CHAPTER ONE
"I just don't know what's wrong with her!" The Doctor exclaimed frustratedly as the TARDIS lurched to a stop. The time machine had been acting stupid for the past few weeks, taking them to what seemed like all the wrong places. But technically, she hadn't been wrong yet. The Doctor just didn't like being at the mercy of a time machine forever disguised as a blue police box due to a faulty Chameleon Circuit. He was a man who liked to be in charge. He tripped and slid with a large jolt, slamming into the railing that encircled the main control panel.
"Doctor. I've been telling you, you're flying her wrong! If you'd just let me..." River Song stepped over the Doctor from where he was laying on the ground and reached for the controls. Suddenly, the Doctor rose to his feet, grabbed River around the waist, spun her around behind him, set her down and turned to face her where she was, pressed against the rail, his precious TARDIS controls protected behind him.
"And I've told you a bajillion-eleventy-hundred and two times, but I'll tell you just once more, NO!" He declared. River sighed annoyingly and turned to walk outside of the railing around the TARDIS.
"Well, she's obviously taken us to another place she feels is important, and she hasn't been wrong yet. Shall we see where?" She said, gliding to the doors and swinging them open. The woman gasped and violently slammed them shut. She turned with her back pressed against the door, a sullen look of horror swallowing her features. The Doctor was fiddling with something on the panels and without looking up began to ramble on about something that had to do with the TARDIS. After a moment, he noticed River had yet to provide a smart aleck comeback to his rambling and looked up at her.
"River..." he began slowly, dragging out the syllables in her name. "What was out there?" He asked. Wordlessly, River took one step forward and then ran up to the control panels, never turning to face the door, never saying a word. But the Doctor knew her well enough. She was never much phased by anything, so whatever was out there really had to be bad to bother her that much. Still keeping an eye on her, he silently progressed towards the the doors. When he reached them, he took one last look at River, still turned away from the doors, and pushed them open. He looked for a moment upon the bodies that lay still in the classroom. Presumably dead. There was one teacher who seemed to be the only one killed with any violence and at least eighteen teenagers. They all lay still. The Doctor turned back to River, who had finally turned towards him. The look in her eyes was one of deep sadness and fear. The Doctor turned and stepped out of the TARDIS taking a deep breath and running his hands through his sandy hair. He looked back at River, and she finally started towards him, very reluctantly.
When she reached him, they looked at each other, the same fear reflecting between their eyes. Finally, he spoke.
"She's a Time Lord. She would have regenerated. But this is still no good. No good at all." The doors of the TARDIS slammed shut behind them and the tell-tale sound of the bolts locking echoed through The Doctor's head.
Blonde. She was blonde. Alex cringed, staring at her reflection. The pale, fair-looking ginger she'd been staring at for the past few weeks was gone. In her place stood a shorter, (5'4'', Alex presumed), prettier, blonde girl with the same, unchanging blue eyes that were bright, icy, and pale at the same time. Her skin was clear and healthy looking, free of the freckles that had plagued her in her last regeneration. For that, she was grateful, but this was still strange. Blonde. In the past year or so, she'd regenerated no fewer than six times, and, out of those, she'd never once been blonde. She'd been brunette, auburn, ginger, and once dyed her hair black before because she wouldn't die fast enough. But never blonde. Oh well, there was a first time for everything.
Alex sighed before reaching into her pocket and retrieving her piece of the two-way paper. She fingered the paper hesitantly. She'd briefly considered using physic paper, but was afraid that when the time came, her emotions would fail her. The two-way paper was much, much safer. Carefully, she copied down the address on the mailbox in front of her and watched her loopy handwriting sink into the paper, leaving only a shadow of what she'd written. Back at the school, at this very moment, the address would be etching itself into into the other sheet. Alex hoped that the Doctor would understand. There were other things she wished he would figure out, too, but she wouldn't dare get her hopes up.
