This little baby's been in the making for quite some time, and we're quite proud of it so far. So here's how this fic is going to work. It's written by two people, and we'll be irregularly alternating on who writes what chapter. It really depends on who gets the muse to write. Updates will be irregular, as we're both very busy with school and horse-related stuff. This first chapter was written by me (Embee).
Neither of us own Doctor Who. Sadly, it's not available on Ebay. The only things we do own are the two characters who are obviously of our own creation. Siriusly. If we owned Doctor Who then why would we be on here making up fics about it? We'd be hanging with Matt Smith and David Tennant and all those brilliant people.
Now enjoy, and feel free to drop us a line and tell us what you think.
~Embee
Energy.
A wild thing, only faintly understood by the mortals who wielded it. Completely insubstantial, yet containing an infinite amount of potential and power.
And life.
The energy spilling out of the Doctor after his regeneration was no different. The TARDIS, after all her years of travelling with her thief, was very familiar with the vast amount of power the Doctor emanated. She knew how dangerous it could be if it escaped.
Which meant the energy slowly building in her consol room presented a cause for concern. If left alone, it could easily blow herself apart, and take out a sizeable portion of England with it. A second cause for concern was the Doctor's current condition. Because of the rather violent way he had to regenerate, the process had gone wrong and now the Doctor was in a state of hibernation to attempt to heal himself.
He was completely unaware of the potential threat quickly growing in strength inside the TARDIS.
The Rose-Child and her Earth friends were unaware of the threat as well, although the TARDIS doubted they could do anything even if she was capable of communicating with them. They were totally focused on the Doctor and the threats of the incoming enemies from the sky.
The TARDIS was left alone to deal with the violently expanding regeneration energy.
She couldn't destroy it, as it had already become too powerful. She couldn't safely release it anywhere, as the only safe place she could release the energy was in deep space near a supernova so it could safely dissipate, and there was no one to pilot her. She couldn't even contain it for fear of the energy corrupting her own power.
It only took a few seconds to run through all her options and view the infinite number of timelines extending from this point. She knew exactly what to do.
She would tame the energy.
The TARDIS whirred, revving up her engines slightly. The regeneration energy thrummed in response, recognising a similar power.
Then the TARDIS slowly opened her consol, inviting the energy into her heart, where she could contain it for a short time while she tamed it. The energy thrummed again and allowed itself to be sucked into the pocket of the Time Vortex that powered the TARDIS.
The energy began to rapidly expand, absorbing the power of the Time Vortex, but the TARDIS quickly enveloped it with her presence. The energy roared, furious at the attempt to contain it. It twisted and attempted to wriggle out of the TARDIS's grip, but she held it tight. She spun herself around the clump of energy, seeking to compress it and force it to obey her. The energy bucked like a living thing, exploding outward and crashing in on itself as it tried to confuse her.
The TARDIS whirred. She couldn't contain it for much longer, the energy was too powerful, too large. It couldn't be kept whole.
She squeezed the energy together into a tight ball, before suddenly slicing through it. Then she enveloped herself around the two stunned parts of the regeneration energy, taking advantage of its momentary surprise.
She had to give it form, to collect it so it would stabilise. She poured her own energy into the parts, so that her power would meld with the regeneration energy and bind each part to itself. The energy strained against her, seeking escape, but she refused to let it go.
Slowly, the struggles weakened. The two parts of the Doctor's collected regeneration energy twisted around, shaping itself into a solid form. The TARDIS relaxed her grip slightly, letting the energy take its own shape. Two bodies formed, hominid in appearance, but nothing like the mortal humans of the Earth her thief loved so much.
A single thought touched the TARDIS's consciousness, a small fragment of the mind forming within the bodies. The TARDIS responded, channelling the memories she had collected from her thief over the years. She sensed the Doctor within the two. By some strange mutation of her power and the Doctor's regeneration energy, the two bodies of power were gaining their own consciousness and lifeforce.
They were becoming living, breathing people.
