Shades of blue, gold, purple, and red all swirled around me like a silent hurricane of colors. Peeking through the colorful mist were tiny pinpricks of light - stars - and planets of a million different sizes, all of them whizzing past me. Confused, I looked around and realized that I was floating. The mist had formed some kind of vortex around me and I hovered right in the middle of it, my arms and legs mere feet from brushing against the edges. A bolt of lightning shot across the vortex, narrowly missing my face and then-

I stirred, my ears ringing with the echo of a loud, shuddering wheeze. I was on the floor. How did that happen? I started to rub my eyes, but ended up knocking my knuckles against my glasses. I took them off, cleaned them with the corner of my shirt, and then slipped them back on. When I looked up, I expected to see my bedroom wall. Instead, I saw an enormous monster hovering in front of me with its serpentine face spread wide to show its gleaming fangs. I screamed and scrambled backwards on my hands until I ran into something.

I looked over my shoulder to see an overturned metal chair with an orange, plastic seat. "What the-?" I looked back at the monster and sighed in relief when I realized that the monster was just a mural. It wasn't even real. But then I realized something else. I got to my feet and looked around in confusion.

Across the room, perpendicular to the mural, was an open doorway where two people skidded to a stop. One was a tall, thin woman with dark brown skin and short, silver hair shaved on the sides, like mine. A gold stud pierced her right nostril and she wore black trousers with a red lined coat. The second person was much shorter. She was pale and her dark hair was pulled back in a ponytail. And she looked incredibly familiar.

"Diana?" the two women exclaimed.

They both started towards me and I immediately backed away, stumbling over a chair leg and then bumping into a table. I suddenly recognized the younger woman as Clara Oswald. She and the older woman paused; they looked worriedly at me, then at each other.

"Diana?" the older woman asked with a Scottish accent. "What's wrong?"

My voice trembled when I spoke. "Where am I?"

"We don't know yet. We just got here," Clara said. "We heard you scream. What happened?"

I glanced hesitantly at the mural, but didn't allow my eyes to leave the two women for more than a second. The silver haired woman started towards me very slowly, but she stopped again when I backed away. She stared curiously at me and then a second later, her steel blue eyes widened. She stepped back and grabbed Clara's hand as she whispered something in her ear. Clara shook her head, looking between her companion and myself.

"Is this a dream?"

Clara smiled, but her eyes were sad. "Diana-"

"Yes!" the other woman interjected. "Yes, it's a dream."

I furrowed my brows. "Then where's the Doctor?" I questioned. The woman's half smile disappeared and her shoulders dropped. "You are Clara, aren't you?"

"Yes, but-"

"Then where's the Doctor?"

Clara's wide, brown eyes locked on the semi wrinkled face of the woman at her side. She squeezed the woman's hand and smiled again. "She's the Doctor," Clara answered.

The more I looked at the strange woman, the more it made sense. She wore the Doctor's iconic jacket and the golden ring he wore on his left hand. Her hair was much like his: curly and cut short, except for the shaved off parts on either side of her head. But she was a woman and her skin was much darker than his had ever been. Then again, this wouldn't be the first time I've dreamt of a female Doctor, I reminded myself.

"You okay now?" Clara wondered.

"Um. Yeah," I said with a nod.

"Good." Clara dropped the woman's hand - the Doctor - and started across the room. On the left side of the mural, a knife was stuck in the wall. She flicked the handle and it twanged. "Doctor, look at this."

The Doctor looked around, her fidgeting hands clasped in front of her chest. "Well, Clara, looks like you got your wish," she sighed.

I followed the Doctor's example and turned to look at the rest of the room. We were in a cafeteria, but the tables were pushed into odd placements and several chairs had been overturned. Food had been haphazardly thrown across table tops and the floor, and some of the silverware seemed to have been thrown as well. Like the knife Clara had found, a handful of forks and other knives were stuck in other parts of the wall.

"Food fight?" Clara suggested.

"I think there was more to it than that. Whatever it was, it happened pretty recently." I looked back at the Doctor as she twirled her finger in the contents of a cup. "Seven or eight hours ago. No bodies, though."

Bodies? I brushed my hair out of my eyes, then froze as I noticed something different about the far wall. A chill ran up my spine as I spotted a fish swimming through the murky, dark teal water past the enormous windows. Is that the ocean? Please don't be the ocean.

