Possessed by what?" Marcella scoffed.
"I don't know. I saw this thing on Netflix. Lizards in people's brains."
"Right." The Doctor nodded slowly, "So, you meet a girl with a discoloured iris and your first thought is she might have a lizard in her brain? I can see I'm going to have to up my game."
"Oh." Stars eyes widened as she realised what was wrong with the puddle.
"What?"
"Yeah?" Marcella looked at her and back at the puddle, "what...oh."
"What is it?" Bill looked between them, "what?"
"Oh, I get it." The Doctor remarked, seeing it now, "I see it. It was easy for your friend because of her eye."
"What, because it gives her special powers?"
"No!" Star shook her head, "because her face isn't symmetrical. It's like eyebrows, they're sisters not twins. But you barely notice the difference. But! If you stare long enough..."
"You never look away from the mirror." Marcella agreed.
"Vanity." She shrugged.
"Yes! Look into the puddle." The Doctor stepped back to give Bill a better look at her reflection, "Your face looks wrong, because it looks right. What's the one thing you never see when you look at a reflection? Your face. You never see your face the right way round. Right. Look for a freckle or a funny tooth. Something that's not symmetrical."
"My badge!" Bill gasped, hand over the badge on her jacket seeing it wasn't on the side it should have been.
"See, your friend saw it straightaway because of her eye."
"But, it's moving like a reflection."
"It's not reflecting you. It's mimicking you. There's something in the water pretending to be you." He pulled out a small test tube, scooping the liquid inside for testing later. "Of course. It isn't water. Now what are these? Let's have a look."
"What are they?" Bill eyed the small scorch marks dotted around near the puddle.
"Scorch marks. Interesting. Right, you. Let's get you on the bus."
"The what? The bus?"
"Tutorial's over, take the night off. It's all cancelled. Go and be a proper student. Texts, snogging, a vegan wrap."
"But what about the puddle?" She questioned.
"Oh, it's just some freak optical effect. I'm bored already."
"And we've got more Disney movies to watch," Star agreed, linking her arm though Marcella and already heading back. They were just so good and she wanted to share them with Marcella. Was that so bad?
~.~
Star looked up sharply as the door burst open, the Doctor looking up from where they analysed the liquid from the puddle that night.
"Dude!" Star shouted as the woman slammed the door behind her, pulling a chair under the handle to jam it.
"Hello, Bill." The Doctor sighed his greeting, Bill tended to only knock if she was here for a tutoring lesson, any other time she tended to just barge in, calling out for one of them to let them know she was there. If all three were in the TARDIS then one had to pretend the other two weren't in and stay inside until she left. The Doctor still didn't want Bill to know anything.
The woman gasped, jumping back as water seeping under the door.
"What's that?"
"I'll tell you what it isn't." Bill gasped, "It isn't a freak optical effect." A young woman began to take form before them from the liquid, a star defect in one of her eyes, "And it's following me."
"The friend?" Star asked, noticing the star defect.
"I'll tell you what," the Doctor murmured, slowly standing and moving back to the TARDIS, "let's just pop into my box."
"Your box?" Bill cried, "What good is getting in your box going to do?"
"What an extraordinarily long and involved answer this is going to be." He muttered, tugging her inside after Star and shutting the doors outside one the girl they could to be assume to be Heather. The Doctor opened the door again to remove the Out of Order sign that had been hanging over the doors since they first arrived at the university.
"How do we stop it getting in?" Bill hissed, peeking through the windows in the door, unaware how big the room really was, "We're trapped in here!"
"Nothing gets through these doors." The Doctor assured her, removing his jacket and changing into the red velvet that had been left hanging on the coat rack.
"But they're made of wood. They've got windows!"
"This is going to take forever," Star sighed moving and tossing her jacket over the railing as the Doctor powered the room up for light. Bill still staring out the windows.
"Look, this is all mad, I know, but that's the girl I told you about. Heather. Only I don't think it's really her. I know this is hard to believe. I know you're not exactly sci-fi people..." she trailed as she finally turned around to see just how much bigger on the inside the room was.