Heat emanated from the pair of them, heat that burned like a supernova and threatened to scorch even the insubstantial form of the TARDIS. The two newborns were becoming solid, despite the raging energy within them, and their very existence clashed with the Time Vortex. She had to bring them back to the physical realm before they tore a hole in the fabric of reality.
The TARDIS wrapped herself around the still-forming bodies, pulling them from her heart. She managed to reach out of her consol long enough to carefully lay the pair down on the floor, before she was called back in by the Vortex. Her consol slammed shut, and the TARDIS became dark.
The two figures, girlish in form, lay prone on the floor for several long minutes, neither of them moving. Finally, one twitched. A groan escaped her, and she slowly pushed herself into a sitting position. The entire world spun around her, as though determined to fling her off into sky and straight into the sun. Her head pounded, just as painful as taking a hammer to her skull. Images, voices, and thoughts flashed through her mind, overwhelming her with their sheer depth and number. Several more minutes passed before the short, brown-haired girl was able to raise her brilliant green eyes and look around her.
She knew exactly who she was, and where she had come from. The TARDIS poured the information straight into her brain, filling in the gaps of knowledge that came with being born from pure energy. The girl flexed her hand, noting the slight gleam of her veins, before noticing a very important detail.
She was stark naked.
"TARDIS, is there anywhere I can…get something to cover myself up?" the girl demanded, glaring up at the consol above her as she attempted to cover herself with her skinny arms. Then she noticed a second body lying on the floor nearby. Her fellow being born of regeneration energy.
Equally naked.
"Something to cover the both of us?"
Several images appeared in her mind as the TARDIS showed her exactly where to go to find clothes. The girl jumped to her feet, pausing for a few moments as her head spun again and she struggled to maintain her balance, and made her way out of the room as quickly as she could without falling. She darted down a few hallways before finding the closet room, full of clothes from thousands of places and just as many time periods. The girl immediately dove into the nearest closet, intent on finding something decent to wear.
She emerged a few minutes later dressed in a faded pair of jeans and a plain black t-shirt, with a bundle of clothes in her arms. The girl hurried back to the consol room, hoping no one had entered while her fellow newborn was still unconscious and bare to the world.
"Oh, you're still here."
The girl paused, seeing that the Other had already awaken, although judging from the groggy look in her eyes, just barely visible beneath the wild frizz of blond-ish hair, she had not been awake for long.
"I went to get us some clothes," the green-eyed girl replied. No introduction was needed between the two of them. They knew exactly who the Other was.
"Well hand them over, it's freezing in here."
The girl hurried over and deposited her bundle of clothes on the floor. It didn't take long for the Other girl to find something to wear and throw it on. Soon she was sitting in a pair of jeans and a grey tank-top, the girl in black sitting across from her, the remaining clothes shoved to the side.
"Well, what do we do now?" the Other asked.
The girl shrugged. "Figure out just who…or what we are."
"That's simple. We were born from the regeneration energy the Doctor couldn't contain, the stuff that escaped. Technically we're Time Lords…only with more wibbly-wobbly energy."
"I know that," the girl said, scowling. "But how is that possible? Energy just doesn't randomly gain a consciousness and form a body, even with a TARDIS acting as a 'surrogate mother' of sorts."
"Probably something to do with the Time Vortex being absorbed first by Rose, then by the Doctor," the Other said. "It got all screwed up, and then suddenly pure regeneration energy is being taken into it and fused with the power of the TARDIS. Scary shit was bound to happen."
The girl frowned, thinking.
"Then what does that make us? Technically we're only about five minutes old, yet…" she paused and gestured to themselves. They appeared to be about seventeen Earth-years, although their minds were more akin to a certain nine hundred-someodd Time Lord. "What are we? Children of the TARDIS, of the Time Vortex?"
"Why does it matter?"
"If we are defined, then we undoubtedly exist," the girl said simply.
