Kavrin sat up suddenly with a gasp and looked wildly around her. This wasn't home! This wasn't even…it wasn't even the school! Or the alley. Or that…wherever the other place had been. That skinny dude called it a…a TARDIS?

She closed her eyes against the bright light reflecting off the white walls. It smelled like a hospital in here.

Kavrin looked down at her hands, trying to remember what had happened. It'd been the dance…she'd snuck out and changed out of her dress…heard a ruckus…peaked at the situation and retrieved the gun from her locker…yelled at someone…shot the someone…ran…was bit by something big and red…

She opened her right hand and looked at the rock in it. And all because of this thing? What was it supposed to do?

Kavrin hissed as a sharp pain filled her chest. She gasped for a few second, feeling oddly stretched. Then the pain disappeared and she sat in shock at what replaced it.

"Another heartbeat? How do I have—?"

She inhaled, touching her throat. "My voice. That's not me."

Kavrin took a closer look at her hands. Her skin was too pale. The birthmark on her left forearm was gone. She had no freckles.

Throwing back the covers she stumbled to the mirror in the corner and nearly screamed. Her entire face had narrowed, her right eye was now green, and her gold-brown hair had dark red streaks in it. She pressed her hands to her eyes, trying to control her breathing.

"This is a dream. This is a dream. I'm dreaming. I fell asleep watching a movie and I'm dreaming. I'm going to wake up on the couch at home. This has to be a dream."

She heard a hiss, like a door sound effect from STAR TREK, and whirled around. A tall woman in a white habit-like dress stood in the doorway, holding a tray. She seemed surprised.

"Oh, you're awake. Usually your kind takes much longer to finish."

"What did you do to me? Where am I?"

"We did nothing to you child," the nurse said as she set the tray down.

"I didn't change my voice overnight!" Kavrin shouted. "And I know that—" A pang went through the left side of her face, cutting off her words. She felt something wet by her eye and touched it. Her fingers came away, red mixed with purple.

She stared wildly into the mirror and stepped backwards in horror. Her left eye had turned green and purple blood was creeping out of the sides.

"You're still changing," the nurse said as she stepped closer. "Pain is normal."

Kavrin spun to face her. "Don't you dare use that needle on me."

"It's only pain killer. Stand still."

Kavrin glanced at the bedside table, catching sight of a sort of familiar looking dagger. She dashed forward under the woman's arm and grabbed it, shaking from the strange amount of speed she'd displayed. Pointing the dagger at the nurse, Kavrin asked again, "What did you do to me? This isn't me."

The nurse seemed peeved. "You'd think with a system like that the Rahki would pick you up faster. Really, it's so inconvenient when you Jahra change without remembering first."

"Remembering…what?"

"That whatever silly life you had wasn't yours. You replaced someone else who was truly important, Jahra. You're a clone, and now you're shifting back. Now hold still," she repeated, brandishing the needle.

Kavrin swiped at her with the knife, taking off several of her fingers. The woman screamed in pain, but it was canceled out by Kavrin's own.

Kavrin's shriek was a mix of pain and horror. One of the fingers had hit her as it flew, and a painful electric shock had run through her as the finger turned to dust.

Stumbling backwards, Kavrin left the woman in the room and fell into the hallway.

People were everywhere, several of them stopping to stare at her. "Can I help you?" another white-habit woman asked. She reached out to help Kavrin up.

Remembering the finger, Kavrin scrambled backwards, brandishing her dagger. "Stay away from me."

The woman remained composed. "Child, give me the knife. You'll only—"

"No. Stay back."

Kavrin gasped as more pain hit her abdomen. Again she felt stretched, like something was moving in her. Catching sight of her hair as it fell forward, she saw it was now all red.

The woman took a phone off of the nearby wall. "I need the Doctor in the South end of the Recovery Ward. She's awake."

Kavrin took the hint and ran. She kept stumbling, not used to the inordinate amount of speed she'd suddenly gained. People stood back as she moved through the halls, waving her knife blindly at anyone who tried to approach her.

One man, a security guard, grabbed her arm. "Hold on—"

Kavrin felt the same electric pain the finger had created surge through her arm and she yanked away. The security guard fell back, looking unnaturally pale and strangely old. He touched a communicator in his ear as she kept going. Even as she turned the corner she could still hear him.

"I have a Jahra in the West end of the Recovery Ward. She's headed for the Observation Deck."

This was wrong. This was so wrong. Her stomach hurt, like something was growing and moving in her. Her voice was completely changed, and her face was all wrong. There was too much noise; everything was so much louder! And the colors were so bright, too bright.