"Time And Relative Dimension In Space. TARDIS for short." The Doctor smiled, "You're safe in here. You're safe in here and you always will be. Any questions?"
"Is this a knock-through?"
"Well, in a way, yes."
"Look at this place. It's like a..."
"Spaceship." The Doctor finished for her.
"Kitchen." Bill said instead.
"I'd say that was new but someone already asked if there was a kitchen." Star mumbled, Clara loved making soufflés, couldn't do them but loved to make them.
"Someone did?" The Doctor frowned at her.
She swallowed thickly. The painful reminder that because of her stupid selfish reasons he could no longer remember Clara Oswald.
"A really posh kitchen," Bill continued, "all metal. What happened with the doors, though? Did you run out of money?"
"What you are standing in is a technological marvel." The Doctor told her, "It is science beyond magic. This is the gateway to everything that ever was, or ever can be."
"Can I use the toilet?" Bill asked.
Star blinked, "that is a new one."
"I've had a fright. I need the toilet."
"It's down there," the Doctor pointed down the stairs, "first right, second left, past the macaroon dispenser."
"Thanks." She muttered hurrying down.
"Oh." Marcella blinked as she bumped into Bill on her way up, "hello." She greeted continuing up tossing a macaroon in her mouth. The reason for the dispenser. Star had shown Marcella the Eiffel Tower and they had ended up in a sweet shop in Paris, testing out the macaroons finding out Marcella seemed fond of them, hence why Star had put in a macaroon dispenser. "Finally let her in then?" She called to the Doctor.
He rolled his eyes, "She's just passing through. She wants to use the toilet."
He didn't noticed the look the Time Ladies shared, nor Stars raising eyebrows.
The TARDIS suddenly shuddered, "what was that?" Star rushed to the scanner only to see Heather dripping on the scanner.
"We have an incursion on campus. Extra-terrestrial. We're under attack." The Doctor raced around the console, "Let's move."
"Oh, my God!" Bill cried as Marcella raced over, joining the father and daughter at the console to send them off, "This isn't just a room, is it?"
"What made that obvious?" Marcella muttered.
"This is a lift!"
Star pulled down a lever, landing them in the basement before the fault, "coming?" She asked, grabbing her jacket again and heading out.
"No interference here," the Doctor remarked, checking the vault doors, "as far as I can see. The vault's secure."
"So your box can move?" Bill breathed looking around the cellar in shock at actually having moved from the office on the third floor to the cellar down below, "It can go anywhere it likes? Anywhere at all, in the whole university?"
The Doctor flashed the sonic at the vault doors, "Is it my imagination, or is this taking longer than normal?" He asked quietly.
"Far too long." Star agreed just as quiet. Most people said it was bigger on the inside as soon as they saw the room.
"Hang on." Bill stared at the TARDIS, "The room's still inside the box. This isn't a knock-through."
"No."
"It's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside!" She shouted.
"Boom! We got there!" Star grinned high-fiving the Doctor.
"Oh my god..." Marcella mumbled.
"Shut up!" Star spun to her, "its fun and tradition."
"How is that possible?" Bill asked, "How do you do that?"
"First imagine a big box in a smaller box," Marcella said, on the verge of sarcasm.
"Ok." Bill nodded, imagining it.
"Then build it."
"Grow." Star corrected, getting them both to look at her, "I'm sorry but TARDISes are alive and are grown on the farms." Marcella scoffed, "she is alive!"
"Can we shut up, please?" The Doctor cut in "Busy, busy. I need to know if there's any interest in what's inside this vault."
"Why, what's inside it?" Bill asked.
"Something I don't want anyone being too curious about."
"So you put it in the middle of a university?"
"Humans," Marcella shrugged, "they aren't going to get inside."
"Either the creature came here specifically for what's in here, or it's just a coincidence." The Doctor continued.
"It's just a coincidence." The three girls agreed.
