Chapter 2

Gallifreyan: "Hello."

Telepathy: 'Hello.'

-x-x-x-x-x-x-

It's a wonderful feeling when you've given up thinking anyone else had survived only to find another one had, another who could completely relate to you. His other companions knew what Daleks were, but they never really saw the real might of the Daleks. They had seen the scavengers, the mad, the hybrids and had feared those for the Doctor himself had feared them. It seemed natural to them to fear something that made the Doctor's blood run cold. Truth to be told, had anyone shown a picture of the Daleks to the Doctor without telling him anything about them, he would have scoffed at the picture and called them trash bins or something along the lines. Even the cybermen looked more menacing than those funny looking trash bins. Getting upgraded was something more 'fearsome' than these trash bins with funny voices. The Doctor often reminded himself that this reaction he had to Daleks was often a conditioned response to the time he spent fighting them. While he had comparatively less time fighting them than this girl that was now sleeping in the bed, he had a penchant of finding trouble or trouble had a penchant of finding him, which ever anyone preferred to think otherwise. It was after all rather true. Even with his best efforts, he was often placed in situations that were far less optimal than anyone would have wanted to be placed regularly – finding himself alone with ten daleks on the ground, finding himself against a small fleet of daleks with only the Tardis he owned and that someone's Tardis he once treasured dearly, the list goes on.

She had tried to tell him as much as she could remember and it was very little. She remembered the never-ending war and she was from a Warrior's house so that made her one of the first few that were sent out as the frontline. Her HADS had gone off in battle then something had happened. She didn't remember what only that she felt the compulsion to work on her Tardis because it was the last piece of Gallifrey. Her Tardis must have boosted her senses which allowed her to hear him during her several of her naps under the Tardis. She had said naps but it didn't take much for the Doctor to pick up that she really meant that she had driven her body to the point where it shut itself off to catch up on all the lost sleep. For any Time Lord to be able to drive their bodies to do that meant that they must have at least not slept a wink for over two months, the Doctor knew that all too well having succumbed to that previously.

The Doctor sat stiffly on the chair by the bed. He watched her chest rise and fall. Four hours later and he was unable to bring himself to believe that someone had survived the Time War. He could feel her mental presence, what a glorious feeling it was. He was fearful that it was all a terrible hallucination and that the terribly boring boredom has finally terrified his mind into hallucinating him someone to keep him company. Of course, he was also contemplating how he was going to tell her about how the Time War ended. She had not gotten around asking any questions due to the regeneration sleep – praise the regeneration sleep. He owed her the truth. He owed himself to tell any survivors the truth. He also feared the Judgement that would change the way she looked at him. The Master had been different. He had fled from battle and hid himself from it at the end of the universe. He was also the Doctor's best friend. It was difficult to gauge what the reaction would be when the Doctor told her what had happened. The Doctor was not sure he would be able to bear it if she would just walk out his Tardis and never spoke to him again. Or even stare at him with hateful eyes. Would she try to kill him? Even hundreds of years later, he still had nightmares of that time to time. The Doctor twiddled his thumbs. His lips pressed thinly. There really wasn't much of a reason for him to creepily watch her sleep, he supposed. Yes, creepy would definitely be the word anyone would use if they woke up to a stranger staring down at them. He could do with a cup of tea and some jelly babies then maybe he would put the bottom of Tardis to some respectable looking state. That sounded like a fine plan.

The Doctor having a plan, who would have ever considered this day to be happening?

-x-x-x-x-x-x-

The Tardis was burning. She had withstood 30 daleks beams but apparently the last one was out to disarm their Force-field.

"Tell me you can fix it!" Luton yelled to her who was below the Tardis. It was not a question.

"I can fix it! Of course I can fix it. But I need eight hours to fix it."

Luton frowned at her statement. It was a decision that would affect all of them. His voice was flat when he called out his next orders.

"Set course for the Artron Cannon. Dead straight ahead."

"What?" The sound of the other 3 yelled out. "What about-"

"The rest of the Euler 13 Century has been decimated. We're the last ones left. We were tasked on handling this side. If we lose this side, the Daleks will be able to break in. Anestes, tell the remaining to blink."

They fell into their roles, preparing for the canon. The tension was so thick that you could cut it with a knife as Chesryl began to calculate for the Artron Cannon. "Artron Cannon in 3. 2. 1."