The Other blinked. "Okaayy…"
"Plus, we need something to tell the Doctor when he comes back and finds us sitting here, other than 'we have no idea what the hell happened or who we are so figure it out'." The girl paused. "Yes, we have to figure it out."
The Other girl snapped her jaw shut, about to ask if it was really necessary that they figure it out, because figuring it out took too much effort. Then she grinned.
"I know…we're the daughters of the Doctor. His regeneration energy gave birth to us, making him our father. Although, technically speaking, we're just two different forms of his own being, he's still our dad because he created us, if unknowingly."
The TARDIS whirred. The girl grinned.
"Then the TARDIS is our mother," she said. "Because she was the one who actually put us together."
"Well, that's a rather interesting…"
The girl scowled. "DON'T GO THERE."
Both girls were cut off by the sound of a squeak. The TARDIS's doors creaked inward, and a tall skinny man stepped through, a grin on his face so bright it could light up a city. He almost skipped inside, apparently elated about something.
Then his eyes fell to the two figures sitting on the floor of his TARDIS. He froze and stared in shock.
"What…what…?" he started to say. The green-eyed girl jumped to her feet, grinning.
"Hello, Dad."
"…what?"
The Other scrambled to her feet as well, a slightly annoyed look on her face.
"It's about time you got here. How long were you going to keep us waiting?"
"We've only been awake for about ten minutes, it's not that long," the green eye girl said, scowling at her companion. "And it's not like he actually knew we were here. We didn't even have sentient thought until ten minutes ago!"
"So? A lot can happen in ten minutes."
The Doctor looked from one girl to the other, extremely confused and more than a little worried.
"Who are you, and how did you get in here? No one can get in without a key, and I'm certain the door was locked…" The Doctor paused and glanced over his shoulder, as though confirming he had left the doors locked. His gaze quickly swept back to the two intruders, unwilling to leave them out of his sight for long.
"Silly father, we never got in here," the Other said. "We've just always been here. Oh, tenses. So much fun."
Suddenly all colour drained from the Doctor's face, leaving him whiter than a ghost.
"You're…you're speaking Gallifreyan." He sounded choked, as though he could barely get the words out, much less believe what he was hearing. "How…how are you speaking it?"
Both girls shot each other a confused look. Suddenly comprehension lit up the Other's eyes and she grinned.
"Ah, I get it. Gallifreyan was your first language, and the language of the TARDIS. It makes sense that we would speak it."
"I think we can switch to English…if it would be less…painful," the girl said a little slowly, carefully eying the Doctor for a response.
He immediately recoiled backward, pain evident in his eyes. Then his expression darkened and he jabbed an accusing finger at the two girls.
"I want you to tell me who you are and where you came from. Now."
"We're your daughters!" the Other exclaimed, as though it explained everything. The girl took a step forward, causing the Doctor's focus to swing to her.
"We were born from your excess regeneration energy," she said calmly. "The TARDIS recognised the danger it posed and attempted to absorb it. The energy proved too powerful to simply absorb so she tried converting it into another form…"
"…but that form…er, forms gained consciousnesses, possibly through the raw power of the Time Vortex and absorbed the power of the TARDIS herself, along with your imprint," the Other added. "Then we were spat back out into the physical realm and…" She paused and gestured to herself. "Here we are."
The girl reached over and touched the Other's arm. Suddenly their skin began to glow as though lit by dozens of miniature suns. The Doctor flinched, looking down at his own hand, which had begun to glow with a similar light.
"The exact energy imprints resonating with each other," the Doctor muttered, turning over his hand and inspecting the light. It slowly faded and the Doctor's gaze snapped back up to the two mysterious intruders. Several unidentifiable emotions crossed his face. The girl swallowed a little nervously. She didn't know what they would do if he refused to believe them.
Suddenly the Doctor's face cleared, and he straightened.
"Right, well, let's figure out just what you mean by all that."
The Doctor suddenly launched into action, leaping around the TARDIS consol, twisting knobs and pulling levers.
