Disclaimer: I don't own "Doctor Who" or "Twilight", and the essential details of the original concept of this fic came from a video posted on YouTube by heroesdwtw- which has unfortunately now been taken off YouTube- and is used with their permission

Feedback: Much appreciated

Planet of the Dead

A few minutes later, with the rest of the passengers still trying to calm themselves down and figure out what they should do next, the Doctor was sitting on the sand a short distance away from the bus, examining the material with a thoughtful expression. A short distance away, the dark-haired woman pulled a pair of sunglasses out of the large bag currently resting at her feet and placed them on her face, smiling slightly down at the Doctor.

"Ready for every emergency," she said by way of explanation, as the Doctor and I glanced at her.

"Me too," the Doctor noted, removing the glasses that he was wearing to aim the sonic screwdriver briefly at the lens, causing them to turn black, before putting them back on his face, following that up by pulling a smaller pair of sunglasses out of his pocket and tossing them to me. Checking the glasses, I was quickly surprised to note that they fit my face pretty much perfectly, but decided that it wasn't worth wondering how he did that; after some of the things I'd seen the Doctor take out of those pockets, I wouldn't have been surprised to learn that they were far bigger than they looked.

"So, I know that she's Bella-" the dark-haired woman said.

"Bella Swan," I interrupted, looking pointedly at her.

"Christina," the woman said, briefly indicating herself before she turned back to the Doctor. "But what's your name?"

"I'm the Doctor," the Doctor replied, as he reached down to take a handful of sand.

"Name, not rank," Christina said, looking at him in slight confusion.

"The Doctor," the Doctor repeated, as he poured the sand he'd just picked up into his other hand.

"Surname?" Christina asked.

"The Doctor," the Doctor said again, casually shifting through the sand in his outstretched palm with his fingers.

"You're called 'the Doctor'?" Christina asked, finally accepting that she wasn't going to get a different response no matter how she phrased her question.

"Yes I am," the Doctor muttered, his voice low as he focused his attention on his current analysis of the sand.

"That's not a name-" Christina began.

"It's what he goes by, so it's his name; just leave it," I said, glaring back at her- we were on another planet; I felt safe saying that we had more important things to worry about than names- as the Doctor continued his analysis of the ground around us.

"Funny sort of sand, this," he said, holding a few specks of it up close to his nose. "There's a trace of something else..."

As I turned to look at him, the Doctor dabbed a small amount of sand on his tongue, but quickly worked it out, his tongue moving rapidly in and out of his mouth as though trying to push the sand away.

"Oh, not good..." he muttered, once his tongue had ceased its bizarre motions.

"Well, it wouldn't be; it's sand," Christina pointed out, as though she was surprised that the Doctor had made such an obvious statement; personally, I was fairly sure that he meant something more than just the fact that he'd 'eaten' sand, but the Doctor simply declined to respond to Christina's comment as he stood up, even if his expression left me with a bad feeling about whatever it was he'd tasted...

"Hold on a minute, I saw you, mate!" another voice said, prompting the three of us to turn around to see the dark-skinned young man pointing angrily at the Doctor as he walked towards us. "You had that thing, that-that machine; did you makethis happen?"

"Oh, humans on buses, always blaming me..." the Doctor said, looking upwards briefly as he spoke- I wondered what he meant by that, but quickly concluded that it was something I should ask him later- before he turned his attention back to the passengers as they began to gather around him, clearly looking for answers to the other man's accusation. "Look, if you must know, I was tracking a hole in the fabric of reality- call it a hobby-, but it was a tiny little hole, no danger to anyone."

His voice became lower and slightly sadder as he looked at the area around us. "Suddenly it gets big, and we drive right through it..."

"Then where is it?" the driver asked, turning around as he looked at the barren landscape surrounding the bus. "There's nothing, there's just sand!"

"All right," the Doctor said, walking over to stand near the back of the bus, picking up a handful of sand as he walked. "If you want proof, we through... this!"

As he spoke, he threw the sand into the air, revealing what I could only describe as an invisible wall behind the bus, the air where the sand struck it rippling with a fizzling noise while creating a view that reminded me of oil rippling over water. Glancing around, I wasn't surprised to see the obvious awe on the faces of the other passengers; even after what else I'd seen since I started travelling with the Doctor, what he'd just revealed to us was rather impressive.