"Well, we can't know that for sure."
"Coincidence," Star half sang.
"Yeah, we can." Bill agreed, "It was here for ages before it did anything. If it had work to do, why would it lie around in a puddle?"
"I don't know. Maybe it's a student?"
"Bantering," Star whispered, "which you said you hate."
"I do." He looked at her, "banter and karaoke."
"We should go back to the TARDIS," Marcella cut in urgently.
Star spun to her at that to see liquid pouring down the cellar steps, slowly forming into Heather again.
"What if it attacks us?" She whispered.
"Well, that's the good news." The Doctor reasoned, keeping his gaze on the young woman as they slowly backed towards the TARDIS, "It means it's not interested in what's inside the vault. It just wants to kill us."
"That's not good news." She looked unamused.
"Run!" He shouted, the group running in as Heather screamed, the doors slamming shut on their own behind them.
"Ow!" Marcella cried as she landed on her front of the floor before the doors, Star flopped on top of her. "Seriously?"
"I tripped!" She defended rolling over and onto the floor.
"You tripped and pushed me in the TARDIS?" She repeated in disbelieve.
"...yes."
She raised a single eyebrow, "really? Because I think that was just trying to be heroic and get me out of harms way." She smirked.
"Well you'd be wrong, so there..." she folded her arms, tongue sticking out at her point made, conversation over.
"It's not interested in the vault, it's chasing us." The Doctor remarked, moving between them to the console, sending them off again, "Let's give it a proper challenge. Let's see how far she's prepared to go."
"But what about my friend?" Bill questioned, "What about Heather? Can you save her?"
"First things first. Let's see if we can survive her." He headed out into the sunshine.
"Oh," Star frowned as they stepped out onto a harbour, the humans passing ignoring the blue box that had randomly appeared, laughing in the sea and sunbathing on the beach, seagulls trying to grab people's chips and ice cream.
"But..." Bill spun around as she followed them out, staring at the new place they had arrived.
"Yes." The Doctor nodded.
"We've moved again."
"We have."
"It was night."
"Yep."
"Now it's day."
"Definitely day."
"Oh, my God!" Her eyes widened as she caught on, "Have we travelled in time?"
"No, silly!" Star scoffed, "we're in Australia." She gestured to the Sydney Opera House behind them.
"Ok," she blinked, "now I really need the toilet."
~.~
Star poked her head into the female toilets in a nearby cafe where Bill went to relieve herself to find her splashing her face with water from the sink. "You good?" She asked.
"What do you think?" She glared.
"Do I need to get the cards out?"
"What cards?"
She pulled out a selection of cards from her pockets, shifting through them. "Clearly dad can't come in the ladies room and Marcella isn't good at things like this but I've got these!" She grinned as she held the cards up.
"Can I ask you a personal question?"
She glared slightly at her, "I haven't find the card."
"Can I ask anyway?"
She lowered the cards, "ok."
"Are you from space?"
Oh, how she could get so sassy right now, "No one's from space."
"Yeah, but, you're not from this planet, though, are you?"
"I have cards on how to deal with humans, what do you think?" She countered.
"Doesn't make sense, then." She shook her head.
"What doesn't?"
"TARDIS. If you're from another planet, why would you name your box in English? Those initials wouldn't work in any other language!"
"It's not a question commonly asked," she mumbled, pocketing the cards seeing they weren't much help.
"It looks like a phone box." She pointed out.
"It's a disguise. It's a disguise but it got stuck in the first trip. Dads fault."
Bill laughed at that. That was certainly something very like that Doctor. Her grin faded as she noticing the water gurgling in the sink, "Star..."
"Yup, time to go." She grabbed her hand and pulled her out, having noticed that too.
"She followed?" Marcella gasped as Star pulled her along with her free hand and out the cafe.
"Out, out!" The Doctor yelled behind them, "Everybody out! Shark attack!"
No one moved until Heather stepped out, then everyone screamed and fled at the sight of her.