The duo pushed the buttons, activating the Tardis blink. The Tardis flickered out and back a spilt second after the Artron Cannon detonated. 80% of the Daleks had been destroyed. With the Vortex Lance, Anestes made short work of the rest. Navi was still doing her best to fix their force field when they returned to the city. By the time she left, she had fixed enough so the Tardis could repair the rest of it. The Tardis could probably have fixed all of it herself, but there were things that even Navi wanted to fix herself. Intricate things and little mods she had made over the years.

The other three had been called into a briefing that was on-going and she supposed it was time for her to appear. She was not really keen on it. Pausing at the window, she took in the dark skies and shining moons. The dark red grass seemed to wave in the dry wind. Outside was still seemed so peaceful that it made the war just above in the space appear like a dream. She could see the silver leaved trees glinting as the wind blew across the fields. However in the city, a penumbra of despair had settled over the city with them bringing the news of their century wiped out. Their century had lasted the longest out in the front lines, holding the brink of wars to the outermost edges of Gallifrey's influence. It was the same wind that blew, but in here, Navi was beginning to smell the cusp of fear from even the non-warrior and lower Houses.

The war never gave the impression to normal Gallifreyans that it was ever real. It was only bits of conversations and parts of news that were vague. Only the Warrior Houses had been called to arms and only the Council Houses had been active in decisions related to the war.

"Na- they're re-allocating us to Dirac 5 Century."

Navi turned to the voice. Lost in her thoughts, she had not realized the meeting had ended and her other 3 crew had left the room and joined her beside the glass observatory.

"Dirac 5 Century. Where are they at?"

"30852/8940by42,751/acorn, 89712/860"

"Far." She did not need to continue her unspoken thoughts for all 4 of them knew what it implied. They were intelligent enough to guess the Council's attempts. It did hurt and none of them could fault the Council. They had survived the frontlines for 170 years, 3 months and 507 hours if you counted linearly. It was difficult to keep track of time when you were popping back and forth in time. There was only 1,007 other Tardises out there that had achieved such a record. 1,007 sounds like a lot of Tardises, but this pale in comparison to how many had been sent out. Sent out into the really bad frontlines where very few had returned from and they had returned each time. All of them had unwittingly become a beacon of hope and in a vague sense, war heroes. Dirac 5 Century was no different. Yet another hopeless battlefield, another frontline.

"Maya will need at least 1 hour. Then I'll need to upgrade some parts. There are some new Type 104 parts that may be compatible."

"Anything we may need to learn?"

Navi shook her head. She had picked out parts of the 104 and 105 to add them on, but she hadn't just been thinking of the newer types. The older types had several good parts that had been phased out. She had picked them out piece by piece each time they had returned to the Tardis's farms. No one would notice if two or three pieces went missing. She was quite certain that the Tardis's mechanics, at least the ones in this city, even knew of her borrowing them. They seemed rather conveniently placed nearby each time she had landed. Navi wasn't going to question. If the shoe fit, she would take it.

"How long until we have to leave?"

They travelled by Tardis obviously. They could be anywhere in the universe on time. But that wasn't the real question. Navi was on board not just as a mechanic and a pilot, she was mildly inspired. She saw the future timelines that was directly 15 minutes and 20 seconds ahead. Too weak for anything big and momentous but real combat, it was a godsend.

"About now." She nodded at the city. "Or stay and we'll need some guns. If we leave now, we'll go directly into combat as well. 3 fleets. 54 Daleks."

The three of them exchanged looks. Physical combat was not their forte. Anestes was the one of the best in Tardis lance cannon combat, Chesryl and Navi was the best in evading and blinking in and out. To leave the city would be to leave it almost defenceless. The warrior houses had sent out all their members. This was a remote city far North of capital, it was hardly expected to be one that would be attacked.

"11 minutes and 9 seconds."

Luton had spun around, calling the guards to arms.

Navi spun around. The scene was different now. The ground splotched and crunched beneath her feet. She ran. Her hearts were beating loudly in her ears. Her lungs were burning. Her respiratory bypass was about to end.

4

She leapt out.

3

Not bothering to aim, she pulled the trigger.

2

Ducking, she rolled.

1

She pulled the trigger as soon as she reached the other side, not bothering to even aim. She had seen it. The dalek that was aiming for one of the citizens would die. He was an important man. Her foresight had impressed it upon her even if she couldn't see it completely. The man turned to look at her. Dressed in green velvet with the curliest hair she seen in the last 50 decades. He opened his mouth, calling out possibly. He reached out to her. Pointing.