She sighed, striding forward to the house. It was, she was fairly certain, a women and children's shelter. She much preferred other set-ups, but this would have to do under the circumstances. Inside of the house, it was warm and crowded. She gazed around for a moment before locating the reception desk and approaching it. Laying on the surface, within her reach, was a sign-in sheet. Alex picked up a pen with her right hand and began to write her name in the first space. What came out was an ugly scrawl. She swapped hands. Apparently, this regeneration was left-handed. She erased the previous writing and filled her name in on top of it. The receptionist looked at the sheet, making no attempt to be inconspicuous, and finally looked up, smiling at the girl.
"Alexandra Song. What a beautiful name!" The receptionist exclaimed in a voice that was a little too friendly for Alex's taste. Alex nodded her thanks, trying her best not to speak-as far as she knew, they were still in America. No need to draw attention to herself. "What do you need, dear?" The woman asked. So much for that plan.
"I need a place to wait for a little while, until some people I'm waiting for get here." Alex said, trying her best to hide her thick accent. Not too shabby, she reflected. The receptionist nodded.
"Is there anyone in particular I need to be searching for, dear?" Again with the word dear, Alex thought, resisting another cringe. She shook it off and began to formulate a way to tell the receptionist who to look for, because even Alex was unsure if the Doctor and River had regenerated since the last time she had seen him. Finally, after a long pause, she decided what to say.
"A man and a woman who look as if they are on a very important mission. I'm not quite sure if they look the same- you know, haircuts, tattoos, piercings, the likes- and I know for absolute certain that they would not recognize me by face, but what they will recognize is my name. So, if they ask, show them the sheet. They go by the Doctor and River Song and will probably be carrying on a conversation that will sound incredibly stupid and juvenile. But if anyone shows up with the names Doctor and River Song, it is absolutely vital that I see them. For your life and for mine."
Alex smiled, took out the paper and, using the same pen she had signed in with, scrawled something on it. It, too, sunk into the paper and disappeared from sight. She replaced the pen, spun on one toe and found a place to sit, leaving the receptionist no room to respond.
The Doctor tread carefully around the room, scanning every and anything with a small, round, metal stick with a green light at the end of it, his Sonic Screwdriver. He was perplexed. There was nothing unusual feeding from the room. He glanced over at River, who was searching around by the desk, kneeling on the ground.
"Doctor, I am just not finding anything. I don't understand. Why was it them? I am seeing nothing! Nothing at all." She exclaimed furiously. She threw open the to drawer and groaned. It was cluttered, full of confiscated cell phones, music players and other teenager things. She rocked back onto the heels of her hands and threw her head back. The Doctor watched her curiously before sighing and pocketing his screwdriver.
"You come over here, look for life. I'll search the desk." He said, being unusually understanding. River didn't argue. They swapped places. River walked among the bodies, all of which lay still. She thought the attempts futile, but continued checking for life signs, obeying the Doctor's orders. Sometimes, it was always best to follow the Doctor's orders. Sometimes it saved lives. River let out a huge sigh. There simply had to be a point for being here- The TARDIS knew what it was doing. It was just up to them to find the reason. River glanced at the TARDIS with an annoyed look. It was refusing to unlock and let them in- nothing they had tried had amounted to anything. As she pondered possibilities, something in her peripheral vision flickered. Slowly, she turned towards the movement.
"Hello?" She asked softly, "Anyone here? I don't bite, I promise. We just want to help. Hello?" She continued, approaching the noise. A tall, blonde boy lay crumpled up in the corner. From far off, he appeared just like the others did -dead- but if you looked carefully enough, you could just slightly see his chest rise and fall with his breath. River didn't know how to feel, what to think. She was, in some part of her, relieved, but there was another side, a stronger side that told her there was the slightest of chance that this person could deliver her news she didn't want to hear. She sat for a moment and watched the kid. After a few seconds, his eyelids fluttered open and as soon as his eyes locked on hers, he resumed playing dead. River stood and walked to him.
"Playing dead at the moment so isn't cool." She confronted, propping a hand on her hip purposefully. The boy finally opened his eyes fully and observed her before propping himself up. River waited to see if he would speak. After a tense minute, she decided that just because he had given up his acting attempt didn't mean he was going to cooperate. She sighed frustratedly for what seemed like the millionth time and began to talk.
