The hooded woman huffed out of breath as she raced down the marble hallway. The moonlight of two moons offered the only light in the vast palace. She darted around a corner only to run face first into an invisible force field. She fell on her bottom, shaking herself. The next thing she knew she was surrounded by a few dozen burly guards who pointed their glowing, blue spears at her. The guards parted for a bearded individual. She glared at the man with long black hair and long black robes.
"Going somewhere my lady?" The man asked with a gloat.
"Hawaii! Beautiful sunny beaches! Perfect weather! A fondness for Spam! Surfing!" The Doctor exclaimed as he took the TARDIS into the Time Vortex.
"I like Spam." Rory Williams nodded.
"No you don't." His red headed Scottish wife told him.
"No...I...don't." Rory coughed.
"And the best time to visit Hawaii is in the 1950s. Right after it became a state and after Elvis Presley made his first beach movie." The Doctor said.
"Sounds good to me!" Amy said. The TARDIS shook as she came in for a landing.
"Brilliant! So just step out those doors and step out onto Wakiki Beach, Pond!" The Doctor said pointing towards the door. Amy jogged up to the doors, but paused upon opening them.
"Uh...Doctor? Not exactly Wakiki."
"Honolulu?" The Doctor asked.
"You tell me." Amy said stepping aside and extending an arm out towards the view. The Doctor and Rory exchanged a look and then stepped towards the doors. They saw a busy, crowded marketplace with humanoid aliens with golden tinted skin and elegant silk saris and robes of reds, purples, pinks and oranges.
"Oh. Not Hawaii then. Okay! No problem." The Doctor said.
"No problem? Doctor every time we end up somewhere we didn't want to go, that means the TARDIS brought us here to save the day from some horrible people wanting to kill us." Rory pointed out.
"And?" The Doctor asked.
Rory sighed,
"Just thought it should be mentioned before we throw ourselves in mortal danger, that's all."
Amy kissed him on the cheek,
"That's why we love you. Now let's go find the monster and poke it with a stick!"
"Right! Come along Ponds." The Doctor said grabbing Amy's hand as she grabbed Rory's. Rory rolled his eyes. Rich and decadent spices wafted through the air as vendors called out their wares.
"Fresh fish! I've got mustacka! I've got crawler! I've got goosh!"
"Beautiful silk! Finest silk made from rare Carnara silkworms!"
"Buy a pretty necklace for the pretty lady?" One old woman asked Rory who shook his head politely.
"Wow. This place is so exotic. Wonder where we are?" Amy asked.
"Let's find out." The Doctor said approaching a vendor selling fruit.
"Welcome friends! May the Goddess of Phara bless you with long lives." The vendor bowed.
The Doctor bowed in return,
"Too late. So we're on Phara ey?"
"Of course my friend." The man chuckled.
"Never been to Phara before. And while it looks like we stepped into 1001 Arabian Nights, the Pharans are actually quite technologically advanced. Or so I've heard. I know I've never heard of this goddess though. No offense." The Doctor rambled as the Ponds listened.
"Oh then weary travelers! You will be blessed for the first time by the Phoenix today! A true honor. She is to be presented to her people this afternoon." The vendor said.
"The Phoenix?" Amy asked.
"Yes. Nearly two hundred years ago, my people were in a terrible civil war. Our enemies had nearly beat us with their devil magic when the goddess came. The Phoenix fell from the sky and died. But when our enemies pulled her body from the wreckage, she exploded in a burst of golden light that killed everyone that dared touch her. Our enemies were destroyed and the Phoenix rose again! My ancestors took her to the palace and made her our ruler. Where she has ruled ever since." The vendor said, finishing his tale.
"Huh. This...devil magic? Did it involve traveling the stars?" The Doctor asked suspiciously.
"A great sin my friend! Such a thing defies the gods themselves. That's why the Phoenix came to us. To destroy the infidels." The vendor replied.
"Thank you very much. Have a nice day!" The Doctor said suddenly grabbing Amy and Rory and walking off. Much to the confusion of the vendor.
"Doctor? What is it?" Rory asked.
"Well firstly, no one mention the fact to the locals that we have a blue box that travels about time and space." The Doctor said walking ahead.
