AN: I hate the way this chapter ended but I promise it'll get better. :) Thoughts?
There is a peculiar feeling of knowing something you never wanted to know, or maybe you've always known and you just try to avoid it.
For the Doctor, the feeling has never stopped. And if anything had changed over the same progression of feeling it is that it only gets worse. He had always kept in mind that the TARDIS always takes him where he needed to go, but sometimes it upsets him that the TARDIS always gives him a reason to travel alone.
He looks at Ronan, his sea-green eyes lost in thought. He isn't supposed to be here. This is paradox in the making and a rule against time. They both shouldn't be here. And if anything, this will only make things worse, especially to a boy like Ronan.
"So.." Ronan starts, finally putting the pieces together. "The Great War of Panem?"
"As you say so" he agrees.
"When I said you'd take me to when things were different, I never thought you'd take me back to when things were just beginning to make a difference." He says, looking back at the Doctor.
"We shouldn't be here." The Doctor replies. He regrets it. He regrets being here. This brings back bad memories and the ones he runs away from. He hates it.
But the curiosity in Ronan's eyes is clear, and they begin to envelop him and he doesn't like it. It sets a bad beginning.
"Why not Doctor? Maybe we could change something? Or make things better." Ronan says.
"No. We can't. This is a fixed point in time Ronan. Whatever happens in this timeline cannot be rewritten." He says this, putting both hands in his face, frustrated.
"But us being here, you never mentioned that being fixed?" Ronan insists.
"We being here could set a paradox- well basically we're already setting one, and it's not good."
"Why?"
"Because it could change what lies ahead"
"If this is a fixed point in time, how can we being here change it?"
"We're interfering with the proper timeline, and against the law of time itself. And it's not right."
"You're contradicting yourself, Doctor."
"I know. It's amusing don't you think?" he says with a smile, before realizing it and snaps himself back to the point.
"So what do we do now? We can't leave right away. We've been assigned a compartment, and we still need to follow the schedule." Ronan asks.
He doesn't want to leave. Not while the hopes of seeing his father here alive and real and probably walking around outside, eats his thoughts.
"We need to get back to the TARDIS, as soon as possible." The Doctor says. He stands up, looking around the compartment, and opens some drawers before making a remark of disgust.
"What's wrong?" Ronan asks.
"Do you really expect me to wear gray?" he holds up a gray shirt and pants with a lighter shade of buttons, and tries to examine himself in gray almost recoiling at while doing it. "Nope. Nope. This is horrible. We're leaving"
"Doctor, I think it's mandatory for everyone to wear gray here."
"Heavens. And just when I thought things could be worse." The Doctor says, throwing the gray clothes in the back of the room.
"You're already ditching this adventure, Doctor. Maybe we should, you know, stick around for a bit."
"I don't think we can, not with the possibility of time being rewritten." He says.
"We had a dare Doctor."
"Yes, and it's safe to say that I'm calling it quits. We're leaving." The Doctor says, moving across the room, towards the door.
"You're a chicken." Ronan starts.
The Doctor stops, obviously offended by the words, he turns around to an innocent looking Ronan, his sea green eyes challenging his blue ones and he knows this is one challenge he wouldn't dare lose.
"Say that again."
" . ."
"I'm a 2012 year old time lord who's seen time and space, I am not a chicken." He narrows his eyes at the boy in front of him refusing to succumb to his statements.
"Chicken." He continues, a cocky smile playing in his lips.
"I've battled aliens bigger than the mountains of Olympus Mons"
"Chicken."
"Daleks who could turn humans into like them."
"Chicken"
"The Weeping Angels bringing you back in time and feeding off your energy."
"Chicken."
"Cybermen who can eliminate your emotions and turn you into an enormous robot."
"Chicken."
"Parallel Universes."
"Hmm." Ronan looks at him with mock impression allowing the Doctor to smile, he's done it. He's won.
Ronan goes back to his unimpressed look before continuing, "To be honest Doctor, I have absolutely no idea what you've just said, except for the parallel universe statement. But really that doesn't really change who you are right now. A chicken."
The Doctor narrows his eyes and stares at the boy with such intensity but Ronan refuses to let it slide.
"You're really not going to stop are you?"
"Nope."
"You're really willing to risk your life for the sake of satisfying that never ending curiosity?"
"Isn't that the point of an adventure?" he asks in his bored tone.
"Yes. Well. Fine." The Doctor turns around. Ronan gives himself a triumphant smile and a silent "yes!" for victory.
"We can stay, but only for a day. The TARDIS needs to refuel herself anyway." The Doctor looks at Ronan who is still smiling, his eyes in deep thought as if arranging a list of his special things to do. Though excitement is evident, he shouldn't allow the boy to run too far. It would cause too much damage.
