A/N: Alright, I have to get this out of the way. This story has, to an extent, been revised. Why, might you ask? Well, it's been gnawing at me for a while, as has the immediate follow-up to "The Final Day" - "The Lady's Return", which has also been revised. I would be the first to admit that this story (my first foray onto this site, no less) wasn't the best I could have written. Perhaps that's understandable for a first story, but I want my readers to have the best possible reading experience with the stories I put up. So...yeah, a few things are changed for this revision.
With that, and without further ado, please enjoy the new edition of Part I in my Raggedy & Regal saga.
Prologue
It is said that in the Final Days of Planet Earth, everyone had bad dreams. To the West of the North of that world, the Human Race did gather...in the celebration of a Pagan rite to banish the cold, and the dark. Each and every one of those people had dreamt of the terrible things to come. But they forgot...because they must. They forgot their nightmares of fire, and war, and insanity. They forgot...except for two...one, an Old Soldier...the other, the Woman That Time Mourned…
*DW*
Wilfred Mott was briefly plagued by the flashing vision of a truly crazed man and the sound of a penetratingly sinister laugh. Just for one moment, he saw, and he heard. But it quickly vanished, to be replaced by the sight and sound of the streets of London, bustling with Christmas shoppers eager to complete their errands in Time for December 25th. The sound that dominated Wilf's ears was that of a brass band playing "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen," but the sight that had the attention of his eyes was a Church. For some unknown reason, he felt the need to have a look inside it.
Once he had stepped inside the Church, Wilf heard the sound of a choir performing their choral pieces. However, he eventually took notice of a red-headed woman – dressed in a black ladies suit (complete with red pinstripes and a skirt) and a pair of high-top dark violet Converse All Stars (That's a similar look to the Doctor, was what Wilf oft-thought ever since that debacle with the ATMOS Systems, when the Doctor, a tall, thin man in a brown pinstriped suit, was looking for things that might be wrong with the cars) – who was staring at the tinted glass, her head tilted to one side. Wilf recognised her as Frederica Shepherd, one of Sylvia Noble's – his daughter – best friends and godmother to Donna, his granddaughter.
Frederica – or Fred, as she preferred to be called – was something of an eccentric; she came across as a Science Geek/Fashion Queen combination – a combination not many people managed to pull as masterfully as she did. For much of her life, she'd lived to the full, being the best friend she could be for her friends, including Sylvia…and the best godmother she could be for Donna. In the last few months, however, she'd been plagued with nightmares...none of which involved the face he kept getting confronted with. No – they were truly horrific night terrors, some of which involved the Daleks, the completely and utterly monstrous alien invaders who'd wreaked havoc on the Earth mere months ago.
"Hello, Wilf," she greeted quietly, not turning away from facing the tainted glass windows as he approached her seating area.
"How'd you know it was me?" he asked, just as quietly. "I'm not really one for Churches."
"Lucky chance guess, I s'pose," Fred replied evenly. "I was admiring the patterns in the tinted glass. There's one that looks like a '50s Police Box."
A Police Box, thought Wilf curiously. It looks like the Doctor's been out and about. After some scrutinising searching, he noticed there was indeed a Police Box in the glass, hidden away in the bottom-right corner of the leftmost pane.
"They call it the Legend of the Blue Box," a voice said from behind both Wilf and Fred, though only the former seemed to have heard, as only the former turned around – clearly, Fred had drifted off into her own world, as she sometimes did. "This was the site of a Convent, back in the 1300s. It is said that a Demon fell to Earth...then a man appeared. A Man in a Blue Box...they called him the Sainted Physician. He smote the Demon and then disappeared." The voice belonged to a woman, brunette, who looked a little older than Fred. Her face was impassive, mask-like, but her eyes held a shadow of grief and sorrow.
"That's a bit of a coincidence," muttered Wilf thoughtfully.
"It's said there's no such thing as coincidence," replied the woman, with a smile. "Who knows? Perhaps he's coming back."
"Oh – that would make my Christmas!" Wilf turned around to answer further, only to find that she had vanished. With only Fred for company, he was lost in thought about the Doctor, and the terrible dreams he had been having, while Fred was focusing on visions of places she had never seen, let alone been to...