THIS STORY IS BASED AROUND TORCHWOOD AND DOCTOR WHO. SOME CHARACTERS ARE MY OWN CREATITION OTHERS ARE THE PROPERTY OF THE BBC AND THE WRITERS. NOT ALL STORYLINES WILL FOLLOW THOSE IN THE TW AND DW.

Hi, my name is Ava.

And you are reading my story, or at least what I remember of it.

The first day I remember. I was cold, shivering, lying on something soft and grainy. I could feel it rubbing against my face and it scratched my eyes when I tried to open them. I wiped my face on my arm, and noticed I was wearing some sort of shirt. It swamped me but it was soft and warm. When I finally was able to open my eyes I looked around, there was nothing to see but a vast expanse of water, edged by a golden brown powder; the sand I'd woken on. The air was still and the waves gentle. All I could hear was the water gently rushing along the shore.

Staggering to my feet, I tried to look around more. I turned frantically again and again, my long red hair whipping me in the face as I did so. I couldn't see anything or anyone. I felt lost. I tried to think where I might be, remember how I'd got there, but I came up with nothing. Tears started to fall down my cheeks, as I stumbled blindly along the beach. The sand was cold and damp, it stuck in clumps to my toes, and made me shiver slightly. I don't know how long I was walking, it felt like years to me.

Then out of nowhere I heard a voice.

"Look! There's a child on the beach." The voice echoed slightly in the wind.

I turned to face the voice, and in the distance I could see two humanoid figures in the distance. They appeared larger and larger as they got closer, until eventually they were stood just a few paces in front of me.

"What are you doing out here child?" The voice I'd heard before said. The voice belonged to a tall elderly looking lady, with deep wrinkles and long grey hair. She waited for me to speak but I said nothing, I didn't know how to answer her question. She looked at me inquisitively, "How did you get here?" Again, I said nothing. "What's your name?"

That was the only thing I did know, "Ava." I whispered hoarsely, and realised for the first time that my throat was almost completely dry.

She smiled, "Hello Ava. My name is Kir, and this is my daughter Lela." She pointed to the woman next to her, they looked similar but the second woman was younger with short blonde hair that rested gently on her shoulders.

"Are you lost?" Lela asked.

"I think so." I said quietly.

Kir had pulled a heavy looking bottle from her bag, she held it out towards me, "Here have some water. And we'll walk you back to the settlement. I'm sure somebody there can help you."

I took the bottle gratefully, and gulped down the cool liquid as fast as I dare. The two women directed me back the way they had come, and walked with me in relative silence. Kir tried asking me a few more questions but I never knew the answers so I stayed silent. The scenery changed slightly as we walked. The beach disappeared into long blades of green grass. And eventually the grass disappeared into large trees with huge twisted trunks, long branches and soft green leaves, that rustled in a gentle breeze.

And on the other side of the trees was more sand, but this time there were huge metal structures protruding from it. And I could see small figures walking around in the midst of the structures. Kir directed us towards one of the structures and we kept walking. My legs ached by this point and my stomach had become particularly vocal in the past few minutes. As we got closer to the structure, the air became heavier and warmer; I began to feel my hair stick to my neck, and beads of sweat roll down my face.

Before I knew it we were stood at the base of one of the structures, and Kir was pushing open a large glass door. The three of us walked into a vast room. The ground was cold on my bare feet and appeared to be made of marble, the walls were similar; although they differed slightly in colour. At the far end of the room was a long high desk with two people sat a short way apart, both had their heads down and seemed busy.

Kir and Lela walked purposefully up to the desk whilst I trailed somewhat nervously just behind them. As we reached the desk one of the figures looked up. It was a man with dark grey eyes and a balding head, although his eyebrows seemed bushy enough to make up the difference. He looked somewhat stern, "Can I help you?" He said matter of factly.

Kir smiled politely, "Yes sir, we found this child on the beach. She hasn't answered any of our questions, apart from her name, Ava."

The man nodded and leaned over the desk to look at me. I half hid behind Lela. He sat back down, "Hmmm," He said looking at something behind the desk, "We've no reports of missing children with her description, perhaps one of the passing travellers left her. We'll take her upstairs and admit her into the system until we find out more."

Kir nodded, "May we come with her, until she is settled. She's barely said a word this entire time, she seems rather scared."