"Oh, yeah." I turned my back to the windows so I wouldn't see the endless mass of water that surrounded the building. Clara walked over to the Doctor with a grin. "You see, this is more like it." She raised her hand and wiggled her eyebrows at the Doctor, waiting for the Time Lord - Lady - to high five her. "Oh, come on. Don't leave me hanging."

The Doctor rolled her eyes and left the room through the same doorway she and Clara had entered through. With a resigned sigh, Clara dropped her hand and started after her. She looked back at me as she stepped through the doorway. "Come on," she urged before disappearing around the corner.

I glanced back at the windows and shivered at the sight, then hurried after the pair. Clara was waiting just outside the doorway and grabbed my hand. She pulled me down the corridor, around a few corners, and released me when she spotted the Doctor a few paces ahead of us. The Doctor looked back at us and smiled; she pointed down the corridor, where two men were kneeling in front of a wall.

"Look," she whispered. "Crew! See? I knew this place hadn't been abandoned." The Doctor glanced back at me, but her expression seemed to fall flat when I quickly looked away. She whispered something to Clara and then started down the corridor.

"Hey." Clara took my hand and laced her fingers with mine. Her fingers were thin and short, and the tips were cold against my skin. "Follow me."

Still several feet ahead of us, the Doctor cleared her throat. "Hello, sailors!" The two men stood and when they turned around, I felt my blood run cold. They were almost translucent and their eyes were nothing more than empty, gaping black holes. Clara tightened her fingers around my hand. "Right, I did not expect that. Hands up, who expected that."

The Doctor backed up, nearly stepping on my feet, but moved to the side at the last minute so she could stand beside me. She took my hand and I instinctively held it tighter. "Wait," she said as the men approached us. "Don't move. I don't think they're going to hurt us. I think that they're just curious."

One of the men stood as tall as the Doctor; he stared at her, lips moving soundlessly, as he tilted his head to the side as if he was inspecting her. The other man, a few inches shorter than the Doctor and still much taller than me, was staring at Clara. Suddenly, both men turned to look at me and leaned closer to my face.

"Are you sure?" Clara asked.

I could see the Doctor shrug from the corner of my eye. "Well, I mean, define sure." She tried to move her head and grab their attention, but the men were focused solely on me. "Look at you lovely chaps. What's happened to you, then?"

Then, as if a switch had been flipped, the men turned and walked away. I let out a breath; had I been holding it the entire time? The Doctor tugged on my hand and looked back at Clara and I, grinning excitedly. "Come on," she murmured.

Clara rubbed her thumb across the back of my hand several times in quick succession. "What are they?"

The Doctor peeked around the corner. "I haven't a clue. Isn't that exciting?"

I shook my head firmly. As the Doctor led us down another corridor, I could feel my hands begin to shake. Ghosts were cool, but not when they were eye-less, murderous, and under water. Based on my experiences with nightmares and my knowledge of the episode this dream seemed to be based upon, I knew that I needed to wake up soon before it got any worse. No dream of Clara and a lady Doctor was worth ghosts going on a killing spree.

The Doctor pulled Clara and I through another doorway, which entered into a large hangar. "Where did they go?" Clara asked, dropping my hand to go ahead of us. On our right was a large, futuristic looking ship with what looked like plane engines attached to the side. "What is it, some kind of submarine?"

The Doctor shook her head as she guided me to the very back of the ship. "No, it's alien," she said. The entire back end of the ship was exposed, revealing the pure white interior and minimalistic design.

Clara spun around on her toes and looked between the Doctor and I. I glanced up at the Time Lady, who wiggled her eyebrows and started for the stairs leading into the ship. Clara followed her with a grin and an excited hop in her step. There was a large, white rectangle in the center of the shallow room and nothing else. The Doctor ran her hand along the edge of the object, her skin seemingly darker against the surface.

The dream's only just starting, I told myself. I closed my eyes and tried to block out the sound of Clara's heels on the floor of the ship. You've done this before, Diana. Just wake up. You can dream about pretty ladies another time when there aren't creepy ghosts involved.

Normally when I managed to force myself out of a bad dream, I could feel my head spinning as I woke up. But when I opened my eyes, I was still in the large hangar and there was no spinning sensation in my head. The Doctor was still a woman and she was still inspecting the ship with Clara.