0

A shock ripped through her. She could see the fire leaping on her arms. Anestes and Luton were shooting at the Daleks behind her. Chesryl crouched beside her. His arms enveloping her, he kissed her hair with a sob as it got caught in his throat on the way up. The man she saved was nowhere to be seen.

'Goodbye,' Chesryl traced down her face and moved away. There were no tears in his eyes. Warrior Houses don't cry.

She gave a weak smile before letting the glow encompass her lanky body. How it burnt.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Navi woke up with a word on her lips. The only word she remembered from the dream she just had.

Maya.

It was important. Why? She didn't know. Pacing up and down the Zero room where she had been placed after falling asleep in the med bay by the Doctor probably. How did she look? Mirror!

She turned around and stalked towards the mirror that was in the corner of the room. She was taller than her previous regeneration. Her previous regeneration was more warrior like, small with long legs and well built muscles. At least she believed she was, she hadn't remembered her previous regeneration much. This one seemed the opposite of her vague memories. Her limbs were slender and more graceful. Her face was more youthful. She didn't have much of a chest but at least she had some curves down her body. Some. Dark brown hair that almost seemed black with pale blue eyes. What a shocking contrast. It could have been worse. Navi turned away from the mirror, done with her scrutiny. She still had 6 hours and 13 minutes before her regeneration cycle ended. It wasn't a bad regeneration. Wouldn't be bad.

Sticking her head out, she decided to find the Doctor and maybe borrow some clothes. Her robe was a bit too short for her. She looked down at it. A blue robe. Was she mourning for someone, she wondered as she went in search for the Doctor.

The Doctor was adjusting some of the couplets when he heard her footsteps walking down the console floor.

"Doctor?"

He wasn't sure what made him choose not to speak out. He wasn't exactly hiding. All she had to do was look down and see him sitting under the Tardis fixing the stray wires. He opened his mouth to reply her but stopped when she began to mutter to herself.

"Blue robe. I was mourning for someone, something. Yes. The silence. The silence in my head. Was I mourning for that? No. I don't think so. Blue Box. You brought me here. I heard you. I saw you in my previous dreams, memories. I don't know. I saw the Doctor in the City. I recognize him as the Doctor. Why? He's not the Doctor now. Past? Future? I don't know. I see Ces- Chess? Chessy, Chesty, Chesin? He's not what I remember either. It's weird. I keep seeing things. Yes, yes, yes. That's why Maya dumped me. I think she dumped me. Maya. Maya, Maya, Maya, Maya, Maya, Maya, Maya, Maya, Maya. Who is she? My mind keeps repeating that word, name. Name. My name is- What is my name? Na- Nadia, Nace, Nacio, Nada, Narnia, Nadie, Naddy, Naji, Nabi, Nadiya. Na, na ,na. Oh Rassilon. I'm going crazy aren't I?"

He really wasn't hiding on purpose. The Doctor had assumed that if he stayed there quietly enough, she might go away. However after overhearing her conversation with his Tardis he began to wonder if she had been one of the Time Lords that had started to go crazy. It was possible. She mentioned that she had jumped and somehow was able to escape the Time Lock that he had activated but she had seen and participated much of the carnage. It was not too far-fetched to have assumed that she had been one of the Time Lords that had been slowly going crazy. If his Tardis knew, why had she brought the Time Lady here?

Above, the Time Lady had sunk into the jump chair.

"Doctor. You are here, aren't you?"

The Doctor had almost smacked his head against the grille when she said that.

"I- I- I-"

She waved his attempts to find a plausible excuse.

"I'm not angry or anything you think I am. A bit embarrassed that's all."

"You still don't remember your name?"

She shook her head. "I suppose you could call me Nana. Because that's all I remember of my name."

The Doctor nodded. He watched her twirl her black hair round her finger. She was trembling though she seemed to try to school herself as she saw him come up the stairs.

"Nana, are you scared of me?" The Doctor had been rather infamous after all. Apparently some of the parents back on Gallifrey had used him as a prime example if they didn't pay attention in class or listen to their elders. "There's no reason to be scared of me. I know they said I'm a bit mad, but everyone's a bit mad, right?" He tried a large fake grin.

"No I'm not. Not scared of you I mean."

"Then are you cold? Because only people only tremble when they're cold or scared. It has to be either or. So which is it?"