The man nodded, "Of course, although you will have to leave when the staff upstairs instruct you to do so. Please follow me." He walked the length of the desk and we followed us on the opposite side. He opened a door I hadn't noticed before, it blended in almost perfectly to the walls surrounding it. Inside was a much small room with a few buttons to the right of the door. The man pressed one of them and the door shut behind us. With a jolt the room started to silently rise. After a few seconds the man opened the door, this time to a warm room with pale yellow walls and soft beige carpet.

He led us through the room and down various plain corridors, until we reached a smaller room. A young woman was sat in the corner flicking through some paper work. The man loudly cleared his throat and when the woman looked up he said "Here's a new one for you." And with that he smiled at me turned and left.

The woman came forward, she was skinny with long blonde hair and loose fitting grey clothes. She bent down in front of me. "What's your name then?"

"Ava." I said simply.

"My name is Alek. Where are you from Ava?"

When I said nothing Kir stepped in, "We don't know. I asked her how she got on the beach, where she's from, how old she is and how long she'd been out there. But she didn't say anything, I don't think she knows or remembers."

"Amnesia. Perhaps trauma induced." Alek said quietly to Kir. "Shall we get you cleaned up and into some new clothes."

I nodded and Alek went to a cupboard and retrieved a few items, she waved me into a side room and told me to change, she asked if I wanted help; I said no, so she left the room.

I pulled off the large sand covered shirt and dropped it on the floor. There was a bowl of water and some sponges to the side of the room and so I used them to gently clean the dirt from my skin.

Before putting on the new clothes, grey leggings, a beige t-shirt and a grey hoodie, with a pair of grey flat shoes. Instinctively, just before I left the room I reached down and retrieved a silver fob watch from the top pocket, I bundled it into the pocket of my hoodie and pushed the door open.

Back in the bigger room Alek had brought out a few more items and Kir was sit next to Lela on a low bench to the side. They looked like small hand held scanners. She told me to stand in the middle of the room as she directed the scanners at me. A red light would appear and then it would beep and she'd write something down. After a few minutes of beeping she looked up and said, "Well Ava, by these readings you are a 10 year hold human female."

I didn't know what she wanted me to say so I just stayed silent. So she continued "I'm going to take you to a special house where's there's lots of lost children. The adults there will look after you and make sure you go to school with the other children. You'll be safe and happy there."

I nodded but didn't say anything. So Alek smiled and led me to the door followed closely by Kir and Lela. We reached a vehicle outside and Alek said it was time to say goodbye to the others. I turned to them and said smiling "Thank you for helping me."

Kir grinned and pulled me into a tight hug. When she let me go, Lela pulled me into another tight hug, "It was lovely to meet you Ava. I hope everything goes right for you." She whispered into my ear before she let me go and the air of them stood and waved as Alek lifted me into the vehicle and then drove quickly off.

The vehicle hovered just a few inches off the ground and travelled with a low quiet hum across the distance. Alek drove us through the centre of the settlement, following on behind other vehicles, but after a while she pulled off to the left and weaved between smaller structures made from a combination of brick, plastic and metal. The gaps between structures formed wide lanes, and we followed one to the very end, where, set apart from the other structures was a much larger building. It had lots of little glass windows across the front and had a huge colour full sign above the door, that read 'Group Home'.

We stopped just in front of the door and Alek helped me out the vehicle. She took my hand and led me up the few stone steps and through the door. Almost immediately I was hit by a wall of noise. There were high pitched screams and yells coming from every direction. Alek didn't pay them any attention and led me down a few corridors but I kept twisting as I walked to see where the noise was coming from.

"Ava." Alek's voice snapped me to attention, and I realised I was stood in front of a large woman with wrinkled dark skin and electric blue hair. She wore huge round glasses, that hid the tired circles under her eyes. "This is Meeka. She looks after everyone here." Alek told me.

"Hello." I said quietly.

"Aren't you just a little mouse." Meeka chuckled, "Don't worry, child. You'll be happy here, there's lots of other children to make friends with."

After Alek left I was taken to my room. I don't remember a lot from the few days that followed, I think I must have blocked it out, been too scared, or maybe just not paid any attention to things. After a while I got used to the routine in the group home, and started going to school with the other children. It wasn't all that interesting, and I kept to myself most of the time.

But I do remember meeting one of the other children at school. He was nice, cheeky and made me teacher almost immediately.

"Don't you think that teacher looks like she's permanently about to spit out a frog." He whispered leaning in closer to me, before moving back and doing an imitation. We dissolved into fits of laughter, which wasn't helped by the teacher appearing over us and demanding to know what was so funny.

When she finally left, the boy leant towards me again, "My name's Javic, by the way."

"I'm Ava." I whispered back.

And that was the start.

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