In a world conquered by creatures abducting people, a young boy without memories and his unusual companion, an alien cat, are left alone to survive. When the Doctor appears, they decide to fight against the intruders. But what is it with the boy's past? Why is he accompanied by this strange cat? Behind all that, there is a great secret hidden... AU, set after season 3's finale.
Hello, my dear fellow fanfiction. net users and welcome to my first fanfic ever!
After a long time I've decided to publish it and share it with you, so I hope you'll like it.
I'm sorry if there are mistakes or anything else, but I'm not a native speaker. However, if you spot anything, just tell me in the reviews and I'll try to fix it.
So, enough chit-chat, but before I'll leave you to read it, here's the disclaimer:
Disclaimer: I do not, in any way, own Doctor Who and its characters and ideas. I only own the OCs!
And now, enjoy!
Chapter 1: The Boy and the Cat
Sun. After all this time, it seems like simple light is the most precious thing on this earth. There are only few times when the wall of clouds rips up and allows some rays of light to shine through.
Since they have attacked, nothing has been the same. They... No one knows what they really look like, but to me, they seem like shadows. I'll just call them that.
Three months ago, they arrived with huge spaceships and destroyed a good part of the country with their laser beams, then landed and built up some strange sort of metal chimneys polluting the air and causing all these clouds. I don't know if they have some kind of factories somewhere, or why they do have them.
No one could stop them, because everybody who comes in touch with them has disappeared. I think I am one of the last ones, it's been 3 weeks since I've seen the last other human being.
London's not the same anymore, but I've found a house to live in and luckily, I haven't run into one of the shadows yet. It's just me and Sharlto... And that's why I am writing down these words, as a chronicle of what has happened. Maybe someday someone will find –
With a loud crack, the pencil's tip broke and tumbled down onto the pile of stones on which Andrew had settled down this afternoon.
"Oi! Not again!", the twelve-year-old exclaimed and jumped up. Normally, he would have thrown away the pencil and taken a new one, but in these times, nothing was normal. Last week, he had found a set of pencils in the ruins of a shop and they soon had turned out to be his most precious belongings.
The third one this week. "I definitely need a pencil sharpener", the boy mumbled while brushing away the dust from his trousers.
Andrew sighed. It was futile and pointless to search in the cold rubble for a little tip, and so he decided to fold the dusty and slightly torn paper and put it in his pocket again.
He looked at the sky. Amidst the grey clouds, the warm sun had found a way through.
Andrew climbed up the stones of what once had been a shop in a busy London road. Now, there was nothing left anymore.
On the top, he held a hand above his eyes and looked at the now illuminated remains of what had been a normal world just few months ago.
Everything was dusty, cold and slightly wet from rain. Rubble lay on the broken tarmac, dead trees bowed down where they had been hit by the lasers. But still the light seemed to be a sign of hope for this destroyed world, even if there wasn't anyone to share the view with.
Nearly everyone was gone. A month ago, Andrew had seen the last other human... When said one had been hunted down by a shadow. Only a grey scheme with red eyes, holding out something like a hand. One touch, and the man had vanished. Like the others had done, too.
In the first days after the invasion, it really had been horrifying to see how people were caught. Andrew had hidden in a tree. Luckily...
It was good to feel the warmth on your skin, to hold up your face in the sun and let it be illuminated. Sun really was the most precious thing on earth, after all.
Somewhere in the back of the landscape, on a hill in Greenwich, one of the metal chimneys, glistening in the vanishing sun light, towered over earth and polluted the sky again. Whatever the shadows did there... It definitely was not good.
A loud growling behind him caused the boy to nearly tumble down as he slipped on a little stone. He turned around.
It was a large animal that approached him, a cat. It was coated in white fur that seemed to glow in the sunlight and which was adorned with black speckles. This, along with the long pointy ears and unnatural green eyes staring at him, gave the creature a more alien-like look, resembling a cross of a lynx and a tiger.
In its sharp fangs, the monster carried something which it let fall down at the foot of the pile, then sat down, seemingly satisfied with itself.
The object was in fact... A simple can of beans.
"Sharlto! Good boy!", Andrew screamed, jumped down and embraced the giant cat. He was greeted by a hum.
Ever since when Andrew could think of, Sharlto had been his companion. However, he did not know how he had come across the cat. The problem was, Andrew couldn't remember much from the months before. It was gone, and he didn't know why he had this amnesia.
He looked at Sharlto. In the sunlight, the cat seemed even more alien. Why didn't he...
Remember? A sudden flashback before his eyes: A house, no, a manor, expensive things everywhere. He was little, so little. He sat on the lap of a man, his father. The face blurred. Same his mother, standing in front of him, happy voices, happy times... A new scene, his nanny watching over him, alone in this giant house. Sharlto in a corner, humming a faint melody, the same as always. His first day in school, then the day he departed from home, alone, his parents absent, "busy", the nanny in his mind repeated over and over.
Other children, laughing at him, he didn't know how to make friends, his heart raced, as always. The lonely nights in his dorm room, then the day THEY came to get him, the day when he fled, with Sharlto there. All the pain, the never-ending headache, pain, pain, PAIN –
When Andrew regained consciousness again, he lay on the dusty ground. His heart raced, but it was okay. It had always been like that, so Andrew didn't care much anymore.
Sharlto's head hovered over him, concerned. The humming noise had gotten louder, like an old children's lullaby. At least it soothed down the boy, it never failed to.