"Aren't you going to ask?"

"Ask?" He gave her a quizzical look. "What should I ask?"

"Am I crazy?"

"Are you?"

"No."

"Then that's good! Do you want me to ask about what I overheard? I thought it was just rambling. I ramble a lot too, most of the time. Actually all the time. It gets sort of empty here when there's no one around. Which reminds me, I'm supposed to pick up a companion. I'm a bit behind my schedule," He pulls out the scheduler. "There is. Right here! Right after- Tardis, I don't remember scheduling an overhaul-"

The lights blinked and the Tardis seemed to hum in laughter at him. The Doctor bickered a bit at the Tardis before remembering he had a Time Lady in the Tardis. Gallifreyans were often quick to discredit that Tardises that acted too much like a real being. They were only semi-sentient, especially for such models.

"Er- " He scratched his cheek, unsure what to say.

"That's it? You're going to take my word for the truth? You're not going to ask about anything you heard?"

He paused at her question. He had assumed she would have scoffed at his antics or treating the Tardis as something you could hold conversations with. Oh this was very interesting.

"I'm actually pretty curious. Who is Maya? When did you see me? Who else do you remember? And you said the Tardis brought you here. What do you mean by that?"

"I don't remember Maya. Just that she's incredibly important to me. Don't remember what happened either. I remember seeing you in the City. The buildings fell. I saw you die. So much blood. I saw everyone dying. Dying, dying, dying, dying." She repeated the last one over and over, staring into her hands.

The Doctor reached for her hand. Squeezing her hand, he projected comfort and sympathy to her. Words were inadequate. He knew that feeling. Her mind was caught in a memory. It didn't help that she had temporal amnesia where it looped memories or even a single moment of time like some broken record. It was usually best to sleep it off but he knew that even in sleep, the memories came for you and in sleep you were utterly and hopelessly useless in breaking from it. Bad memories were the worst. She would have had enough bad memories from all the fighting during the Time War.

"It's just a memory," he murmured. "Can you remember your childhood? What was your childhood like?"

Her hands were trembling less as her distraught features drifted into something less distraught and more thoughtful. The Doctor was walking on a fine line here. He had hoped the very least her childhood hadn't been something bad. Most Gallifreyans learnt quickly to school their feelings. Some Houses did not treat their families very well.

"I lived close to the city. We had a tree in the garden that bore fruits. I used to climb it. Our house was beautiful and very big. I had many cousins. 124 of them. I was on the younger side."

The Doctor stiffened at her words. On Gallifrey, only Warrior Houses were allotted that many cousins. How funny it was to meet a Warrior House Gallifreyan. Most of them had died out in the war for they were the first ones sent out. They were also the most likely to have gone crazy. The Doctor gazed at her guardedly, the memories of Rassilon near the end of the war surfaced. Drawing his hand back quickly, he gave a hasty mental check at his shields. He drew a quick side-glance at her. She looked wistfully, probably at her childhood memories. He gave a mental breath of relief, making a note to make sure his shields were doubly strong. With the long periods of very few telepathic practice and only with the very few aliens and the Tardis to use on, the Doctor found his skill was very much wanting. He used to be very good. He looked felt almost melancholic upon remembering how his fourth regeneration could even project his mind over long distances.

He looked down at his console table. Usually this was where he'd go off for an adventure or drift somewhere aimlessly, pick up a new hobby or something. Was she up to adventuring?

"Right! Allons-y!"

He typed in the coordinates and set the Tardis off to pick up Donna. He flashed a generous amount of white teeth at the fellow Time Lord

"Just gonna pick up a companion!" He laughed as he swung through the doors calling for Donna.

"Donna! Are you ready to go?!" The Doctor paused in mid-step as his feet sloshed in what seemed to be ankle deep mud. He checked his wrist watch and darted back into the Tardis with a squelch and a splot.

"No. The time and coordinates are most definitely correct." He leaned out of the door again. Rain was pouring down in some kind of forest - forest with concrete in them. This time he stuck his tongue out, catching several drops of rain onto his tongue. He smacked it, tasting it with a contemplative expression. Something was wrong.

"Donna?" he called out, his feet squelched loudly as he ran out of the Tardis. He couldn't really call it running when the mud was thick and almost ate his shoes several times.

More like just ate my shoe.

