My name is Kitty. Apparently, I'm the Doctor's companion.
See, a lot of times, I don't remember what we've done together. There've been times that I traveled with him and my friends, but more than once, I have to ask the Doctor what he means by something. I do know, however, that Doctor and I have done dangerous things in the past. This might have been small potatoes, but hey, it scared the crap out of me. So, this is the record of the Doctor and my last adventure. Before I forget. Because I know I will.
It all started when the Tardis touched down in a spaceship thing. I only call it a spaceship 'thing' because there were trees and plants and such. The Doctor opened the door, and leaned out. "Look out there, Kitty. Humans," he said, dark eyes twinkling at me. For a heartbeat, he drew his gaze away to check his watch. "About six hundred thousand five hundred twenty two years in your future."
"Wow," I whispered, peeking out myself. The humans were congregating in a large mass a good hundred yards away, at the point that I could hold out my hand and they could stand on it. "This is so cool. Can I talk to them?"
"Be my guest."
With that little bit of confirmation, I took a tentative step out into this new, futuristic world, like a duckling taking her first steps. Then, knowing it was obviously safe, I jumped up and ran to the rest of the humans, but skidded to a halt halfway. I thought I recognized someone... "Doctor," I called to him. "If this is six hundred thousand years in the future or so, then how is it that my friends are in that group, some that haven't even heard of you?"
Doctor frowned. I could see the little twitch at the sides of his lips. (I have great vision; even if it isn't 20/20, I can notice the slightest movement from really far away.) He left the doorway of his time-space machine, and came to my side. "Don't know," the Doctor said, "but whatever it is, it should be fun." Flashing a patented madman-with-a-box grin, he and I approached the circle of humans.
Just looking through the crowd, I caught the faces of several of my classmates and a handful of friends. Lina, Natasha, Lizzy... Jack wasn't there, and neither was Eric (which I'm sure they were super-disappointed about), but Jack Harkness was there in all his quite literally undying glory.
"My word, Kitty," said Natasha, with her pretty, curly, strawberry-blondish-orange hair braided down her back, gave me her wide-eyed look."What's going on?" She usually wears boots like Katniss Everdeen, and knows the most about Hunger Games than anyone else I know, and used to be in my English class.
With a mild-mannered shrug, I said smoothly, "I just got here, but I was going to ask the same thing..." I hesitated, looking about for the Doctor.
"Aliens," replied Lina.
That isn't the kinda thing you hear Lina say every day. She clearly wasn't joking. Apparently, Lina and Natasha were just as linked at the hip as Lizzy and me, but we went to different middle schools, so we didn't meet until high school. Lina was in my English class too. She looked fairly Asian, but not too much, and I don't mean that in a derogatory way. Lina's really pretty, smart, and quiet too. There was sometimes days when Lina, Natasha and I would all wear braids into English class, and our teacher would give us weird looks because we always sat together.
"I came with a friend who'd know who they are and what they want with people way in the past. If he doesn't pull a Houdini on all of us," I told her.
"You mean the Doctor," breathed Lizzy. Out of all the people there, she knew the most about the Doctor. She'd gone on a few trips with us, but it was only because she is my best friend that the Doctor managed to tolerate her acting completely giddy in his presence. Her hair was short, but not as short as mine, and likewise, I was short, but not as short as her. We've always been together. It was like our fates were twined together. The Doctor would argue, but we would argue back harder. Lizzy's dad said that we shared a brain, and although the Doctor said it would be completely weird, it was mostly true. We could almost communicate telepathically. When we finished each others' sentences, Doctor really worried.
"Yeah. The Doctor."
"Sorry, but Doctor who, exactly?" Lina asked us.
Lizzy and I couldn't help it. We laughed. "Just... Doctor," I managed, composing myself enough. "The Doctor. He'll help figure this out. If he can't, well, he can get us all home in his time-space machine anyhow." Glancing about, and shoving through the crowd to look for him, I found only that the Doctor had gone completely Houdini on us. Not even a slip of psychic paper was to be found.
There I was, stuck with Captain Jack Harkness, my friend Lizzy, and a ton of other people who were all clever, if a bit uninformed, that I had to somehow manage to get back to their own times without the Doctor's help.
I frowned. "Okay, so now I suppose I have to take Doc's position here... Does anyone know what they're doing?"