This wasn't her. This wasn't real. It couldn't be. It had to be a dream, a horrible night—

She collapsed on the floor, mind halting mid-thought. A song, a terrible painful song crashed into her mind. It wasn't loud, but it was so strong! The singer was in pain, horrific pain. They were dying!

Kavrin shut her eyes, trying to block out the sound, but it didn't leave. It only made it worse because another thing was wrong; she didn't stop seeing the hall or the people.

She was outside herself; everything had become third person, like a computer game. But the colors were wrong. It was as if a thermal camera had been installed in her brain, but badly. Blue bounced around everywhere, purple came out of peoples' heads, and everything had different levels of green and red stuck to it.

Kavrin clung to the wall, using the support to help her stand. She forced herself to move, no longer escaping the people but the terrible, horrible, miserable, agonizing song.

The song didn't leave though. It chased her, as if now that it had found her it wouldn't let go. Her head pounded as she felt even her brain stretching. Another heartbeat joined the first two.

Blindly she slammed through a set of doors. The roof was all glass, showing the sky and the view. But…but even that was wrong! Two suns, and the grass and the trees were the wrong color, and the sky was…it was yellow.

She backed up into the doors she'd entered by only to find them locked.

"Kavrin."

She whirled around, knife held in front of her as her other hand clenched tighter around the rock she still clung to.

"Who said that?"

"Over here," a British voice said, almost as if calling to a child. She jerked to the right, catching sight of a tall, skinny man in a pin-stripe suit.

"You!"

"Yeah, people say that a lot," the brown haired man said, scratching the back of his neck. "I'm starting to think I should change my name, except that 'The You' doesn't sound as impressive as 'The Doctor.' "

"This is your fault," Kavrin said, walking towards him. "I don't know how, but you brought me here. What did you do to me?"

"I didn't do anything Kavrin," the Doctor said quietly, standing his ground. "Not this time."

"This time? Have you kidnapped others and done this to them? What did you do? Brain transplant? Some kind of weird, tweaked out plastic surgery?"

She stumbled, more pain shooting through her. Words from the song she had in her head tumbled out of her mouth, making no sense to her.

"What did you say?" the Doctor said, sounding faintly astonished.

"You should know!" Kavrin yelled, waving the knife at him as she stood straight again. "You're the one who brought me here. You're the one who—" She cut herself off, remembering.

"Those things. They're still there."

"What things?"

Kavrin held the knife straight out, a different, more determined look in her eye. "Take me back. I don't care what you do with me afterwards, or what you already did, but I have to go back home now."

"What's so important about home?"

"Those Grixzen are still there!" Kavrin yelled. "They already killed one person and I only made them mad! I've got what they want, I have to go back and help everyone!"

"Is it that rock? What is it?"

"I don't know, but if they want it they can have it! My family's down there. They could be killed!" She held the knife point an inch from his face. "Now take me back."

"I can't."

Kavrin blinked, surprised at the matter-of-factness of the statement. "What?"

"I can't. Well, technically I could. But no."

"Then give me a very, very good reason I shouldn't kill you now."

The Doctor didn't seem flustered. "Because I don't think you can, Kavrin. It's not who you are."

"I'm not me," she said, her voice shaking a bit. "You've changed me. I've got three hearts. My face and voice belong to someone else. My blood isn't even red."

"That's because the red blood, round face, and deeper voice belong to a girl back on Earth. Not you."

"I live on Earth. I've been living there for fifteen years."

"That's not you Kavrin. Never was."

Kavrin swallowed. She wanted to argue, had thousands of memories that protested against the Doctor's words. But something in his face told her he wasn't lying.

"That's not possible," she insisted, retreating from his eyes.

"Word of the Last Time Lord."

"Then…then what am I?"

"You're a copy. You're a replacement for the real Kavrin on Earth, meant to live her life until the day she died. You'll be reclaimed, erased, given a new life and sent to replace someone else."

Kavrin started wheezing, like he'd punched her. Again, she stepped backwards, dropping the knife. "You're lying," she said, still refusing to believe it.

The eyes didn't relent. "Then explain why you knew the aliens at your school were the Grixzen."

Kavrin's eyes widened. "I…I…" Tears came unbidden to her eyes and she dropped to her knees, staring at nothing. "I don't know. I…I don't." She pressed a hand to her mouth.

"I can't go back."

*Constructive criticism welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*

Yes, this story has the same title as another story I have. When I first wrote the original story, I thought it was good. I now know it's not. I'm over-hauling the whole series. Nothing is being added to the storyline. If you really wanted to, you could go read the whole series right now. I suggest you don't. They're really not very good, not the first stories anyway. It'd be a much better idea for you to wait while I post my new chapters.

Thank you.