I closed my eyes again. Come on. Just wake up. I don't want to be stuck under God knows how much water with scary ass ghosts! Wake up-

"Diana?" The Doctor's Scottish accent drew me out of my thoughts. She was standing at the top of the stairs with Clara beside her, both of them staring wide eyed at me. "Don't turn 'round."

Of course, I immediately turned around and gasped when I spotted the two ghosts standing just a few paces away. I backed away as quickly as I could without tripping, my eyes glued to the ghosts who stared silently at us as they continued to mouth words that neither of us could understand. A hand rested on my shoulder and I jumped, looking up to see the Doctor standing at my side.

"Don't panic," she whispered to me. She glanced down at me and her smile was somehow reassuring. "Take my hand." Her voice was low and serious. Once I wrapped my fingers around her hand, the Doctor looked back at the ghosts. "Hello there! Did you want to show us this? It's very nice."

The shorter ghost turned around and lifted an axe off of its hook on the wall. Clara inhaled sharply as she stood on the Doctor's other side, her arms waving nervously. "Okay, they now appear to be arming themselves."

The Doctor pushed me in the direction of a nearby exit. "Yes, I spotted that, too," she said as she urged me forward. The other ghost grabbed what looked like a harpoon gun and began to approach us. I felt my heart pound against my ribcage as the ghosts rounded on us. The sound of the axehead dragging along the stone floor made my ears ring. "Was it something Clara said? She does that. She once had an argument with Gandhi!"

The axe swung through the air and the Doctor yanked Clara out of the way just in time. We all stumbled backwards, the Doctor continuously looking over her shoulder at the nearby exit. The taller ghost aimed his harpoon gun at us and without hesitating, I ripped my hand from the Doctor's grasp and bolted for the exit. I could hear the Doctor calling my name, but I kept running and rounding corners to put as much distance between me and the ghosts as possible.

I stopped a minute later, breathing heavily as I leaned against the corridor wall. Clara and the Doctor caught up to me a few moments later. They pressed themselves against the wall on either side of me, the Doctor sparing a few quick glances around the doorway to see if the ghosts had followed us.

"Are they gone?" Clara whispered.

"Wait."

A hand appeared next to my head and I yelped I surprise as I stumbled to the other side of the corridor. Clara reached for my arm as she stepped away from the ghost casually walking through the metal wall. The Doctor grabbed Clara by the arm and pushed her to the side, out of the ghost's way. I turned to flee, but skidded to a halt when I saw the other ghost emerge from the floor past an intersection.

Clara tugged on my arm. "Run!" she ordered.

We all turned right, down one of the other corridors that met at the intersection. The corridor ended several paces away at a large metal door, which suddenly opened to reveal a group of people behind it.

"In here!" a woman yelled. "Quick!"

Clara reached the door first, the Doctor just behind her. The Time Lady pulled me through the doorway by my arm and the door immediately slammed shut. I bent over slightly as I tried to catch my breath, while my companions looked through the round window in the door at the ghosts. I leaned against the curved wall of the room and let my breath start to even out. "What are you?" the Doctor whispered.

"Who the hell are you, and what are you doing here?"

The man's voice cut through the tense silence and I jumped. The Doctor turned away from the window and looked curiously at the man for a moment. Then she reached into her coat pocket and pulled out her psychic paper. "This is Clara, Diana, and I'm the Doctor," she said.

The occupants of the room were two women, both short and pale, and three men, two of which were dark skinned like the Doctor was. They all leaned forward to read the Doctor's psychic paper and one of the men exclaimed, "You're from UNIT!"

"Well, if that's what it says," the Doctor replied with a half smile.

The man with light blond hair gestured to himself and then to the man standing on his right. "I'm Pritchard, this is Bennett."

Before he could continue however, a short woman suddenly leapt in front of the Doctor and grabbed her hand. "O'Donnell!" she exclaimed as she excitedly shook her hand. "Are you really the Doctor? I'm a huge fan!" She giggled and then, realizing that everyone was staring at her, cleared her throat and attempted a serious expression. "I mean, er, you know. Nice work."

The third man waved his hand at the Doctor, grabbing her attention. "Tim Lunn, I sign for Cass," he said.

"Tell me, what about those things out there?" the Doctor asked as she gestured behind her. "What are they? Why are they trying to kill us?"

"Well, they're- uh, they're ghosts," Bennett stammered.