"What? Why?" Amy asked following.
"Didn't you hear? They consider space travel a sin. Two hundred years ago a race of highly advanced people were driven back to the Dark Ages of myth, fear of the unknown and superstition by someone pretending to be a god. And that simply won't due." The Doctor said.
"So what do we do Doctor?" Rory asked. The Doctor turned to them and grinned.
"We go poke it with a stick!" He said.
"Whoo hoo!" Amy cried.
"Here we go again..." Rory moaned as he followed them.
She was sat down in an ornate throne, a sheer curtain separating it from an open balcony. The man in black hissed in her ear,
"Cheer up my lady. Your people are waiting for you."
She didn't say anything, but then she furrowed her brow and shook her head.
They asked for directions to the palace, being led to a large golden structure of arches and spires and towers. Where the crowds soon began to gathering the square below. The Doctor climbed up on a small wall, hanging onto a lamppost. He craned his neck seeing an ornate golden box in the center of the square. Then the crowd cheered seeing a bearded man in black robes step out onto the balcony from behind a sheer curtain.
"Well he looks important." Amy said.
"Doesn't he though?" The Doctor replied. Then he furrowed his brow shaking his head.
The man smiled and calmed the crowd down.
"My friends! May the Living Goddess bless you! Ever since I was chosen as the High Priest forty years ago, it has been my duty to speak for the Phoenix. In two days time, the Phoenix will sacrifice herself to ensure our everlasting peace. Then she shall be reborn!" The High Priest declared, letting the crowd roar happily.
Meanwhile the woman behind the curtain looked up as if in a trance. She felt something. Like a warm tickle in the back of her head. She stood to her feet and moved towards the curtains.
The Doctor felt something. Like a warm tickle in the back of his head. It was a feeling he hadn't felt in ages. Amy noticed his peculiar behavior (well, peculiar for him) and asked him in concern,
"Doctor? Are you alright?"
"Oh I'm fine! Just...feeling something. Something I haven't felt since I lost the Master." He said.
"Who?" Rory asked.
"If I didn't know better, I'd say I felt the presence of a Time Lord. But that's..."
The Doctor trailed off as the crowd went silent. Amy and Rory looked back up at the balcony where they saw a young woman step out in a daze. She was dressed in an embroidered crop top and harem pants of pink and orange silk, her neck and wrists draped with gold and jewels. Her curly brown hair was halfway up in an elaborate hairdo with a gold headpiece. Her blue eyes searched the crowd until she locked her gaze with the Doctor's.
"Impossible..." The Doctor whispered, feeling her mind reaching out to his. He could hear his hearts beating. Which is when he realized he could hear another pair of hearts beating. And something told him it was her hearts.
"It's the Phoenix!" Someone in the crowd yelled.
"She's beautiful!" A woman cried.
"What are you doing?! Get back inside!" The High Priest hissed to the Phoenix. A guard stepped forward to pull her back behind the curtain, but she dug her heels in and said quietly to the High Priest,
"You would deny the people their 'goddess'?"
The High Priest fumed but nodded at the guard to let her go. The Phoenix went back to looking at the Doctor. She felt that he was like her. But she also noticed he was oddly handsome. With coiffed brown hair that flopped into his sparkling green eyes. He was tall with a large square jaw, thin with odd clothes.
The High Priest followed her gaze then called out to the crowd,
"The Living Goddess has blessed you all by showing her face. A face that will change with the rise of the red moon. And if your offerings are generous, she may show her face again at the feast tomorrow night!"
The crowd cheered again as the High Priest pulled the Phoenix back inside.
"Who is that man?" The High Priest snapped at her.
"What man?" She asked. He gripped her arm tighter.
"Don't lie to me! The man you were staring at." He snapped.
"I don't know. I never saw him before." She admitted.
"Then why were you staring at him?" He asked curiously.
She shrugged, and replied in a quiet voice,
"He felt like home."
"Take the Goddess to her chambers. Watch her." The High Priest ordered the guard. They led her away, the Phoenix trying to keep their meaty hands off her. The High Priest snapped his fingers and a servant stepped forward and bowed.
"Find that man she was staring at. Follow him. See who he is." The High Priest commanded.
"Yes Milord."