"Technically what you've just told me is impossible. Energy doesn't just gain a consciousness, no matter how powerful it is." The Doctor dove beneath the consol, dragging out a heavy chest and sifting through the junk jammed into it. "Otherwise the nuclear power plants would have a much bigger problem than radiation spills on their hands…"
The girl and the Other swapped each other looks. Then they grinned. This was the Doctor they knew from the memories of the TARDIS.
The Doctor suddenly appeared in front of them, a magnifying glass in one hand while the other wrangled with a stethoscope.
"You're not human, that much I can sense, and no normal human can appear in the TARDIS like this," he said, leaning in close to inspect the girl's face, who backed away a little nervously. He turned to do the same to the Other, but she flicked him.
"Oi, not so close."
The Doctor frowned. "I have to inspect you somehow."
"There's nothing to 'inspect'. We told you already what we are. We were born from the regeneration energy you were kind enough to spew all over the place and the raw energy of the Time Vortex."
"Yes, alright, you said that, but something like that should be impossible. Energy doesn't just gain a physical form and a consciousness!"
The Other raised a nonplussed eyebrow. "And you said that already."
Seeing the Doctor was quickly becoming frustrated, no doubt already confused by his recent regeneration and his discovery of the two girls inside the TARDIS, the first girl placed a hand on the Other's shoulder.
"Quiet and let him do what he needs."
The Doctor returned to the magnifying glass, ignoring the irritated look on the Other's face. He frowned.
"Well, you're definitely physical…I mean, you have a physical body…" he muttered, slipping the glass into a pocket of his robe and adjusting the stethoscope. "Let's see if you have anything in there."
He placed the chestpiece on the girl's chest, obviously listening for a heartbeat. Then the Doctor frowned, an unknown expression crossing his face. Slowly, the smooth metal piece moved to her side.
Utter shock flashed in his eyes, but he said nothing until he had done the same to the Other. His hand dropped.
"Two hearts…you both have…two hearts…"
"That's what we've been trying to say," the girl said. "Well, not that exactly…we were born from your regeneration energy. Something in the Time Vortex, combined with the TARDIS's Matrix, gave us a body and a consciousness. We were born from you. We're Time Lords…your daughters."
"My people…my family burned," the Doctor said, his eyes hardening. "You…no matter what you claim…are flukes. Certain physiological resemblances…won't make you anything like them."
The Doctor rushed past them and disappeared into the depths of the TARDIS. The Other growled something under her breath and started to follow, but the girl stopped her.
"He has reason to be like that, and you know very well why."
"Doesn't mean I have to like it, or put up with it."
The girl shook her head. "Just give him some time."
Neither voiced the thought lying deep in their hearts, the one they dared not even acknowledge.
That the Doctor would never accept them.
OoOoOoOoOoO
When the Doctor returned to the control room, dressed in a fancy new outfit fitting his new face, the girls were gone. Not completely gone, but hiding somewhere. He could sense their presence, just as he could sense the presence of any other Time Lord…at least, when they still existed. The two girls were somewhere in the TARDIS, but enough of their presence was masked to prevent him from pinpointing just where.
For a moment, the Doctor wavered. One part of him didn't want to leave them alone in the TARDIS, but the other part didn't even want to face them again. They were so obviously Time Lord, a remnant of everything he had lost before…but the Doctor refused to believe it. How could he, after what he had done to his people? After the years of grief and loneliness, how could he simply accept the appearance of two new Time Lords, especially when they claimed to be his daughters?
He was a murderer. He deserved no family.
The Doctor sighed, and continued on his way out of the TARDIS.
He couldn't face them now.
OoOoOoOoOoO
"Is he gone?" the Other asked.
The girl nodded.
"Are we going to hide like this forever? Because I'm not going to, no matter what you say."
"I wouldn't want to do that either!" the girl protested. "We just have to give him a bit of space, let him think about it. He's probably beating himself up right now because we're reminding him of what he did to the Time Lords."