The Doctor flashed him an incredulous expression. "They're not ghosts."

The woman who stood beside Lunn began rapidly moving her hands in sign language. Lunn started to translate, but the Doctor cut him off. "Thank you, but I actually don't need your help. I can speak sign." She turned to Cass and signed as she spoke. "Go ahead."

Cass looked startled for a moment, but then shook it off and began signing again. After just a few seconds, the Doctor shook her head. "No, no, actually, I can't," she sighed. "It's been deleted for semaphore. Someone get me a selection of flags."

"One of the ghosts is our previous commanding officer," Lunn translated. "The other, um, moley guy - we don't know what he is."

The Doctor looked out the window at the taller ghost, who looked more like a Who from Whoville than a mole. "He's from the planet Tivoli."

"See? I told you he was an alien. Didn't I say that?" Bennet asked as he began pacing around the room.

The Doctor hummed thoughtfully. "Weird thing is, they're not violent. They're too cowardly. They wouldn't say boo to a goose. They're more likely to give the goose their car keys and bank details. When did they first appear?"

"Did you see that spaceship in the hangar? Yeah, we found that on the lake bed and we'd just got it on board and one of the engines started up and then Moran got-." O'Donnell halted mid sentence and she visibly swallowed her tears. When she finished, her voice was soft and low. "Moran was killed."

Lunn began translating for Cass again. "Then they appeared and pretty much straight away started trying to kill us. So we grabbed what we could and we were looking for somewhere to hide, and that's when we realized the ghosts couldn't come in here."

"What is this place?" Clara wondered, wrapping her hand around the Doctor's elbow.

"It's a Faraday cage," she explained. "Completely impenetrable to radio waves and, apparently, whatever those things are out there." I looked around the small, circular room and noticed the metal slates attached the the walls, which were likely what made the Faraday cage impenetrable. "So, who's in charge now? I need to know who to ignore."

"That would be me. Er, her," Lunn corrected himself with a gesture to Cass.

The blond man spoke up again. "Actually, that would be me." He reached into his shirt pocket and handed a yellow and black business card with his name and title written on it to the Doctor. "I represent Vector Petroleum. We've obtained the mining rights to the oil."

"The oil?" Clara repeated. "What oil?"

"And where are we?" the Doctor added, flinging Pritchard's business card onto the floor.

Bennett readjusted his glasses. "This used to be a military training site. There was a dam overlooking it, but the dam burst and the valley was submerged."

"Then twenty years ago, we discovered a massive oil reservoir underneath it,"Pritchard said as he tucked the business card back into his pocket.

A low hum sounded in the cage and the lights suddenly brightened. A computerized voice began speaking from somewhere in the ceiling. "Good morning," said the vaguely pleasant voice. "Entering day mode."

O'Donnell smiled as Cass opened the door. "Okay, it's morning," the woman said with a sigh of relief. "We can go outside now."

I peeked around the open door to find the lights brightly illuminating the outside walkways and no sign of the ghosts. Pritchard and O'Donnell left first, with Lunn trailing out slowly behind them.

"Uh, morning?" Clara said.

Bennett grabbed a towel off a hook on the wall and draped it over his shoulders. "Yeah, we're too far below the surface for daylight, so we have to create artificial days and nights."

The Doctor's hands were restless and fidgety as she glanced outside. "I'd like to have a further look at that spaceship, but what about those things that aren't ghosts?"

"Oh, it's all right. They only come out at night."

Clara looked back at the Doctor and tried to smile. "Weird how that is not comforting."

The crew led us back to the hangar at the Doctor's request. She remained at the front of the group with Pritchard and Bennett, trying to learn more about the ghosts and the base. Clara stayed back with me, not speaking but occasionally looking at me when she thought I couldn't see her. Cass and Lunn trailed behind us at the very back of the group, signing quickly to each other, with O'Donnell right in front of them.

"You okay?" Clara whispered to me after a few minutes.

The Doctor happened to glance back at us then and I saw an unreadable flash of emotion in her eyes. She quickly looked away and continued talking with Pritchard. "Um, yeah, I guess," I mumbled.

"It's just, you're really quiet."

"I have a headache," I lied.

She reached for my hand, but pulled away the moment our fingers touched. It was impossible not to notice the hurt and frustrated expression on Clara's face. Had I done something wrong? Why does she keep grabbing my hand?