"And that's...?" Christina asked.

"A door," the Doctor replied, his hands in his pockets as he walked back towards the rest of the group. "A door in space."

"So what you're saying is," the driver said, walking towards the Doctor with a slightly hesitant smile on his face, "on the other side of that... is home? We can get to London through there?"

"The bus came through," the Doctor began, moving his head in an awkward manner- I wondered if he'd been about to shake his head before deciding he didn't want to, but figured that it wasn't worth my while trying to work that out; the Doctor could be a very complicated man to understand at times-, "but we can't."

"Well, then what are we waiting for?" the driver said- whether he'd misunderstood or simply didn't believe the Doctor's comments-, looking around at the others before he began to hurry towards the 'door'.

"No, don't," the Doctor began, looking urgently after the driver, his voice rising as he approached the door.

"I'm going home, mate-!" the driver began before he reached the point where the Doctor had thrown the sand.

"I said don't-!" the Doctor began, just as the air suddenly rippled around the driver. The old man screamed as his body burst into flames, leaving the rest of the bus's passengers staring in shock for the moment between the fire starting and his body vanishing.

Even after seeing the Cullens burn James and hearing about the Quillettes burn Laurent- even if I hadn't explicitly seen James die, I'd seen what the Cullens were starting to do to him-, it was something different to actually see an entire human being just get... incinerated like that...

"Oh my god..." the young man who'd accused the Doctor earlier said, clearly in shock, the one who'd been upstairs busy comforting the clearly horrified blonde woman. "He... he was a skeleton, man; he was bones, just bones..."

"It was the bus," the Doctor explained, turning around and walking over to stand alongside the bus as he stared up at its mangled exterior. "Look at the damage; that was the bus protecting us. Great big box made of metal."

"Rather like a Faraday cage?" Christina asked.

"Like in a thunderstorm, yeah?" the other young man said from where he was still comforting the blonde, his voice trembling even as he was clearly trying to hold it together. "Safest place is inside a car, 'cause the metal conducts the lightning right through. We did it in school!"

"But if we can only travel back inside the bus..." Christina began.

"There's too much damage for it to protect us; the top's pretty much shattered..." I finished for her, looking questioningly over at the Doctor.

"Slightly different dynamics, with a wormhole," the Doctor said as he walked over to stand between Christina and I to take a better look at the bus. "There's enough metal to make it work... I think... I hope."

"Then we have to drive five tons of bus, which is currently buried in the sand, and we've got nothing but our bare hands," Christina stated before she glanced over at the Doctor. "Correct?"

"I'd say nine-and-a-half tons, but the point still stands, yes," the Doctor confirmed.

"Then we need to apply ourselves to the problem with discipline!" Christina said, her tone resolute as she reached into the bag and began to search for something. "Which starts with appointing a leader."

"Yes, at last, thank you, so-" the Doctor began.

"Well, thank goodness you've got me!" Christina interjected, leaving me to stare incredulously at the Doctor as she walked past him to address the rest of the passengers.

"OK, she's just some woman who happened to be on this while you're the last Time Lord who was tracking whatever sent us here; why does she get to put herself in charge?" I asked, looking urgently at him for some explanation about why he hadn't voiced more of a protest at this sudden turn of events.

"Sometimes it's easier to let a commanding personality take control in the middle of a crisis like this," the Doctor commented, a slightly grim tone to his voice that left me wondering if this tied into that comment he'd made earlier about people on buses blaming him, as Christina ordered the rest of the group into the bus- I vaguely heard her mention that it would at least be slower backing in there than roasting out here- before she turned back to us.

"And you," she said, her voice now assuming a more commanding tone as she addressed us. "Bella Swan and 'the Doctor'."

"Yes, ma'am," the Doctor said, nodding briefly at her before he walked off into the bus. I shot a brief glare at Christina- the Doctor had already demonstrated a greater knowledge of this situation and she still wanted to take charge?-, but pushed that annoyance aside and followed the Doctor into the bus.

As the Doctor had pointed out, we had a situation right now, and the only way to solve that was to work together; I was still certain that the Doctor could do a better job than Christina, but so long as somebody was coordinating our efforts I supposed that the fine details weren't that important, particularly since the Doctor could probably take charge if he felt Christina was making a mistake...