The Other muttered something, most likely rude, under her breath, but the girl just rolled her eyes.
"Shut up and read your book. When he's ready he'll come and find us."
The Other sent the girl a rather rude hand gesture, which was duly ignored.
OoOoOoOoOoO
The Doctor knew he had to face them eventually. They weren't going to disappear. He also knew he should have faced them before leaving the TARDIS the night before. His cowardliness had gotten the best of him, and he ran away.
But now he was out of time.
Christmas was over, and he and Rose were returning to the TARDIS to set out on another adventure. The two not-Time Lords were still in the TARDIS, the Doctor could feel it. But the Doctor had yet to tell Rose about his discovery of them. How was he supposed to explain the presence of two impossible beings claiming to be his daughters?
He couldn't even try to explain it now, not with Rose's mother and Mickey watching. He'd rather avoid a confrontation with them, especially Jackie. So while Rose bid her good byes, the Doctor tried not to look too suspicious as he slowly opened the TARDIS doors and peeked inside.
The nameless girls were nowhere to be seen.
The Doctor breathed a slight sigh of relief, before pasting a customary grin on his face and spinning around.
"Right, well, we'll be off," he said, shoving his hands into the pockets of his long overcoat. "Don't worry we'll pop back in occasionally for a visit."
"He's much friendlier now," Jackie commented in what she thought was an undertone. Mickey snorted. In a louder voice she added, "Now you be careful. If Rose gets hurt I'll come find you, Doctor."
The Doctor swallowed a little nervously. He didn't doubt Jackie would find a way to get him. Rose groaned and rolled her eyes.
"Mum, please, I'm not going to get hurt," she said, giving her mother one last hug. "I'll call you later, okay?"
The Doctor continued to fidget as Rose turned to Mickey and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, promising to call him later as well.
With one more farewell, Rose and the Doctor disappeared into the TARDIS. The Doctor immediately rushed over to the consol and began the departure sequence, bringing the engines to life with a few levers. But his mind wasn't on their first destination. It was on what to do with the two mysterious girls still hiding somewhere in his TARDIS.
"Doctor, what's wrong?"
The question made him jump, but he quickly schooled his features into a grin and turned around to face Rose, leaning back against the consol as though he hadn't a care in the worlds at the moment.
"What do you mean?"
The blonde raised an eyebrow, clearly not buying his act. She dropped her backpack to the ground and mimicked his position, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Something's bothering you, and I know it, so don't try to pretend there's not," Rose added when the Doctor opened his mouth, about to launch into some kind of argument that he was perfectly alright and oh did he ever tell her about this one fantastic planet no why don't they go visit it now and make her forget all about making him reveal what's bugging him. "Ever since you came back from the TARDIS to have Christmas dinner with us, you've been…fidgety. You don't hear half the things we say, and now you keep looking around the TARDIS like you're expecting something to jump out at you!"
Silence stretched between them, broken only by the sound of the TARDIS engines. Finally the Doctor sighed and put his hands to his face.
"Rose you saw the energy I was…leaking," he began. Rose slowly nodded. "Some of that energy was trapped inside the TARDIS. That energy…it's dangerous if improperly contained, especially given my…condition after regenerating…"
"What'dja mean…dangerous?"
The Doctor ran his hands through his hair, making even messier than it was before.
"Regeneration energy is a powerful thing. It's capable of creating an entirely new being while keeping the original spirit intact. Usually all the energy is burned when I regenerate…but this time around I had too much and was expelling the excess. Most of the energy escaped and dispersed into space…but in here it was trapped. If left alone it could tear the TARDIS itself apart." The Doctor paused, the gears of his mind still clunking away. The two girls had told him precious little, either because they themselves didn't know or they didn't want him to know, but he knew enough to work out the rest. "So the TARDIS…the TARDIS tried to contain the energy and change it into something…safer."
"But…" Rose gave the Doctor an expectant look, knowing nothing could ever be as simple as what he had just described.