"Clara?"

"Hm?"

I swallowed a little nervously. "Why did you do that?"

"Do what?" she asked, not quite looking me in the eyes.

"Try to hold my hand?"

Clara shrugged and fiddled with one of her rings. "Instinct, I guess. We should catch up to the others. They're getting a little ahead of us," she said quickly.

Just ahead of the Doctor, a panel in the wall slid open to reveal the hangar and the alien ship inside. With her hands stuffed inside her trouser pockets, the Doctor raised her voice slightly while Clara and I quickened our pace. "If whatever they are-"

"They're ghosts," Pritchard said.

"They're not ghosts - have been trying to kill you, why haven't you abandoned the base?" she continued.

Pritchard waved his hand somewhat dismissively. "Oh, that was my call. We've got about a trillion dollars worth of mining equipment here." The Doctor stopped walking then, making the rest of us pause as well. "We're not just going to abandon it- What?" Pritchard asked, glancing curiously at the Doctor. "If it all goes pear-shaped, it's not them that lose a bonus."

Clara and I stood slightly behind the Doctor, but I could still see her face. I watched her approach Pritchard with a surprisingly calm expression. She patted him lightly on the arm and smiled sweetly. "It's okay. I understand. You're an idiot." She brushed past him and started across the room, turning on her heels to face the rest of the group as we all trailed after her. "Come to mention it, why is there a Faraday cage on the base?"

"It's the mining equipment," Bennett explained. "It runs on nuclear fission. The Faraday cage has been lined with lead to act as a shelter in the event of a radiation leak."

The Doctor's gray, bushy eyebrows raised and her lips curled into a mischievous smile. "So, we are fighting an unknown homicidal force that has taken the form of your commanding officer and a cowardly alien, underwater, in a nuclear reactor. Anything else I should know? Someone got a peanut allergy, or something?"

She and Clara started inside the ship, excitement and curiosity written plainly across their faces. The Doctor was pacing across the front of the ship, staring at the floor and tapping the toe of her shoe against it. She mumbled something to herself, stroked her chin thoughtfully, and then crouched down to remove a panel from the floor. Glancing up at Clara with another unreadable expression, she started back down the steps.

"What's happened to the stuff you've removed? This is for long haul flights. There should be a suspended animation chamber for the pilot right here," she said, pointing to the floor just behind her. "Plus, one of the power cells is missing."

"Power cell?" Pritchard repeated, hurrying up the steps.

The Doctor hummed. "You can see the casing is empty."

The rest of the crew filed into the ship and grouped around the panel in the floor, everyone except for Cass and Lunn. They had stayed back and were signing rapidly to each other. I watched them for a few moments before giving up on trying to understand them. The Doctor and Clara were concentrated solely on the panel and the crew and whatever seemed to be missing from the ship.

"It's not safe out here!" Lunn shout-whispered, making me and the others look towards him.

"What's the matter?" Clara asked as she started down the stairs.

Gesturing to Cass in frustration, Lunn said, "She won't let me look inside the spaceship. She says it's not safe. I'm saying it's not safe out here."

"I imagine they're pretty valuable," Pritchard said.

The Doctor looked sharply at him. "What?"

"I-I mean powerful. Those power cells. I imagine they're pretty powerful."

The Doctor hummed and barely suppressed an eye roll. "Well, they can zap a vessel from one side of the galaxy to the other, so, you know, take a wild stab in the dark."

"Then the missing one must still be out there."

"Yes, well, otherwi- Sorry," she said, looking at O'Donnell in exasperation, "why is this man still talking to me?"

Pritchard started down the stairs and stood off to the side, eyeing the others silently. The Doctor, O'Donnell, and Bennett exited the ship as Pritchard slipped away to the other side of the room. He glanced over his shoulder and our eyes met. He paused and I quickly looked away, crossing my arms over my chest. When I looked back at him a few seconds later, he had disappeared.

The Doctor moved to stand beside me with Clara just behind her. "So what have we got?" she asked, looking briefly at me with raised eyebrows and an almost-there smile. "Moran dies, and then those things appear. They can walk through walls. They only come out at night and they're sort of see-through."

Clara shook her head, watching the Time Lady pace. "Doctor, wait, you're not saying…?"

"I might be."