"Ok," the Doctor sighed as they ran back into the TARDIS, dematerialising again.
"Where are we going?" Bill gasped, clinging to the console from the bumpy rose.
"As far as we can." The Doctor replied, "She made Australia in a minute. Let's see what she can really do."
"Is it wise to leave earth with the vault unguarded?" Marcella hesitantly called.
"Oh, we're fine. If there's any trouble, I'll get a message on this." He flashed the psychic paper. "Let's see how long it takes her to get here."
"Where are we?" Bill breathed as the TARDIS landed with a thud.
"Other end of the universe. 23 million years in the future." He grinned at her shocked expression, "Oh, yes, it's a time machine too."
They stepped out onto a rocky planet, carved arches with glittering crystals and a pale purple sky.
"So this is somewhere else?" Bill smiled in delight as she looked around, "This is a different planet? Not Earth, a different one?"
"That's the general idea." The Doctor agreed.
"That's different sky? Is it made of something different? What is sky made of?"
"Lemon drops." He grinned.
"Really?"
"No, but wouldn't that be nice?"
"So childish." Marcella sighed.
"What's the point of being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes," Star recited as the Doctor snapped his fingers at her in his agreement.
Marcella eyed her, almost amused, "So how do we know this water thing is actually dangerous?"
"Everything is."
"Why?" Bill looked at them, "is everything out here evil?"
"Hardly anything is evil," the Doctor commented, "but most things are hungry. Hunger looks very like evil from the wrong end of the cutlery. Or do you think that your bacon sandwich loves you back?"
"Know what it is?" Star wondered.
"Well, there were scorch marks on the concrete where we found it. Could have been left by a shuttlecraft. The puddle, what did it look like? I mean, if that was a car, what would you say that was?"
"An oil leak?" Bill frowned, "So it's space engine oil?"
"Intelligent oil. Super intelligent space oil. No, part of the ship itself. Shape-shifting fluid that becomes anything it needs to be."
"Seriously?" She gaped.
"But it spent ages laying around being a puddle. What changed? Your friend. She looked into it, didn't she? More than once."
"So?"
"Maybe it saw something it needed. What was she like, your friend? What did she want?"
Bill frowned, trying to recalling anything she had been told that could be helpful, "I think she wanted to leave."
"You see?"
"The puddle found a passenger." Marcella stated.
"A left-behind droplet of a liquid spaceship. A single tear drop, alone in a strange world. Then, one day, it finds someone who wants to fly away. Not just a passenger. More than a passenger, it found a pilot, so it ate her."
"So, why is it after Bill?" Star wondered, wandering over the rocks.
"Everything wants, everything needs."
"So..." she hoped down from a rock and looked at him, "you don't know."
"I don't know everything. I don't have it all written down."
"Act like it though."
"So do you."
She shrugged, wandering back over, unable to stand still, much to Marcella's bemusement, "says a lot really doesn't it?"
"A hell of a lot." He agreed.
"It must be looking for something." Marcella reasoned.
"Of course it is, everything is."
"But what?"
"What, in the end, are any of us looking for? We're looking for someone who's looking for us."
"What does that even mean?" Star frowned at him only to hear a scream. The three of them turning to see Bill crouching before a puddle, Heather screaming and trying to pull Bill down.
"Bill!" The Doctor yelled, running to pull her back out of Heathers grip, "Bill! Quick! Back to the TARDIS!" As before Heathers body morphed out of the water, slowly following as they ran and slammed the TARDIS doors. "Ok, it's fast." The Doctor let out a breath as he sent them flying through the vortex, "It time travels. It never gives up. Plan! Basic sterilisation. We're going to run that thing through the deadliest fire in the universe."
"What?" Marcella eyes widened at that.
"How do we do that?" Bill questioned.
"The only way we can." The Doctor answered, "we run through it first."
Star brought the scanner around to see where they were going to get the deadliest fire, she could guess but wanted confirmation, "oh, I hate you."
