Chapter 1
He was really tired.
The TARDIS was humming something, and he found himself simply walking to his ship right in the middle of the battle. There was no one to stop him, he was alone yet again, and the sudden realisation flashed in his mind: he doesn't really have to do this. He doesn't have to fight without breaks, without companions, without hope. He can actually fly somewhere and somewhen to come back to fight a few seconds later. He's Time Lord after all, the last one, rest assured, but still a Time Lord nevertheless, the time itself was but an instrument in his hands.
So he stood inside his beloved ship, the stolen property that has become his own throughout the time, the ship that was more, so much more than just a ship. If anyone or anything is capable of outliving him, he thought, it's her, the TARDIS. She's always there for him, and this is it.
He has never turned off her translation function, and he decided to do that just for fun. He has never pressed the button for random transportation, and he decided to do that out of sheer curiosity.
The ship flew slow, and he sat in a chair, trying to relax. The fight wasn't easy, and still he could wipe out yet another riotous species from the face of the universe, and no one was there to stop him, to ask him to compromise. He thought of the times when there was someone.
He thought of Rose Tyler, stuck in the parallel universe with a human clone of one of his previous regenerations. Happy Rose, looking in the eyes of her beloved Doctor, who suddenly could understand and act on her feelings instead of standing in awkward silence. As always, he wasn't thinking about himself at all, looking at them as they walked away together. How can he throw out all this love he had for her?
He thought of River Song, unsure of her fate.
He could end up thinking about them all, but the TARDIS stopped flying. He never cared looking at the coordinates, jumping out into the dark street.
A young woman was sitting on a bench, staring in her mobile phone. Her facial expression was nothing close to happy, she looked so lost and lonely - he felt pulled to her.
He couldn't help noticing that seemed to have missed the appearance of the TARDIS. She was wearing headphones and reading a book from her mobile phone, and she seemed completely alien to the world.
"Excuse me," he said loudly and she raised her head, taking her headphones off, "this would sound like a stupid question, but where am I?"
She looked at him perplexed, but then she swallowed and said, "You're in Omsk, Russia. Would you want to know more precise address?"
Russia. Brilliant, from all the places in the universe, TARDIS picked one of the biggest countries that were on Earth throughout the history, and not its capital, but just a city somewhere in Siberia.
"And when am I?" he asked carelessly.
She blinked and took her glasses off for a moment.
"It's summer of 2015," she told him finally, having wiped the glasses with her own shirt.
"How come you know English?" he continued the conversation, sitting beside her.
She smiled, but haven't answered. She finally noticed TARDIS, and went to the ship, her headphones hanging on her neck, the phone still in her hand.
"What is that?" she asked, turning to him for a moment.
"This is my spaceship," he answered, and went to her. "Would you want to take a look at it?"
She hesitated for a moment and then said, "No."
Alright, he thought, now this is something new.
"I won't insist, but why not?" he asked, looking closely at her face.
She shrugged and walked back to the bench. She sat there silent, thinking about something.
Finally she said, "I am not a fan of dangerous stuff. And how do I know you're not a figment of my imagination?"
He couldn't believe what she was saying, so he asked her to repeat that. Maybe it was just her Russian accent? But she said the same.
"A figment of your imagination?" he repeated her words.
"More or less." She smiled.
He took her hand. "Do figments of your imagination do that to you?"
Her hand trembled in his, she looked scared, but suddenly hopeful.
"They do," she answered eventually, "but I've never been able to feel their touch until now." She took her hand away, stood up and looked into his eyes. "Who are you?"
He wished he'd have a name other than his own, or other than the one he used, but he couldn't just lie to her. "I'm the Doctor."
She looked puzzled, but then smiled. "Yeah, people sometimes are fond of giving weird names to their kids. I'm Daria, but if that sounds too hard to pronounce, you can call me Dasha."
She reached out her hand, and since he was sitting at the moment, it was easier to kiss it than to shake it. She laughed. "You are incredibly polite, are you?"
He didn't know what to think, but his face reacted in wide smile already, whereas the words came out thoughtlessly out of his mouth. "It's the best with the people you know nothing about."
She suddenly stopped smiling. After a minute of silence she said, "Two desires fight in me. The one is to be able to ask if you want to know more. The other is to go away from you. I want to trust you, Doctor, I really do, I've run out of people to trust, but it seems I just can't fight it. I rarely mean it when I say it in English, but I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."
She hesitated for a moment and then whispered, "Goodbye, Doctor."
As she walked away, he stood in astonishment, almost numb. A human being who never questioned his behaviour, never cared to look at the TARDIS, who didn't treat his name as something out of the ordinary. What the hell is going on?
He was sure of one thing though - he was ready to continue fighting.