Lizzy stepped up. "Something like what Homo reptiliadoes... a planned slaughter and study. At least, from what I've seen. But I haven't even seen one of these aliens, let alone do I know what race they are."
"That's just lovely," I said sarcastically. Now I have to save these people! I'm obligated to! Jeez, Doctor! If I don't save them all I know you'd disown me or something...
Worst of all, I can't even rely on Old Sexy for help. The time-space machine is gone.
Some aliens all with different faces that I can't pinpoint the origins of start poking things like cattle prodders into the crowd to get us humans to move. We're all pushed into these rooms, one by one, and no one's really sure what they're doing. I could figure it out, though. They were scanning us. It didn't hurt bad, but some of the humans were scared enough that they yelled and refused. When they only got killed, I didn't blame them. I just frowned and tried not to think about this alien race committing atrocities right in front of my eyes.
Then, they herded us into a dim room, and leave us there to rot. They didn't care. We were animals. They were animals too, I suppose, but with a superiority complex.
I immediately took charge. "Is anyone hurt? Is everyone here and able to stand?" Everyone's gaze shifted amongst ourselves, looking to see if there were any people hurt.
Jack pushed through the crowd to me. "So, you're the Doc's new companion, right?" He gave me a glance over. "He sure knows how to pick 'em."
I blushed and smiled, knowing the captain was flirting with me. "Um... we aren't... Not like that."
"Well, that's good then, I guess." He winked at me, then continued to focus on the situation at hand. "So, what does he say about this?"
"Eight hundred thousand AD. It was going to be peaceful, but..."
"But aliens invaded." Jack shoved his hands into his coat pockets and rocked back and forth on his feet. "I get it. Seems how it always works."
"Yeah. We have to get out of here. My friends... They belong six hundred thousand years in the past. Tell me you didn't bring them here."
"I didn't. I don't know what happened myself. I was minding my own business at Torchwood... and all of a sudden, I ended up here. I think that was the case for your friends, too. They probably have a mass vortex manipulator somewhere..."
"Quick and dirty time travel. Really, really bad for you." I quoted the Doctor word for word. "You should really give it up."
Jack laughed. "You sound just like him."
"I try my best to at least act like a brilliant companion." Upon a closer examination of the room, the ceiling consisted of dirt and roots hanging down, and the ground was a similar consistency, only it was like the ground was whatever was on top of the ceiling. Whatever behind this room setup was supremely weird. Tall, bright green grass grew in patches here and there, and sickly-looking white flowers dotted the greenery. "Don't touch anything," I told everyone, then began to lead down the path.
Eventually, I let Jack lead, and we wound down the path to another room. This room was significantly cleaner. It was all white, like the first room, but this room was littered with things like dolls and toys, and the ceiling was low. The lighting gave everything a soft yellowy tint.
I don't really remember what happened from there to the next scene, just that I got past a significant danger with every human unscathed, but Jack got lost.
We found Jack and the Doctor after we made the full loop back to the first room. I remember the Doctor smiled at me and adjusted his bow tie. I gave him a thumbs up, and he flashed me a kooky grin. Jack was being restrained by the aliens, while the Doctor was just surrounded.
The Tardis translated what they were saying for me: "Kill the traitor."
Now, I'm not certain how Captain Jack Harkness was a traitor to their race, since he was only human even if he was mostly immortal save for his eventual death of old age, but hey. They certainly were heart-set on killing him. They shoved him into one of those clear rooms they had used to scan us, but there was a whitish gas that flooded it. For a few seconds, I couldn't see him. When the smoke cleared, I realized they were trying to poison him with neurotoxins. He coughed and staggered, only to stand up.
"Gosh," I heard him say, "not that easy to kill me, eh?"
Their babbles came once more, and one called out, "Set the Beast on him."
Okay, so my mind functions in words with letters. I'm a highly visual person, so whenever someone says something, I have to think of it as a word in my head so I can process. My mind does this in the blink of an eye, but when I don't know how to spell something, my mind sort of fries. In this case, my mind just told me that the word 'beast' should have a capital 'B' to start it. It just gave me a sense of impending doom, I suppose.
In the chamber, there was a raspy screech, and something happened. There was blood. A lot of it. I felt faint, as if I was going to pass out or vomit or both. I hate blood. I'm terrified of it. I actually think I might have passed out, because the last thing I remember is the Doctor and Lizzy standing over me, and telling me it'd be okay...