"No you don't." He countered, "Marcella!" He tossed her a sleek black sonic pen with a red tip, "I want you running interference. Can you do that?"
She let out a breath, "can I say no?"
"No."
"Can I keep this?" It was far more her than those sonic glasses Star gave her.
"Yes. It's yours. That's the point."
She blinked in shock, "you've giving me a sonic over your own daughter."
"Ah, were come to the agreement I don't really need one," Star remarked offhandedly.
"And it's better for her to steal yours over mine."
"Why?" Marcella frowned.
"When does she leave you side?"
"I feel personal victimised right now," Star grumbled, sliding to Marcella's side.
"Where are we?" Bill called.
"Well, we're basically in the middle of a war." The Doctor told her honestly, "No, but, well, it's a war zone, and this is just your basic skirmish. And it's not as bad as it sounds, I promise you. Come on, I've got friends here, old friends."
"He says friends," Star winced as they stepped onto a ship, humans trying to fight Daleks.
"Where are you doing?" The Doctor frowned at Star as she moved to follow Marcella.
"Oh well you said I never leave her side so I'm going with her."
"As long as you don't abandon me here I'm pretty sure I'll be fine," Marcella rolled her eyes.
"I feel like you're doing this in on purpose." The Doctor muttered.
"Pretty much." Star nodded moving to follow Marcella.
"Star," he sighed as she turned around, "no," he warned her seeing her eyes widened, lips pouting, "you cannot do that face anymore! No! It's not working. Alright fine!" He huffed as she grinned, "I'll go and do that, you three stick together." He walked off.
"This way," Star led them down the opposite end of the corridor.
"Are we still in the future?" Bill asked.
"Past." She corrected.
"Doesn't, doesn't look like the past. Are we safe here?"
"Well, that's up to dad, so..."
"Sort of safe." Marcella offered.
"Where are we going?"
"Into the fire." Star answered, leading the way, Marcella's hand in hers as Bill closely followed.
As they walked in the shouts and screams grew louder the closer they got to the main war. Marcella winced, it was alright for Star, she had faced Daleks so often that the fear of them had worn down, with her and the Doctor having defeated them so much but when the last and only time you saw Daleks was during the Time War you still had a teeny tiny bit of fear to them. Not that she would admit that aloud, though.
"Who are those guys?" Bill whispered seeing men in army uniform run past at a cross section, faring large weapons.
"Soldiers," Star shrugged her off, "we're here for the enemy." They ducked behind the wall as a large explosion went off, the men being thrown against the wall themselves from the force, Heather appearing unhurt in the fire, "this way."
"No, this way," Marcella called, turning a corner and leading them down an empty corridor...until a Dalek rolled round before them.
"My way was clear."
"Oops."
"What's that?" Bill stared at the large pepper pot armed with a whisk and a plunger.
"The deadliest fire in the universe." Star sighed. "Hello, Dalek."
"Identify!" The Dalek ordered, "Intruders. Identify!"
"You're going to hate me for this," Star apologised to Marcella.
"Why?" She frowned, getting her answer as Star pulled out her dagger.
"Scan and identify!" Star instructed the Dalek.
"You are the Star."
"Just Star." She muttered under her breath. Every time.
"That was for self-defence," Marcella glared as Star flipped the dagger away in her pocket again, "not as an icon for people to know who you are."
"I know and I'm sorry. You can add it to the least of reason to hate me."
"Killed anyone with it for fun."
"Not for fun...not quite self-defence either...ow!" She winced as Marcella whacked her on the head.
"This is exactly why you need me." She glared. "this is why people want you dead!"
"Yes, I know. Please don't ever leave me again."
"You are an enemy of the Daleks!" The Dalek yelled.
"Yup. And I got my partner in crime with me." Star smirked at it, wrapping an arm over Marcella's shoulder, the girl groaning.
"Exterminate!"
"Not today," she shook her head, ushering Marcella against the wall and dragging Bill with her as the Dalek fired, the energy going straight through Heather as she followed behind them.