The Doctor corrected himself after losing the same right shoe twice and finally giving up to squish with one shoe less. The entire landscape of Chiswick had changed to one with forest.

"Blimey. What happened?"

He jerked forward, startled as a hard smack on the back of his head followed by a second one on the side.

"It's called a re-forestration you bloody idiot! Where have you been!?"

The Doctor stared wide eyed at the raincoat wearing, ginger haired and very angry lady that had appeared behind him.

"I- I- You asked me to come back in a week," he replied weakly.

"No Dumbo! It's been six months! Six bloody months!" She threw the purple umbrella at him with a glare.

"Six? That can't be right? No- wait." He pursed his lips and then gestured at the trees. "I don't remember Chiswick being this- Foresty."

He pulled out his screwdriver and scanned the surrounding areas. There was nothing particularly special about the trees. They were just trees. Neither was there anything special with the mud or the rain. As far as the scans were, everything was a normal forest in a twenty-first century Earth.

"What happened?" Scratching a sideburn, he frowned at the scans then at the surroundings.

"They all just sprouted into fully grown trees overnight a week ago. It's just Chiswick though."

Donna opened the door to what used to be her house. The trees had avoided the windows and the doors, grown up the walls and spread their branches out wide when they reached the roof. The buildings were still structurally sound, or as sound as it could be with trees enveloping the buildings. He crouched down, swiping a bit of the mud on his finger.

"Yeuck!" He spat out the mud that he had licked. "Yes. Just mud."

"That's just gross." Donna made a face and gestured to the open door. "You coming in, Spaceman?"

"Yes. But why is there so much mud? It ate my shoe! How can there be so much mud that it ate my shoe?! And can you even call this rain!? I've seen less rain in the monsoon seasons in Asia!"

"Doctor?" Nana was staring at him with a raincoat and his lost right shoe in her other hand.

"Ah Nana! Sorry, was distracted." He turned to Donna who stood gawking at Nana. "Donna, this is Nana-"

That was all he got out of his mouth before she smacked him hard on the head again. "You forgot about me didn't you!?"

"Ow!" He rubbed his head. "I didn't! Can we continue this conversation somewhere else less wet first?" He motioned at the mud then the rain.

The trio were nursing a mug of hot tea after hanging up with wet clothes and wiped down as much as they could. It was drier inside, but still very wet. It seemed like the citizens of Chiswick or the very least Donna's house had given up on keeping the floor sparkling clean and gone with the not wallowing in mud clean.

"So how did you meet the Doctor?"

Nana gave her a small smile. "I fell-" she stopped in mid-sentence, realizing she was speaking in Gallifreyan.

"I fell out of the sky and into the Tardis," she said slowly, making sure to pronounce the words properly. Earth's English was sharp and grating unlike Gallifreyan, it made her tongue roll oddly as she spoke it.

"Good Lord. That must have hurt! Thank goodness Spaceman here was there or you'd have died."

Nana shrugged. She didn't feel like fully explaining what had happened or her physiology. Though to be honest, the whole 'falling from the sky' was rather hazy at best.

"I don't remember much of it," she replied at last, taking a slow sip. This tea was good. She hoped the Doctor had some in the Tardis.

"I was just drinking my tea over the rainforests when she came smacking into the Tardis," he answered. He hadn't gotten around to telling Nana what happened at the end of the Time War. He was quite certain that if he mentioned that Nana was a Time Lord as well, Donna might accidentally mention the last time lord thing. Might be a very bad idea.

Author's Note: Okay. So I didn't really think through this. I got Giant trees in Chiswick, mud that's ankle deep and rain that pours non-stop. It kinda went from rainbow dogs to trees. Not sure how that happened but I sort of like how it goes. Next chapter will have more of Luton and Chesryl. Luton is a canon character, I sort of like picking up really remote canon characters and build around them. There will be a few more canon characters being introduced; I suppose it's probably 'easter eggs' for anyone who bothered watching Classic Who and/or reading the novels/comics. Nana/Navi and Chesryl is OC though. Some might be wondering when exactly is this occurring, but I always thought time in the Tardis is quite splotchy. I'm sure most of the companions didn't stay on all the time, so I created a gap where Donna went home for awhile for a cup of tea with her granddad. If I had to define exactly where this would be, it would be in-between the episode Doctor's Daughter and Unicorn and the Wasp. I plan to have them go on a few more adventures before tackling Silence in the Library. Navi and River meets! Exciting! Got things planned out for it.