"Might I suggest we move to the bridge?" O'Donnell said, glancing between the Doctor and Clara. "We really should be checking the systems by now and we can get you more information on these things, whatever they are, there."

"Could I ask," Bennett said later on our way to the bridge, "why you're wearing pajamas?"

I looked down at my baggy, oversized sleep shirt, patterned cotton pants, and socks. Usually I wore nightgowns or just a shirt and underwear to bed, but it had been cooler than normal the previous night. My stomach churned and I suddenly felt a little off. I stammered a few nonsense words in confusion, unsure of how to respond until Clara answered for me.

"Oh, she was just taking a nap when we got here. She didn't really have time to change because we didn't want to leave her alone in the TARDIS, but the Doctor knew something was wrong and we had to investigate."

"Not even time to get shoes?" Bennett laughed.

I shrugged and attempted a smile. "I forgot," I mumbled, hoping he would drop the question and leave.

We entered the bridge, a well lit room with more white walls and decorated with several control panels, a computer station, and a yellow tinted map displayed near the entrance. There was a large, white table in the center of the room with a few chairs on either side. Bennett and O'Donnell both pulled out a chair and sat down, Bennett's rolling backwards slightly. Cass leaned up against the wall and Lunn moved to stand by the computer station on the far end of the room. Clara pulled out a chair for me and just as I sat down, the Doctor exclaimed, "They're ghosts!"

She had been silent the entire time, ignoring everyone else even when they stared at her in confusion. She laughed and started towards Bennett, grabbing his hand and shaking it excitedly as she walked past him. "Yeah, ghosts," she said.

Clara and I shared a look and she leaned one arm against the back of my chair. "You said there was no such thing," she said. "You actually poo pooed the ghost theory."

"Yes, well, well, there was no such thing as- as socks or smartphones and badgers until there suddenly were! Besides, what else could they be?" she countered, pacing around the entire perimeter of the room. "They're not holograms, they're not flesh avatars, they're not autons, they're not digital copies bouncing around the Nethersphere. No, these people are literally, actually, dead." She paused for a moment and then leaned back against the table, shaking her head. "Wow. This is- it's amazing! I've never actually met a proper ghost!"

Cass began signing again, this time visibly upset. "Moran was our friend."

Stepping around the table, Clara lightly tugged on the Doctor's wrist. "The cards," she whispered, just loud enough that I could barely hear her.

The Doctor frowned and then her eyebrows shot up. "Oh! Oh, right you are." She hurried to the head of the table, next to me, and fumbled around in her coat pocket for something.

Clara sighed and stuck her hand in the Time Lady's pocket, pulling out what looked like a stack of prompt cards. She shuffled through each of them until finally choosing one and handing the stack to the Doctor. The Doctor cleared her throat and looked seriously at the card. "I'm very sorry for your loss," she began. "I'll do all I can to solve the death of your friend slash family member slash pet."

The crew all looked at each other, then back at the Doctor, and Clara just shook her head. She took the cards back and shoved them into her coat pocket, sighing with a resigned expression.

The Doctor looked at the crew and smiled. "But don't you see what this means? Death! It was the one thing that unified every single living creature in the universe and now it's gone. How can you just sit there? Don't you want to go out there right now, wrestle them to the ground and ask them questions until your throat falls out? What's death like? Does it hurt? Do you still get hungry? Do you miss being alive? Why can you only handle metal objects? Oh, I didn't know I'd noticed that," she mumbled, obviously surprised. "Okay, so they'll try to kill you. Blah, blah, blah. What does that matter? You come back! A bit murder-y, sure, but even so!" She paused again, taking a deep breath and making a smoothing motion with her hand. "Calm, Doctor, calm. You were like this when you met Shirley Bassey." She shook her head and the excitement passed slightly. "Okay. Question one. What is a ghost? Question two. What do they want?"

Suddenly, the lights overhead shut off and the room fell into darkness only illuminated by the pale yellow lights behind the map and stationed along the floors. O'Donnell jumped up and looked to the computer station.

"Good evening," the overhead computer voice said. "Entering night mode."

"That's not right," O'Donnell said, her hands flying across the keyboard as she checked the systems. "We're switching back into night mode again. This can't happen! No, no, no!"

A loud, echoing bell sounded in the distance and I half jumped out of my seat. Clara and the Doctor glanced at me, then the Doctor looked off into the distance as if she could see her ship through the walls. The cloister bell continued ringing, low and ominous as the lights seemed to flicker.