"Exterminate." Heather repeated, her voice monotone.
"Exterminate!" The Dalek cried, firing again, distracted by Heather giving the three females a chase to run.
"What was that thing?" Bill gasped as they ran again.
"A Dalek." Star answered.
"A what?"
"A Dalek." Marcella answered this time.
"What's a Dalek?"
"It's just a Dalek." Star waved her off.
"Exterminate!"
Star skidded to a stop before a cross section hearing a Dalek and a second later a bolt shot past, the corridor ahead burning making them turn to see a Dalek slowing to a stop before them.
"Ex...ter...min...ate"
"That's not right," Marcella frowned.
"Not a Dalek," Star shook her head, staring at the eyestalk.
"What? Oh." There was a human eyes with a 5 point star defect in the Daleks eyestalk.
"All Daleks are quarantined," the Doctor raced round the corner having used the sonic to trace them, "er, except that one."
"Not a Dalek." Star repeated, pointing at the eyestalk.
"Heather." Bill breathed.
Water began to pour from inside the Dalek casing, soon dissolving and Heather took its place. "Heather." She repeated.
"Interesting." The Doctor mused from behind Heather making her turn from Bill to look at him, "You had a gun but you didn't use it. Why? You've already taken one person from the Earth. I'm going to let that pass, because I have to, but I will not let you take another. Go. Just go now. Fly away. Why won't you just go?"
Heather simply turned back to Bill.
"Oh, my God." Bill breathed as she recalled the last thing Heather had said, the promise to never leave her, she had kept that promise, "I understand. The last thing she said to me. She promised she wouldn't leave without me."
"Her last conscious thought, driving her across the universe. Never underestimate a crush."
"I won't." Star blinked
"What do we do?" Bill asked, her voice shaking.
"I don't know," the Doctor murmured, "She's not chasing you, she's inviting you. Release her. Release her from her promise."
She nodded, facing Heather, "You have to let me go."
"You have to let me go." Heather repeated.
"I will."
"I will."
"I really liked you." Bill smiled softly.
"I really liked you." Heather reached a hand up to Bill, who reached out to her.
"Bill, no!" Star cried, but they had already clasped their hands together.
"Bill, listen to me." The Doctor called, trying to get through to her, seeing her expression blanking at whatever Heather was showing her, "Whatever she's showing you, whatever she's letting you see. It's a lure, it's a trap. She's making you part of her, and you can never come back."
"I see what you see." Bill whispered, "It's beautiful."
"Bill, let go! You have to let go! She is not human anymore."
"Goodbye, Heather." Bill breathed, voice cracking.
"Goodbye, Bill." Heather returned, for the first time not repeating what Bill had spoken.
Bill let go of Heathers hand as she dissolved into a puddle.
"You all right?" The Doctor asked, pulling her back from the puddle.
"Yeah," she swallowed, "I think so."
"You don't look it." Marcella eyed her.
"She's fine." The Doctor waved her off, turning and heading back to the TARDIS.
Star fluoresced a tissue, wiping away Bills silent tears, "spare her 5 minutes a day. Yeah? Everyday just give 5 minutes remembering, Heather."
"I don't think they're my tears." Bill murmured, wiping the final tear. She felt sad, yes, but she didn't feel herself crying, if Star hadn't pointed them out she wouldn't have even known they were falling.
~.~
"The vault alarm went off," the Doctor explained stepping out of the TARDIS into the office where Bill sat at the desk, "but it was nothing. A student was sick outside and it registered as a biological attack." He laughed.
"I saw it all for a moment." Bill sighed heavily, "Everything out there. She was going to let me fly with her. She was inviting me. I was too scared."
"Scared is good. Scared is rational."
"Scared is a superpower," Star recited, leaning against the TARDIS doors as Marcella worked on better security for the vault, one that wouldn't have any false alarms because some drunk student was sick.
"She wasn't human anymore."
"Will we see her again?" Bill wondered.
