I was sitting on a banister at the north bank of the Thames right next to the RAF monument, just thinking. It's been over a century now since I've seen my favourite brother Kol. After we had gotten undaggered in 1901, I ran. I didn't want to play happy family with Niklaus, so I left and I've been running ever since.

Suddenly, there was a weird noise and I watched with wide eyes as a blue phone box from the sixties just appeared. Out of nowhere. I mean, I had seen a lot over the past thousand years but a police box appearing out of thin air. I was surprised. Hopefully, that meant that there would be action in my life again. I was getting kind of bored.

"I lost the signal," a man groaned in annoyance "I got so close."

A blond human stumbled after him, staring at her surroundings wide-eyes "We've moved. Does it fly?"

"I doubt it," I spoke up, jumping down to walk over to the two of them "How did it just appear and what was that noise?"

"Disappears here and reappears here," the man waved off "You wouldn't understand. Who are you?"

I raised an eyebrow "Tyra. And you are?"

"The Doctor," he replied, shaking my hand once.

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Doctor," I smiled.

The blonde used that moment to cut in again "I'll have to tell his mother." We both looked at her weirdly "Mickey. I'll have to tell his mother he's dead and you just went and forgot him again. You were right, you are alien."

"Alien?" I frowned, looking the man up and down. The only weird thing that I noticed about him was the fact that he seemed to have two heartbeats "I can't see it."

He waved me off, staring down the blonde girl "Look if I did forget some kid called Mickey."

"Yeah, he's not a kid." What the hell was going on here? Seriously? I know that I asked for something interesting to happen but I hated being in the dark. Was that Doctor really an alien? Was there even such as thing as aliens? Okay, why wouldn't there be? I mean, there are vampires, werewolves and witches. Why shouldn't there be aliens, right?

"It's because I'm trying to save the life of every stupid ape blundering on top of this planet, alright?" the Doctor shouted.

The blonde rolled her eyes "Alright," she yelled back.

"Are you done yelling now?" I snorted in amusement.

"If you're an alien, how come you sound like you're from the North?" the blonde questioned, changing the subject.

The apparent alien shrugged "Lots of planets have a north."

"What's a police public call box?"

I took that question "It's a phone box from the 50s and 60s."

"It's a disguise," the Doctor added, throwing me a curious look. He was probably wondering why I was still around… Why I hadn't run off yet.

"Okay," the girl shrugged "And this, this living plastic. What's it got against us?"

The Doctor shook his head "Nothing. It loves you. You've got such a good planet. Lots of smoke and oil, plenty of toxins and dioxins in the air, perfect. Just what the Nestene Consciousness needs. Its food stock was destroyed in the was, all its protein plants rotted, so Earth, dinner!"

"Any way of stopping it?" the blonde questioned.

"Anti-plastic," the Doctor grinned holding up a tube of blue liquid.

The blonde gaped "Anti-plastic."

"Anti-plastic. But first I've got to find it. How can you hide something that big in a city this small?" the alien frowned and turned to me "What are you still doing here?"

I shrugged "I'm interested. This is way more interesting than wallowing in my thoughts."

"Hold on. Hide what?"

"The transmitter," the Doctor pointed out "The Consciousness is controlling every single piece of plastic, so it needs a transmitter to boost the signal."

The blonde tilted her head "What's it look like?"

"Like a transmitter." Was the unhelpful reply she got "Round and massive, slap bang in the middle of London. A huge circular metal structure like a dish, like a wheel. Radial. Close to where we're standing." The Doctor explained that all, turning his back to the… London Eye "Must be completely invisible."

I smirked "Yeah, completely," I agreed sarcastically "Doctor, think. We're in London. What's huge and circular in London?"

"What?" he frowned.

"Oh God," I groaned "Just turn around, would you?"

He did as I said and whirled around to us again "What?" He turned again when he saw that the other girl apparently caught on "What is it?" Wow. He was a bit dense "Oh," he murmured, finally catching on "Fantastic." The Doctor grabbed our hands and pulled us with him over to the Westminster Bridge "Think of it, plastic all over the world, every artificial thing waiting to come alive. The shop window dummies, the phones, the wires, the cables…"

"The breast implants," the other girl joked.

I stared at her incredulously "Really? That was bad and kind of disturbing."

The Doctor looked like he agreed with me before he shook his head "Still, we've found the transmitter. The Consciousness must be somewhere underneath."

The blonde leaned over the edge of the bridge "What about down there?" She pointed to a large manhole entrance at the bottom of some steps.

"Looks good to me," the alien shrugged and ran down there with us hot on his heels. I had no idea why the blonde was following the man but from what I could see it was… fun. We climbed down a short ladder into a brick-built area with lots of chains. From there we walked through a door and down a flight of steps into a large chamber. I wrinkled my nose at the stench of plastic, fear and something else I couldn't really place "The Nestene Consciousness. That's it, inside the vat. A living plastic creature."

"Well, then. Tip in your anti-plastic and let's go," the blonde murmured, sounding vaguely freaked out. My lips twitched at the beginnings of a sneer. For some reason, that girl was really pissing me off. Maybe that was why I rarely got close to humans around my physical age. They were too naive.