The headaches again. They appeared from time to time, always accompanied by flashbacks of his former life, always the same. Oh, how he wished that it would stop and he could regain his memories. All he knew was his name and his birthday. He was just a stranger in a strange world.
Shaking off the dust, the boy got up, his head still heavy from the headaches.
"Time to go home, Sharlto. I'm not feeling well. Take the beans, thank you for that, we'll search anew tomorrow", Andrew mumbled, packed his things and climbed out of the ruins.
Two hours to go. Great. He always hated returning, and he had to be quick. Evening and night time was hunting time for the shadows and all these wild animals that had escaped from the abandoned zoos, and Andrew only had a small knife.
As the light from above disappeared and the world was turned into a mass of different tones of grey again, the two lonely survivors trotted through the ruins and parks. Minutes passed, half an hour, an hour...
Suddenly, something hushed over the street, making the two stop. Sharlto growled. A dangerous animal or a shadow was the last thing they wanted to encounter today. Andrew took out his knife, as the mysterious something appeared again.
The boy had to contain a laugh. It was a sheep, white, woolly and innocent. Sharlto hissed and the sheep ran away, terrified.
Andrew could have killed the animal and taken it home, but that was something he couldn't do, hunting and killing. And so, he rather relied on the cans and other stuff they had found and stored in the hiding place.
Accompanied by Sharlto's humming, they continued their way back home.
In their quarter, Andrew locked all the doors, then settled down on an old couch in the living room.
The house where they had found shelter was one of the few in a settlement that had not been destroyed, and now the two lived here all alone.
Andrew, with some help from all kinds of books he had found, had managed to build some power aggregates so they even had electricity. The disadvantage was that he now stumbled over all the wires spread on the floors. But better that than living in complete darkness.
Andrew turned on the CD- Player. Music soothed his headaches. And made him feel less alone. The voice of other human beings, of someone who possibly had been abducted or killed by the intruders, too, forgotten, but still there for him.
Exhausted, the boy soon had slept in. Sharlto, who had retreated to a corner, took a blanket in his fangs and placed it over the sleeping boy's fragile body. The cat watched over the child for a moment, then turned around.
A smile appeared on his face. Little did the child know about his strange companion, but that was okay. It was better to protect him than to cause him more distress. The animal was much more than just a simple cat. But time after time...
Sharlto smirked. Andrew... So young and already living alone. Sharlto was proud of that. But if he couldn't fight for himself, Andrew would sooner or later be caught by the aliens. That was the last thing he wanted for the boy, his companion, the one he wanted to protect from everything, as much as he could. No one should harm him.
The cat already knew what he had to do. After all, he had already sensed that HE would come, and Andrew should not get into trouble unprepared. The cat couldn't force the boy to behave in the way he wanted the child to, but it was his duty to at least give him the chance of having success.
As quiet as possible, he climbed through a window (as always, Andrew had forgotten to lock something) and escaped into the cold and starless night.
The next morning, Andrew awoke, without any headache left. He pushed away the blanket and stood up.
In the kitchen, he took a can of baked beans (Oh, he had lots of those. Could it be possible for one child to survive his entire life with beans?, he often mused.) and poured the slimy mass into a bowl. Thanks to electricity and the magical advantages of microwaves, his breakfast soon was ready to eat.
Now he had to get something for Sharlto... But where was the cat?
The boy noticed the open window. Oh no. From time to time, the cat disappeared, but always returned after some hours. Where could he be? And why was he gone?
Loud scratches at the door were the answer to his thoughts. It was a rhythmic sound, Sharlto's melody whenever he returned.
Relieved, he opened the door to let his friend in. And was astonished.
In front of the animal's paws lay a polished sword with a curved blade. It was simple, yet beautifully crafted. Strange symbols were engraved on the metal's sides.
"For me?", Andrew asked with a smile. His anger over the nightly escape was already gone.
The cat nodded a bit, then stood up and retreated into his favourite corner.
The boy however picked up the sword. It was unbelievably light, basically without any weight. It just felt... right in his hands. Now he was prepared for whatever danger would come.
"THANKS A LOT, SHARLTO!", he screamed over his shoulder, then ran on the street to practise.
He stabbed the air and swung the sword as long as he could, until his arm felt numb and his hunger came back. Now he would have to microwave the beans anew. Great.
In the meantime he went upstairs and changed clothes, which meant choosing from a batch of shirts and trousers carelessly thrown into a corner.
Fitted with a white shirt, a tie and blue shorts, he went down again. Sharlto seemed to be rather amused.
The boy ran his fingers through his dark brown hair, smiled and finally said, "I do look like a schoolboy, don't I?"
He laughed, and added, "Well, who cares, huh? We're alone, I could run around in a clown costume and no one would notice. Ahhh, Sharlto, that's the advantages of being the sole inhabitant of such a metropolis. So, where do we want to go today? I would – "
Outside, in the garden, a whirring sound had appeared.
AN: Hope y'all liked the first chapter. To be honest, I wrote 3 different versions and so, I hope that you are satisfied with the final choice. I'll try to update soon, okay? The first one is just to introduce Andrew and Sharlto, but the Doctor will appear fairly soon.
In the meantime, you can, if you want to, leave a review if you have questions, suggestions, corrections or other stuff you want to get off your mind. I'm already looking forward to hear from you! :D
A big thanks for reading! ~the-white-deer