"Ronan." He starts.
"Doctor?"
"Don't mess things up." He advises, pulling out his sonic screwdriver and starts to scan their compartment for anything useful.
"Funny saying that as you started to mess things up."
"I'm trying to fix them" he says, frowning as there isn't much use of anything here.
"Well you're not doing a very good job are you?"
"You're starting to irritate me Odair."
"Well I'm sorry. You chose me as your companion, so basically I could blame you for making me irritating."
The Doctor groans, this time making Ronan laugh and in the process finally gaining his trust. It wouldn't hurt to trust an unknown man from the stars, who was just passing by because he needed a friend. Maybe he really did need a companion.
And for the first time, Ronan acknowledge the fact that he too, needed one.
Dinner proved to be quite difficult as the people of thirteen seem to be making both the Doctor and Ronan quite uncomfortable with their places, though the Doctor doesn't seem to mind, as he keeps on complaining about how dull the place is. He doesn't blame him though, it really is quite dull.
As stated in the rules, Ronan obliges to wearing the mandated gray uniform, which makes the Doctor cringe even more.
"Doctor, have you ever taken notice that almost everyone keeps looking at us?" he asks, interrupting the Doctor's comments on how horrible dinner looks like.
"Ronan, don't be ridiculous. Of course everyone's looking at us. We're new here!" the Doctor exclaims, before, taking a bite out of his dinner. He smiles, his sudden cringe at District 13's culture changes with every single bite.
He rolls his eyes at him, allowing himself to be preoccupied with his surroundings. He could recognize a few people here in his time, like the local peacekeeper Thom from District 12, or Greasy Sae, the woman who made exotic stew in District 12 when he was younger. District 13 was dull, but slowly it seemed to adapt a life it never had before.
The cafeteria was full of them. People from different Districts coming to know each other's stories, refugees and rebels, getting together, united by a single goal: freedom.
"Doctor," he starts, "how long had these people been oppressed?"
"75 years Ronan. The Hunger Games tied the districts down, having each district sign off two children to fight to death. Well as far as history goes down, Katniss Everdeen sparked the rebellion, underlying it." He says it as a matter of fact.
"It happened but it's still happening?" Ronan asks.
"Currently happening. The major points of history haven't been written yet." The Doctor says, wiping his mouth with his napkin.
"Does this mean my parents are here?" He asks again.
"Probably. I don't know what point yet." The Doctor answers.
Ronan, looks down at his dinner. Steak and gravy. He doesn't know where the steak came from, but judging from the apparent features of meat, it's best not to tell the Doctor it came from the dogs that were chained up earlier by the back. He pushes it away and focuses on eating the bread instead.
"Best to pack up on the energy, Odair. It's monitored here." The Doctor says eyeing the discarded steak.
"If you want it, Doctor you could have it. A skinny man like you needs more energy than I could."
"This skinny man with a blue box still has enough energy to run more laps than you ever could." The Doctor replies.
Ronan sighs and picks up both of their trays and stands to take them away. The Doctor walks with him, wiping invisible crumbs on his jacket and looks around. The suspicious looks directed at them are something he had always been used to, but there seems to be caution accompanied with it. It nicks at the back of his mind that maybe their presence could be significant to this point in time.
"You okay, Doctor?" Ronan asks, snapping him back to the world.
"Yes. I just need directions." The Doctor answers.
Ronan lifts one eyebrow, wondering why the Doctor had just started to be keen about their current situation. Either he knew something he didn't want him to know or he's asking for confirmation of whatever he knows.
The Doctor proceeds ahead of him, as he takes their trays to the side wondering what knowledge does the Doctor posses. He had just begun to realize that the Doctor is a man of different personalities and he wonders what it's like knowing everything that can and could happen and how significant is his actions to an event that could either change the future.
He looks back at the Doctor who had seem to finally found someone reliable or almost. A woman, shrugs to the Doctor before pointing to Ronan, or what seems like behind him. The Doctor looks at Ronan for a moment before Ronan can turn around.
It was like someone came out of the book. Or in Ronan's case, his family album. The one Annie would use to open up on his birthday, or Finnick's. He remembered it all, the way his mother described how clear his sea green eyes were, or how his bronze hair gleamed in the light or how his smile could make you light up. He remembered them all. He stored every single description of his father in his mind, spending days and nights building up an image or a personality based on his mother's words.
But nothing could equate to seeing him, alive and real.
Fairytales as they say. People never get tired of them. They always wait until they find it.
For Ronan Odair, it felt like the waiting was over.
Or so he thought.