"The TARDIS," the Doctor muttered.

"Doctor? Doctor!" Clara cried as the Time Lady ran off.

I leapt out of my chair and ran after the two women, the Doctor several paces ahead of us both as she darted through the base. We skidded to a halt when we reached an intersection, almost falling myself as my socks slipped on the floor, the Doctor already scrambling inside. The TARDIS loomed in front of us, reaching nearly double my height, and the light on top blinked slowly as I stared agape at her. A low hum sounded from inside the ship and Clara quickly hurried after the Doctor.

I stared spellbound at the ship instead, hardly believing my own eyes. I peeked through the door left ajar and felt my heart skip a beat or two. A metal walkway ran from the doors to the middle of the room, where an enormous console stretched from floor to ceiling. Metal railings encircled the entirety of the room on two separate levels, the top level decorated with bookcases, a leather chair, and a chalkboard.

"It must be the ghosts," the Doctor said as she circled the console. I stepped onto the metal walkway and cautiously rested my hand on the railing. "That's why she was upset when we got here."

Clara waved her hand and smoke billowed around her face. "Why? I don't understand."

"It's just what I was saying. You live and you die. That's it. The ghosts are aberrations. A splinter of time in the skin. They're unnatural." Looking up at the spinning cogs attached to the ceiling, the Doctor said, "She wants to get away from them."

"So, what do we do?"

Grabbing something on the console, the Doctor yanked her hand down and the cloister bell suddenly stopped. The engines that had been groaning seconds earlier faded away and the red lights switched to white. The door shut behind me and I jumped, eyeing the wooden panel suspiciously.

The Doctor furrowed her brows as she looked around. "Put the handbrake on."

I stepped further down the walkway, my eyes flinching across every inch of the room. The smoke was quickly dissipating as I stepped onto the main platform, my toes curling when I felt grating instead of solid ground through my socks. The ship hummed softly when my fingers hesitantly brushed the console. Warmth spread from my fingers through my arm and settled in my belly and although I had been scared and confused before, those worries seemed suddenly less… worrying.

It was then that I noticed both Clara and the Doctor watching me. I quickly looked away and withdrew my hands so they were folded over my chest again. The Doctor approached me and leaned against the console, awkwardly scratching her chin. "Did you, er, did you want to change clothes?" she asked softly. "Maybe get some shoes?"

I glanced at my feet and nodded. "Yeah."

She turned and pointed to a small set of stairs that led from the console platform to a lower level of the room. "There's a doorway just down there. The TARDIS will show you where to go."

Nodding in thanks, I hurried down the steps and through the doorway. There was a double hallway that led to the left and right with a wall directly in front of me. The lights laid into the walls of the left hallway flashed. Sparing the opposite hallway a glance, I started towards the lights. There was a closed doorway with a button at the end, only a few paces away, and as I approached the door I heard Clara start to speak.

"You're distancing yourself," she said, her voice drifting down the hallway.

"You picked up on that, did you?"

Clara sighed. "Look, it hurts me just as much as it hurts you. But she needs both of us, Theta, you know that."

I moved so I was leaning against the wall with my head titled in the direction of the console room. "I thought I was ready," the Doctor said softly and I strained to hear her properly. "I thought I could handle this. But the way she looks at me, like- like I'm not real-"

"Like you're a dream."

"I was thinking of… leaving earlier. Just leaving the base so I could show her, prove to her that it's not a dream. This isn't what I wanted her first memories to be of."

"I know. But there's nothing we can do to change that now. We're here and I know you won't actually leave. Not when all their lives are at stake."

The TARDIS groaned then and I pushed off of the wall. The light above the doorway blinked and I quickly pressed the button, hurrying through as the door opened and closed with a low hiss. The ship had clearly directed me to the wardrobe. The room was about the size of a regular store with rows and rows of clothing hanging up on portable racks. There was a full-size mirror at the front of the room, held a few inches off the ground by a stand and a chair right next to it. A pair of jeans, a few shirts, and a skirt were folded on top of the cushion.

Something tells me these are going to fit, I thought with a smile. Luckily enough for me, I'd gone to bed with a sports bra and underwear the night before and didn't have to worry about finding new undergarments. I quickly changed into the more comfortable looking shirt, a black v-neck, and considered the skirt. It was ankle length with diagonal black and white stripes, and didn't require a belt like the jeans would. Comfortable and easy to run in. Skirt it is.