"I don't see how." The Doctor shook his head, noticing her sadness and her gaze on the TARDIS, "No, no, no, no. No, no. You have to forget about that."
"I don't see how I can."
"I do." He nodded, moving to stand besides the desk, "Come here, Bill."
She moved before him, "What's up?"
"I just want to fix something." He reached his fingers to her temples but she jerked back.
"Whoa! What are you doing?"
"Don't worry. This won't hurt at all."
"No, but tell me."
"Nothing."
"Yeah?" She scoffed, "because I think you're going to wipe my memory. I'm not stupid, you know. That's the trouble with you. You don't think anyone's ever seen a movie. I know what a mind-wipe looks like!"
"I have no choice." He murmured, "I'm here for a reason, I am in disguise. I have promises to keep. No one can know about me. Or Star, or Marcella."
"This is the most exciting thing that's ever happened to me in my life." She stated firmly, "The only exciting thing!"
"I'm sorry."
"Ok, let me remember just for a week. Just a week. Ok, well, just for tonight. Just one night. Come on, let me have some good dreams for once. Ok." She took a deep breath, closing her eyes, "Do what you've got to do. But imagine, just imagine how it would feel if someone did this to you."
He lowered his arms at that. It had been done to him, he couldn't remember Clara Oswald and with everything they had apparently done together he had a lot missing from his memory. He glanced over to Star, seeing her staring, he couldn't quite place her expression, a cross between curiosity if he was really going to wipe her mind and something else, sadness? Regret. He didn't know and hung his head.
"Get out." He told Bill quietly.
She peeked an eye open, "What?"
"You can keep your memories. Now get out before I change my mind! Don't speak, don't start, just run! Now. Go!"
Bill nodded thankful as she ran out of the room.
"Shut up," the Doctor huffed as he gaze fell on the photo of Susan, of her piercing judging gaze, "You shut up as well." He pointed at the photo of River, and then the TARDIS gave a low moan, "Will you all please just leave me alone? I can't do that anymore. I promised!"
"You also promised River that you wouldn't travel alone," Star murmured.
"I'm not travelling at all." He countered.
She nodded slowly, "then why did you change your coat when you let Bill in the TARDIS. From black to velvet. The Doctor-y coat. You changed into it as soon as you let Bill inside and removed the sign. Why?"
He frowned, only now realising that he had removed the sign, the sign that had been over the doors since they came to the university, the same sign he had used back in the junkyard when he first starting travelling the universe. And the same velvet coat he had worn once before back on the Trap Street, "I don't know..."
She smiled sadly, "luckily I do. You let Clara Oswald inside your head. And she never leaves. Look," she took a breath, she shouldn't say right now but it needed to be said, better now than never, "I need my daddy right now. Please..."
The Doctors hearts sank at that. He knew he had important memories missing for his mind but he never thought, not once did it cross his mind that Star was damaged, she was always grinning and smirking not once showing the damage, until now. "I'm sorry." He murmured, hugging her tightly.
"Me too." She held her hand out for him and tugged him inside the TARDIS.
Marcella snapped her book close as she wandered around the upper gallery, to see the pair rushing to the console, tracing Bill meeting her on the grounds, barely minutes after she left the room herself. "What did you say to him?" She asked Star as the man left to speak with Bill outside, closing the doors behind him.
She shrugged, "what he needed to hear."
She sighed, setting the book on the shelf and heading down and over to her, "I'm here for you. You know that, right?"
She swallowed the lump in her throat. She would never be able to go back from this. She had messed up too much, but maybe one day she would be able to forgive herself. Clara kept reassuring her that her death wasn't her fault. But she had indirectly caused it, led them to the events in trap street.
"It's a big universe," the Doctor was telling Bill, "but maybe one day we'll find her."
Bill looked at him and then at the TARDIS before looking back at him, "What changed your mind?"
"Time."
"Time?"
"And Relative Dimension In Space." He snapped his fingers opening the doors, "it means what the hell?"
"Welcome aboard," Star smirked.