The Temptation of Sheherezade
Throughout time and space, a rumor arises like the winds in a desert - that the Doctor has gone mad. That he had suffered a betrayal so great and unspeakable that it had opened a vast chasm in his mind and all of the madness he had tried to restrain had been let loose. No longer people, aliens and creatures speak of him with hope… but with fear.
For the great Doctor, the Oncoming Storm is now a friend no more. Whoever approaches his way does not return, whoever tries to speak to him is instantly thrown into the vortex. Because the Doctor now believes that everyone will betray him the way his wife had. It was, of course, understandable. Anyone would.
The Doctor, fearful of all contact to humanity retreated into a cloud above Victorian London and refused to speak to anyone. But as it always happens when one wants to be alone, fate decided to thwart his plans.
She first met the Doctor in Gallifrey where she was his childhood friend that he was bound to forget. He always forgets, but she - never. Not when it comes to him. She was born to save him, after all. She realized this when she first looked into the time vortex.
The Storyteller doesn't see him in all her lives - she doesn't see him in Mars or Barselona (the planet, not the city) for instance because by then she had already learned to close the Door.
But it is difficult to retell this tale because it is scattered across time and space, a thousand and one pieces that she cannot forget. All is happening in parallel - right at this instant, she dies in Paris, is born in New Earth, she saves the Doctor in Byzantium where she is sent by a Weeping Angel back in time and space, to Paris; she befriends a centurion named Roranicus and sleeps with captain Harkness in the 51st century, before he meets her unsuspecting 20th century self and becomes her first love there.
It was Roranicus, unyielding before time, who first told her that she should put all of this information behind a door in her mind and only open this door when it was needed. This was what he did.
Once she failed to open this door in time. There was one time she failed to save the Doctor and it was the one time he most needed her. And the price was great to be paid.
But pay it she would.
"I am looking for the Doctor," the Storyteller told Mme Vastra, as soon as she sat.
The woman quickly removed her veil, her blue eyes staring at her in worry. "For whatever reason, please don't look for him. The Doctor doesn't help people. He kills everyone on his way, and five are already dead."
Clara swallowed. How low had he fallen. "I do not fear him."
"And yet, this would have been the most reasonable reaction." Mme Vastra leaned in her chair. "Who are you?"
Time Lady. Souffle Girl. The Impossible Girl. The Girl Who Died Many Times. The Storyteller. Oswin Oswald. Clara Oswald. Clara.
"I'm the one who will save the Doctor," is all she says. "I've looked into the time vortex and seen all of him - past and present and future. And I will save him."
"You love him," Vastra stated in wonder.
"Isn't it obvious?"
After months of silence, someone knocked on the door of the TARDIS. But who? In the middle of nowhere? Above a cloud? At this point of time?
Perhaps… perhaps it was him. Because of him River did what she did and now- now he had probably come to finish him off.
The TARDIS sounded uneasy.
No. He wouldn't let this villain win. He wouldn't.
But what if it was an innocent?
No, it wouldn't be. Up here? No.
The door opened.
"River?" was the first thing he said.
Clara shook her head, although she wished to take him in her arms as soon as she laid her eyes upon him - he had destroyed himself.
"I am not River Song," she murmured.
He looked at her vehemently and pursued his lips.
"I never said her last name," he said sharply. "You too, work for him, don't you? You work for my brother, the Master."
"Nonsense!" she defended herself. But he didn't hear her.
"You work for him and you want to kill me like he did! Your words won't poison me the way River's did." And he grabbed her by the hand and dragged her into the TARDIS. The design of the ship had changed dramatically. It no longer looked welcoming or magical - it looked like it was sick and dying, uncared for. But she could only see this much, for the Doctor dragged her by the hand in such hurry and he only paused before the console. "What are you, eh? A trick? A trap? Who are you?" he asked while the TARDIS started shaking.
"I'm none of this, I swear! Doctor, you have to believe me!" the Storyteller pleaded. She had not imagined things developing in such chaotic way.
The Time Lord took her by the arm again and led her to the door.
"Why should I believe you? Why should I believe anyone? The last time I did it, I almost ended up killed." And he opened the door. The winds of the vortex were so strong that she was almost pulled away in the instant. She surely would have fallen, had she not grasped the frames of the door.
"Because in Gallifrey there used to be a lonely boy who wanted to see all time and space and made a book of the one thousand and one places he wanted to go to along with his childhood friend. Because after you forgot me and grew old, I was the one who told you to take this TARDIS and not the broken one."
The Doctor looked as if shaken. For the first time he looked at her. Really looked at her and something from somewhere and somewhen long ago flickered in his eyes.
"But you are altogether a human being," he said.
"I consciously believe so," the Storyteller replied, smiling a little.
"But she was a Time Lady!" and it might have sounded so Doctor-like, had it not been said with such despair and vehemence. His patience was running thin again.
"Got scattered across time and space in an accident."
"How can I believe you?" he asked in a hushed, strangled voice.
She sighed. "You can listen to my entire story, and then choose to believe me… Or choose to disbelieve me.
"But you have to hear me, Doctor. Just this once." She felt weary and old. Much too older than him. And the only thing she wanted was to fall into his arms and then she could fall apart - or come back together, it depended on the way one looked at it.
Then, then she could be happy with whatever the world threw at her.
But he had to hear her first.
The time vortex was pulling her still, like a current or a whirlpool. "Doctor!"
A/N: Oh, come on, you all know how the story ends. :)