"Okay. You are going to tell me three things. One, who are you? Two, what happened here? And, three," She trailed off, turning to look at the Doctor who was pawing through the drawer still, seeming to hear nothing she'd said. "Well, three... I suppose we'll get there later." River finally finished. The boy dared to watch her for moments more before finally speaking.
"My name is none of your business, but if you want something to call me, J works." He started. River rolled her eyes. Teenagers. "And, as for what happened, I have not a clue. If I hadn't woken up on the floor and seen all my friends and classmates dead, I wouldn't have guessed anything important occurred. But I'm smart and know how to use inference skills, and based on what I see around me, the fact that you and that man are here in a blue police box, and what she said before she ran, I can infer that something dramatic and important happened."
River stared at him curiously. She decided to ignore his smart, rude tone.
"First of all, who is this she you speak of? And what exactly did she say? And why don't you remember?" River asked. This kid was a lot more interesting than he looked.
"She is this girl who's been here for about two months. She went by Maria Smith until today- or, what I am guessing was earlier today? I don't know exactly how much information or time I'm missing -But she stood up and talked about how something bad was going to happen because of her and that if a, and I quote, 'madman in a big blue box and a woman' show up, that I was supposed to tell them something. I missed the last part. The last thing I remember was that she ran -really fast for a girl,- and she like burst into flames? It was trippy. But yeah, that's all I remember," The boy said. River stared at him, again, before finding the right words.
"She went by Maria Smith until today? What is that supposed to mean?" She asked carefully.
"Oh yeah, before the madman-blue-box conversation, she said her real name was Alex." The boy stated in a nonchalant way. He stared down at his fingers before bending over to retie his shoes. River's eyes widened.
"Oh Doctor!" She sang excitedly, turning to look at the man. The Doctor sat on the floor, scanning a sheet of paper with his screwdriver, a confused look spread across his face. River watched his expression turn from confused into frustrated within the next second. It didn't seem as if he had heard her call for him. Just as she began to call for him again, she was cut off.
"RIVER!" The Doctor yelled. River could hear the frustration in his voice. She turned to look at the blonde kid, gave him a move-and-I-kill-you look, and strode over to the Doctor.
"Yes, Sweetie?" She said, staring down at the piece of paper in his hand. All at once, she knew exactly why he was frustrated and confused. "No way." She muttered, snatching the sheet from him and examining it in the most particular way. The Doctor popped back up onto his feet.
"Yes way, now give that back!" He plucked the slip from her fingers and began scanning it again. River crossed her arms and stared at the Doctor, waiting for him to pay her full attention. After a few minutes, it was clear she was going to have to make him listen to her.
"I know you're busy and all, you know, just sonicing a slip of two-way paper, but I thought maybe you'd like to know that I found a survivor. And not only that, but a survivor who knows about her." River said in an arrogant tone. All of the sudden, the Doctor had dropped the paper and was standing millimeters in front of River staring behind her at the boy, who gave a slight wave. The Doctor's gaze switched between the boy and River for a moment before he focused back in.
"Well fabulous! Someone gets to live! Now, tell me," He said, folding his hands together, "What does he know about her?"
River sighed, yet again. She was about tired of all this sighing, but so many things were worthy of a sigh here.
"Seems to me as if she knew we were coming, and I'll bet you my life she knew exactly what would happen after she departed, and made sure that there was a way to get to her. Which would explain that." River said, pointing at the slip of paper. The Doctor gaped at her for a moment before retrieving the paper.
"It seems as if you are correct." The Doctor said. "Our daughter is clever. Very, very clever."
"That's it!" The blonde kid proclaimed. "She said that, if you guys were to show up, to tell you that your daughter missed you." The Doctor and River stared at each other for a moment before bursting into large grins.
"Come along! We simply have somewhere we must be!" The Doctor exclaimed, spinning on a toe before proceeding to the TARDIS doors, who happened to have unlocked themselves. River followed him. He slammed the doors shut and the blonde kid stared, dumbfounded at the TARDIS for a moment before the Doctor poked his head out again.
"Well come on! You're invited too!"
The kid bounded aboard.