Placed against the wall behind me was a large case full of shelves with dozens of shoes. I opted for a pair of sandals that strapped behind my foot at my Achilles tendon and then headed back to the console room. As I rounded the corner, I froze mid-step and felt my jaw fall open as I spotted Clara and the Doctor hugging. The Doctor was leaning against the console, her arms loose around Clara's hips and her lips pressed to Clara's temple.

"What the hell?" I whispered.

Clara spotted me first, quickly pulling out the Doctor's arms and walking around the console towards me as I stepped onto the platform. She smiled bashfully at me and tucked the longer strands of her bangs behind her ears. The Doctor completely avoided looking me in the eyes and fiddled with a few of the switches on the console.

"Hey," Clara said. "You look nice."

I smiled and adjusted my glasses, noticing that she'd taken off her leather jacket. "Thanks."

"You ready to go?"

"Yeah."

Starting for the doors with a spring in her step, Clara gestured to the Doctor with a wave of her hand. "Come on, then!"

The Doctor hurried after her, shaking her head. "Whoa! Ho, ho, ho, ho! Where do you think you're going?"

Clara furrowed her brows in confusion. "Out there, where the action is."

Scratching her head, the Doctor turned towards the console for a moment. "Look, you, er-"

"What? What is it?"

"This is my own fault," the Time Lady sighed. "I like adventures as much as the next person. If the next person is a person who likes adventures. Even so, don't- don't go native."

"What do you mean? I'm not."

The Doctor gestured emptily. "Look, there's a whole dimension in here, but there's only room for one me."

"Now wait a second. You just raved about ghosts like a kid who had too much sherbet! And besides, Di basically gets to be you two point O." Clara protested.

"Oh, d'you know what you need? You need a hobby."

Clara laughed and shook her head. "I really don't."

"Or even better, another person in our relationship." I looked at the Doctor like she was insane. "Come on, you lot, you're bananas about relationships! You're always writing songs about them, or going to war, or getting tattooed."

"That's not how we work and you know it."

"I know, but-"

"Doctor, I'm fine."

The Doctor ran a hand through her hair and then looked down at her hands. "I just felt that I-I-I had to say something," she stammered.

"I know." Stepping forward, Clara smoothed her hands over the Doctor's coat lapels. "And I appreciated it."

"Because I've got a duty of care," the Doctor continued, her eyes flitting across her companion's face almost worriedly.

Clara smiled. "Which you take very seriously, I know."

"So can I stop now?" the Doctor asked, looking physically uncomfortable as she continued speaking.

Nodding with a little laugh, Clara patted her hands on the Time Lady's shoulders and stepped back. She opened the doors and stepped outside. The Doctor motioned towards the door, wordlessly offering for me to go before her. As we left the TARDIS, O'Donnell's voice came over the speakers.

"Attention, all crew. The Drum has switched to night mode early so grab provisions and make your way to the Faraday cage."

Clara looked to the Doctor and started chewing on her fingernails. "Shall we help them with provisions?"

"You can help with provisions. Diana and I will go back to the bridge."

"Alright. See you in a bit then."

She went off down one of the corridors to our right and the Doctor watched her for a few moments before starting down a different one. The walk to the bridge was perhaps one of the most painfully awkward few minutes of my entire life. I was still reeling from seeing the Doctor and Clara embrace so comfortably and freely, and from the realization that they were in a relationship. Was I was 'one of those' shippers who firmly believed they were in love? Absolutely, but actually seeing confirmation in a semi-realistic manner was more than a little confusing, dream or not.

Author's Note:

A reimagining of my previous stories in the 'Once Upon Another Time' series. I stumbled across some beautiful fan art of gender/racebent Doctors on tumblr and knew immediately that I had to write a story about it. Basically, the Doctor and the Master are women (most of the time) and very unstraight women at that, Time Lords are genderfluid, Clara's bi, the Doctor and Di are polyamorous, and Di is the most pansexual person you will ever meet. She might even rival Jack and River. There's a link to the fan art on my main account and you can have a looksie at each of the Doctors.

Thanks for reading. Please leave a review to let me know what you liked, didn't like, what I could improve on, what you'd like to see in the future, and what episodes you want me to do most.