"But…something…happened." The words were sticking in the Doctor's throat, which was not something that happened often. He didn't like it. "The regeneration energy, combined with the energy of the TARDIS and the Time Vortex…and it…"
"It created us."
Both the Doctor and Rose whirled around to find a girl standing on the other side of the room, arms crossed. How long she had been standing there, the Doctor had no way of knowing.
Rose narrowed her eyes and gave the girl a quick inspection. She didn't recognise the bright green-eyed girl with short brown hair, although the Doctor evidently did.
"Doctor, who is she?"
"Where's the other one?" the Doctor asked, ignoring Rose's question.
The girl gestured to the halls behind her. "I left her in the library. I bet it didn't have an original copy of Doyle's books, and she's trying to prove me wrong. This situation…requires a bit of delicacy…and she's gotten a bit impatient…"
She trailed off, her hand falling back to her side.
"What'dja mean…the other one…who are you?"
The girls' brilliant green gaze swivelled back to Rose.
"As we said. The Doctor's regeneration energy began to corrupt, so the TARDIS tried to do the best she could without the Doctor's help, seeing as he was otherwise occupied with an alien invasion. Due to some freak circumstances even I don't fully understand, I and another girl were created." She paused. "To put it in...simpler…terms, we are him." The girl pointed at the Doctor. Rose shot him a sharp look.
Seeing a look of confusion cross both the Doctor's and Rose's face, the girl sighed and continued.
"The TARDIS created us from the Doctor's regeneration energy. We are, quite bluntly, aspects of his being. Two parts of one whole. Like a portion of the Doctor's soul taken and split into two different bodies. We will, of course, develop our own personalities separate from the Doctor, but at the very basic of our being we are a part of him."
"Wait, how's that possible? You can't just make a human from…energy," Rose protested.
The girl grinned slightly. "But that's just it, we're not human. And you of all people should be able to understand at least a part of the TARDIS's potential. Ah," she added, as shock crossed Rose's face. "See? I have his memories. At least, most of them, especially the most recent ones."
Her gaze turned back to the Doctor.
"You've been oddly silent. I know you understand all of this. What are you thinking?" She frowned slightly. "You might want to make it quick before the Other gets here. She's probably realised I nicked the book from the library by now."
She pulled a book from an impossibly small pocket, grinning slightly.
The Doctor seemed to take a deep breath, before suddenly stepping forward, hands in his pockets, and launching into a rather animated monologue.
"Yes, well, like I've said your existence is impossible to begin with. But this universe is big, and full of miracles. So it is, in fact, possible for you to be here. And yes it is possible for you to have certain biological similarities with the Time Lords…but, and this is a very big but…" The Doctor stopped just in front of the girl and locked eyes with her. "How come you haven't given me a name?"
The girl blinked. "What?"
"A name! You've told me what you are, but I don't know who you are, and quite frankly it's a bit irritating to have nothing to call you other than 'the girls'."
"We don't have names."
Rose looked up to see a second girl with wild hair and a piercing gaze standing in the hallway entrance, but the first girl and the Doctor didn't break eye contact. The second girl glared at the back of the other one's head and marched down the stairs.
"And that was sneaky," she said, snatching the book from the first girl's hands. The other one only shrugged.
"I needed some way to distract you for a bit. It was either that or I tie you to a chair and leave you to find a way out of it." The girl finally looked away from the Doctor to glare at the other.
Rose stepped forward and lightly tapped the Doctor on the shoulder, seeing that the two girls were preoccupied with their argument.
"Doctor…is what they said…true?"
The Doctor turned to his companion and sighed.
"Yes…every bit of it."
"Then what're we going to do with them?" Rose asked quietly, glancing at the two girls out of the corner of her eye.
She wasn't as quiet as she had hoped, as the girls suddenly stopped arguing and looked over at them.
"We think you know the answer to that, Doctor," the fair-haired girl said.
The Doctor nodded slowly.
"They're coming with us."