Disclaimer: if I owned Doctor Who, do you really think I'd be posting here?
Kerralie is mine, but other people can borrow her as long as they don't kill her. This is my first story so please be nice. For this story, imagine most main storyline events have happened, but personal things like the Doctor and Rose haven't. I do love Rose, but felt like doing something different to the usual reunion. Jack should turn up fairly soon, just 'cos I love him and he makes humour so much easier.
Burning Darkness
Chapter One
It was when she looked in the mirror she noticed the difference. Her eyes, which she had managed to keep brown for years now, had reverted to their original yellow-gold. The thin, white scar along her cheekbone was glowing slightly. That was to be expected. If the power was strong enough to make her eyes start then the scar would definitely start as well. Damn, that was annoying. It took effort to change her appearance. Concentrating, Kerralie closed her eyes, and then opened them. It didn't look like much, but her eyes were now resolutely brown. The scar still showed, white against her skin which looked permanently tanned. Hmm, she thought, fat chance of getting a tan in this miserable country. With her light brown skin and long, slightly curly black hair, she looked Spanish. This was unlikely, given that she was fairly certain she didn't come from Earth. Sadly, there was no proof of this- or anything to do with where she had come from- since she was adopted. But Kerralie knew she was right. It had started 17 years ago, when she was 7 years old.
People called it daydreams when she told them, but Kerralie knew, even though she was young. She could make…things happen. Golden light flowed from her, and she could see things that weren't there. Not as in hallucinations, but like possible timelines, futures and pasts that might be. Oh, and the two heartbeats were a clue too. Just a small one. She'd known for years, of course, but when she was 7 the possible consequences of her power became obvious. She had been experimenting with it in the woods behind the house, and it went wrong. A searing bolt of power, glowing bright white-gold, got loose from her control and streaked across her cheek, burning with cold fire. She'd learned then not to muck about, and by the time she was 24 she had stopped using the power. It scared her a little, with a feeling that using it would corrupt her. So the power 'symptoms' of glowing eyes and scar hadn't happened for years. Until that day, when they started without warning and her life changed forever.
Kerralie was working as a journalist. She'd trained as a psychiatrist, but she didn't want to do that anymore, so had turned her talent to writing. She liked it better, and it meant she could hang around in her favourite café, drinking cappuccinos, and calling it work. That was where she was now, tapping at her laptop. She glanced around, hoping for inspiration to cure her writers' block. There was a man sitting on the other side of the café. He had spiky brown hair and even from here Kerralie could tell his eyes were dark and impossibly old for his face. He looked up and caught her eye. Despite herself, she felt her eyes change, just for a second, to gold. She looked away quickly, praying he hadn't seen. No such luck. He got up and walked over to her table. Damn, damn, damn, she thought. There is no logical explanation for eyes that change colour. Damn.
He sat down opposite her.
"Working hard?" he asked, indicating her laptop.
"Yeah. I've got a report due Thursday and I have no idea what to write about."
"What about all those alien things happening recently? You look like you know a lot about aliens."
Damn, Kerralie thought. "Why do you say that?" she asked, trying to act less panicked than she was.
"Oh, no reason. You just look like the kind of person who'd be interested in alien activity. And you also look like you'd know a lot, given the gold eyes and what looks like a power burn on your cheek."
Double damn. How can I explain this one, Kerralie wondered.
The Doctor saw the shock in the young woman's eyes, and something else. It took him a few seconds to realise it was fear. Why is she afraid, he wondered. She can't be afraid of me can she? Then it hit him: he could be anyone, a government spy or something, and she was afraid that she had been found out. He'd dealt with many aliens, but none had been that scared of being caught. That said, most of them had been crazy and homicidal, so it was probably not a fair comparison. He'd picked up the strong telepathic field of this woman from across the street, and followed her to the café.
"Don't look that scared, "he said. "I'm not here to catch you out."
His voice appeared to spark her back into life. She glanced up at the people sitting around them.
"Not here," she said. "It's too public. We can talk better at my house."
She got up and led the way out of the café and then set off down the street. The Doctor shrugged, and set off after her.
Kerralie was having a silent argument with herself.
Idiot, said her common sense. You just invited a complete stranger back to your house.
Yes, said what was normally her conscience. He could be a homicidal murderer for all you know.
You are an idiot sometimes, agreed the voice of the Power.
Shut up, all of you. You're supposed to be on my side. Anyway, I can see why Common Sense is talking, but what do the rest of you have to do with this?
We're part of you. We have everything to do with this.
Yes. Stop arguing with the truth.
They're right, you know
Yes. Listen to them.
How many people are in my head, she wondered. And who are you two? You haven't spoken up before.
Hindsight
Second thoughts.
Then she realised she was at her door, and the man who had introduced himself as The Doctor was talking to her.
"I'm sorry, what have you been saying? I was having a bit of an inner… discussion." She admitted.
"That's OK, happens to me all the time. How much did you miss?"
"Most stuff since 'I'm The Doctor, who are you?' "
"It'll crop up again. This your house?"
Kerralie would have answered yes, but at that very moment an enormous earthquake made the entire road sway dangerously, and everyone fell over. Which was odd, considering they were in Cardiff.
"What the hell was that??" Kerralie half-yelled, scrambling to her feet.
"If I said an earthquake, would you be angry?"
Anyone know, Kerralie thought to the general population of her head.
Don't know,
No idea,
Don't ask me,
Shrug,
How should we know? As we said before, we're part of you. If you don't know, neither do we.
Fat lot of good you lot are. Back to reality.
"Cardiff's not on some unknown fault line is it?"
"Sort of. It's on a space/time rift."
"Right, and could that cause this?"
"You don't want to know what a space/time rift is? And to answer your question, yes it could. Oh, if Torchwood's been messing around with the rift again Jack is so going to pay."
"Slow down, slow down. Who is jack, what is Torchwood and what the hell is going on?"
"I think we need to go somewhere a bit safer in case there's another tremor. I parked round the corner."
"You're not talking about a car, are you?"
"Not even close. This is travel like no other."
"Great," said Kerralie with a weak smile.
So, a start. Please review, and if people think this is good I'll post some more soon. I promise, the story gets more exciting, but the intro stuff is needed so you know what the hell I'm on about when everyone starts running and panicking. But I don't want to spoil it for you…