The Doctor stared at her "I'm not here to kill it. I've got to give it a chance." He jogged down to a catwalk overlooking the seething vat "I seek an audience with the Nestene Consciousness under peaceful contract according to convention 15 of the Shadow Proclamation." The stuff inside the vat flexed, looking like Kol tried to make some pudding. Heh, that was one of the best memories I could remember. Once just before we were daggered again in the 1800s, he tried to cook something and almost blew up our house while he was at it "Thank you. If I might have permission to approach?"

The blonde gasped next to me and ran over to where the scent of fear came from "Oh, God! Mickey, it's me. It's okay," she soothed "It's alright."

"That thing down there," the boy gasped "The liquid. Rose, it can talk!" Ah, so that was her name. Rose… I didn't like it. It was so common. I joined the two humans on the platform, my eyes never leaving the Doctor and the stuff in the vat.

"You're stinking," Rose laughed unconcerned "Doctor, they kept him alive."

The Doctor glanced over his shoulder "Yeah, that was always a possibility. Keep him alive to maintain the copy."

"You knew that and you never said?" Rose demanded.

"Can we keep the domestics outside?" the alien groaned, continuing down the stairs "Am I addressing the Consciousness? Thank you. If I might observe, you infiltrated this civilization by means of warp shunt technology. So, may I suggest, with the greatest respect that you shunt off?" I snorted at his cheek while simultaneously trying to remember what he was saying to that thing. A sort of face formed in the vat of plastic and there was a groaning noise "Oh, don't give me that. It's an invasion, plain and simple. Don't talk about constitutional rights. I am talking. This planet is just starting. Thee stupid little people have only learned to walk but they're capable of so much more. I'm asking you on their behalf. Please, just go." I blinked down at him, not quite sure what to make of that speech. He's defending this planet while, at the same time, insulting all of humanity.

"Doctor!" Rose called out in alarm as two shop dummies grabbed the alien from behind.

"That was just insurance," he protested as one of them took the vial of anti-plastic from him "I wasn't going to use it. I was not attacking you. I'm here to help. I'm not your enemy. I swear, I'm not. What do you mean?" A door slid back to reveal the blue box from earlier. That must be of some significance for him and that thing down there, right? Otherwise, I wouldn't have been here "No. Oh, no. Honestly no. Yes, that's my ship." The Doctor paused for a moment "That's not true. I should know, I was there. I fought in the war. It wasn't my fault. I couldn't save your world. I couldn't save any of them."

"What's it doing?" Rose shouted as I ran down to join the man at human speed. There was no way I was giving away what I was yet. Even if this wasn't only a one-time meeting.

"It's the Tardis," the Doctor called back "The Nestene's identified its superior technology. It's terrified. It's going to the final phase. It's starting the invasion. Get out, Rose. Tyra… Just leg it now."

I tilted my head as the vat kept roaring. Over the noise it was making, I could hear the teenager calling her mother of all people… What to do? The dummies were in front of me, holding the Doctor. I just had to find the right spot to push one of them without harming the Doctor in turn. Oh, fuck it. I jumped forward and just kicked it into the vat, freeing its hands from the alien at the same time. At the same time as it fell down, the anti-plastic tipped onto the Nestene Consciousness.

"Thanks," he murmured, pulling me over to the two humans and the box "Now we should probably leave." The Doctor pushed Rose and Mickey into the Tardis, I believe he called it earlier, and closed the door behind us. The same noise I heard earlier sounded up again and the interior started shaking. Wait, awesome! The inside is bigger than the outside. I'm sure that not even Elijah knew about this and he was the one who seemed to know almost everything. It all stopped as soon as it began and the boy stumbled out of the door. I followed him and Rose outside, ignoring them in favour of studying the man in the doorway of the Tardis.

"Nestene Consciousness?" He clicked his fingers "Easy."

I raised an eyebrow "In what world was that easy? You were trapped."

"You're right," he nodded "Thank you. Right then, I'll be off, unless, er, I don't know, you could come with me. Both of you. This box isn't just a London hopper, you know. It goes anywhere in the universe free of charge."

Universe? Well, it was better than to always be on the run from Niklaus… "Is it always like this? And I mean the running and barely getting out thing."

"Yeah," he shrugged.

"Yeah, I can't," Rose mumbled, looking down at her boyfriend "I've got to go and find my mum and someone's got to look after this stupid lump, so…"

The Doctor nodded in disappointment "Okay. What about you then?"

"You met me an hour ago and you want me to come with you?"

"You kept your head in a situation," he pointed out "That's good enough for me at the moment. It warrants at least one trip."

I took a deep breath and smiled slightly "Alright then. I'm in."

The Doctor held out his hand for me to take and pulled me into the Tardis, pulling some levers "You didn't say it…"

"Say what?" I frowned.

"You know, it's bigger on the inside…" he gestured.

I tilted my head "I saw this box appear out of thin air, I'm really not surprised."

The Doctor froze "I forgot something. Hold on." He worked on the console and ran to the doors "By the way, did I mention it also travels in time?"

There was a moment of silence before Rose ran past the Doctor and into the Tardis.