I woke up on a clean cot. It was like a big military hospital room. Everything was stark white and clean, the sheets were crisp and everything looked perfect. Rolling from the cot, I glanced around the room. The Doctor was there, and so was Lizzy and all the rest of the humans that shouldn't really have been there in the first place. Someone that looked a little like Martha (even though I knew it couldn't be her) stood by a covered case, taking notes on a clipboard. She was wearing casual clothing under a white labcoat, and her hair was pulled back in a neat pony.
Doctor glanced in my direction and smiled broadly. He hurried over and gave me a big hug. "Glad you're safe, Kit."
"Aw, meh," I said, shrugging the Time Lord off. Sometimes he was so clingy. Like an old ex-boyfriend I had. "What's with the mush-factor ten all of a sudden?"
"I heard what happened. To the humans, I mean." He frowned, blinking. "I'm sorry, Kitty. I really am."
"Don't be," I told him. When there's nothing to be sorry about, I really hate it when people apologize. "Where's Jack?"
The Doctor gestured to the case. "Apparently, he's in bad shape. Even if he can't die, it doesn't mean he can't hurt."
Concern crossed my face. "Will he be okay?"
"I don't know." I looked down at my hands, and the Doctor put his hands on mine. Glancing up, I met his gaze.
Staring at his dark eyes, I blinked. "He really was a good guy, yeah?"
"Yeah."
We sat in silence for a while, until a frantic 'code red' caught our attention. I heard the woman that looked like Martha say, "Oh, my God, he's going to die in there!" They opened the case and the sickly stench of blood flooded my nose.
Doctor put his hands on the sides of my head, and closed his eyes for a moment. "Just close your eyes, Kitty. Relax."
I don't know, but he was really convincing there. I did exactly as he said, and found myself asleep on the cot.
Later, I woke up. By some miracle, Jack was on his feet again, and all my friends and the Doctor and I were ready to go. Jack had his Vortex Manipulator ready to go, and he left promptly to go back to Torchwood, saying he had 'a lot of stuff to take care of'. I herded up all my classmates and told them we'd be getting home soon. Doctor gave us all a smile, and opened up the door to let us out.
The Tardis had moved. It was now on an apartment building, specifically the fourth floor. The building was a monster – five stories high and solid brick with white trim and doors. Woulda been entirely fine if there hadn't been friggin' weeping angels all over the place. All of us stopped right in our paths. "Oh my god," I whispered. "Oh my god. We're all going to die."
Doctor looked at me. "We aren't going to die. No one is going to die, understand me? As for the rest of you, stare at them and whatever you do, don't blink. Don't turn your backs. Don't even run away. Just look at them, but don't meet their eyes. That's dangerous, you understand?"
"We all understand," Lizzy said shakily. "We understand, Doctor. We're just terrified."
"Terrified, yeah? Just stare at them. With any luck, I can get the Tardis out in no time flat."
I just wished he'd be right. After all, wasn't it River Song herself that said the Doctor lies? The woman knows his real name. She must know a lot more about him if she knows that.
He was running, running away from me... and the angels, every few seconds would move closer to him and closer to me and closer to Lizzy and everyone else...
I blinked.
I blinked and woke up on the Tardis, disoriented. "Doctor?" I managed.
"Mm?" He glanced down at me, leaning over the console. His suspenders, bow tie, and shirt were all askew, and his hair was all over. The madman with a box looked, well, like a madman. If you were to go with Amy Pond's view, he'd be a Raggedy Doctor looking rather raggedy.
"Where is everyone? Are Lizzy, Lina, and Natasha safe?"
"Mm," he said, and nodded, then went on to say, "Where to next? Leonardo da Vinci always sounded like a brilliant man to me. How about him? Or... say, Sherlock Holmes. He's absolutely amazing! What about Barcelona... I hear they have dogs with no noses!"
I closed my eyes, at peace finally. All the humans safe, including Captain Jack, and the Doctor by my side. What wasn't to like. I got up, smiled, and said, "I always wanted to meet Leonardo da Vinci. He was a great artist... and an inventor! What do you think he'd say to my manga drawings?"
With a laugh, the Doctor and I set off to another time and place, ready to go on another adventure.
