The Doctor was full of stories. Hannah couldn't help herself; she was enchanted by far off worlds and fairy tales. She laughed as the Doctor finished another extravagant tale. "So the only way he could stop it was to destroy the egg shell and put it into a supernova a few galaxies away." He mused.
Hannah could barely breathe her stomach hurting from laughing so much. She leaned her head back against the chair, looking outside at the sky, blocked only by the cold, glass window. "Wouldn't it be nice to actually get out and see what's out there? There is so much to see, I just know it, even if people don't believe there is." The Doctor watched her. She seemed at peace just watching the sky as the rising morning sun sent lights trails down through the window where it danced over her red hair, dreaming of far off worlds and lands. "Space travel. Why is it so far off?" She mumbled to herself.
"It's probably closer than you think." The Doctor said with certainty in his voice. Hannah looked at him with a look of amusement, but the look on his face was completely sincere. There was something about him; she could just feel it….
Before they could say anymore, the bus came to a stop. "Alright, folks, we're here! Grab any belongings you'd like to bring in, we will be in the inner circle for about an hour and then we can hit the gift shop, and then be back here, we can head for Winsor!" People began piling off in a whirl; the sound of excited but polite chatter filled the small space. The Doctor watched as the man in the back made his way quickly to the front and out the door, headed for Stonehenge. Now it was his turn to take Hannah's hand and lead her off the bus.
She gasped, seeing Stonehenge so close was mind-blowing. She slowly started walking toward it, then took off into a full scale run to the ancient ruins, her feet leading the way before her brain could catch up.
"Alright, Hannah. It may sound weird, but we need to keep an eye on that man and beyond anything, you need to stay next to me, because anywhere else could mean..." He stopped, looking down at his side and seeing he was missing a particular red-head in tall boots, who was taking off up the path toward Stonehenge. "...danger..." he rolled his eyes. By the time he looked back, the man was gone. The Doctor spun around on his heels, looking this way and that, just to see him already far ahead on the path, almost catching up to Hannah. The man stopped and turned, sending an evil glare the Doctor's way, then moving quickly up the path.
"What are you planning, Garafaxion?" He questioned. Garafax; a proud race from ancient planet, orbiting twin stars. Their past time was landing on planets and claiming them for their own, pulling resources for their own planet's failing ones. Usually they landed on uninhabited ones, forming a beacon from the resources on the planet, and sucking it all up into a storage ship. But why was this one here? An inhabited planet, and a Garafaxion lands in the middle of…Britain? Without another thought, The Doctor took off up the path.
Ahead, Hannah made it to the inner circle. She took a deep breath, calming her heavy breathing, her red scarf and leather jacket clinging to her skin. The entire vibe of the place was just so overpowering and beautiful, she just couldn't help herself from smiling and spinning around right in the middle. She had been so overwhelmed by the beauty of it, she didn't notice the man behind her as she ran into him. "Oops! Sorry!" She said, spinning around to face him. She could have sworn his eyes flashed orange as he stared at her, for a second to long she felt, before he said "It's irrelevant. Continue." He waved a hand behind him as he moved away.
"It's irrelevant." Hannah mocked to herself. She looked over at the tour, where the guide was telling the group about the legend and landmarks and the gift shop times. Hannah really didn't want to sit and listen to them talk about obvious things about the place. She looked back. Orange eyes had disappeared behind a stone. She could just see his foot and...Was that a wire or something? Hannah began moving toward him, when she felt a hand grab her forearm. She turned to see the Doctor, looking around himself. "Did you see where that man went?" He asked her.
"There. Behind the rock." She said, expecting The Doctor to dash over there, but he didn't. He just nodded. There was something there in his eyes; he seemed..."what is he doing? You know, I know you do." She queried.
"I may have an idea, yeah." He couldn't just run over and tackle the man though. Under the Shadow Proclamation, the Garafax weren't to be touched unless they violated the law and went scavenging on inhabited planets, which he couldn't prove. Not yet anyway.
"Well?" Hannah impatiently asked, waiting for an answer.
"There is a garbage can down the path. Need to throw out that empty cup?" The Doctor asked, indicating the Frappuccino cup in Hannah's hand. She seemed planted where she was, waiting for an answer. "I can tell you on the way, but not here." After a pause, Hannah nodded. The Doctor smiled his charming smile and took her hand, leading her out of the inner circle and down the path toward a garbage can. "Well...um..." The Doctor began. Hannah waited, never taking her eyes off of him. "Wow, 1000 years and I still can't figure out how to start this..."
"1000 years sounds good to me." Hannah said, her eyes widening at the number.
"Right! Good idea. I'll just do it quick, like taking off a band aid. I'm and alien, a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterborous with two hearts. I'm the last of the Time Lords -long story- and I travel through space and time in a blue 1960's Police telephone box that's bigger on the inside. I'm a little over 1000 years old. This," he said, holding the sonic up at eye level to the girl. "Is a sonic screwdriver. It can do anything and everything, maybe even turn the moon blue, dunno, haven't tried yet, been meaning to, but it cannot do wooden doors or deadlocks. All the stories I told you are just a very small speck of my millions of traveling stories, and this, right here, is about to become another one. That creature up there is from the planet Garafax, and I'm pretty sure he's trying to pull the resources from this planet, though I'm not sure, and I'm not sure what is has to do with Stonehenge, but if I am right, I have to turn him into the Intergalactic police called the Shadow Proclamation." He said in one fell swoop.
Hannah stood there, her mouth hanging open for a minute. "Ok..." She clamored, at a loss for words. She glanced down at the tip of her boots, then up at him trying to think of something to say, and when words didn't come, she looked around again, not exactly meeting the insane man's eyes. "You...yeah. um... I'm guessing you aren't a tour guide."
The Doctor looked puzzled. Hadn't he just told her that? "No...no I guess not."
"Right. So, so you're just insane, then." She huffed, scratching her head.
"Well, that's the popular theory." He said, grinning to himself.
Hannah shifted on her feet, checking her watch. "Right, ok. We still have about half an hour or more." She turned, her hair flipping behind her as she walked back toward Stonehenge. "Maybe I can salvage a little bit of this trip."
"Wait, Hannah wait!" The Doctor said, catching up with her and matching his pace to hers. "I'm sorry, that was a lot of information."
"Just a bit." She said, stomping back up the path.
"Well, you believe me right?" He encouraged her.
"You know what, Doctor, I think I've had enough fairy tales for today." She announced.
"Please, it's the truth." He silently palmed his face, followed by a slight "ow." Why did he tell her all that?
Hannah spun around so suddenly, the Doctor stumbled back a bit. "Truth? No, you know what I want the truth. The REAL truth" She barked, backing him up against one of the rocks a bit away from the inner circle, his hands trying to find a place to go. "Like who are you really? How did you trick the bus driver and tour guide into letting you in, why are you really stalking that man, and why you had to drag me into all this. Let's start with an easy one, how about, what is your name? Because I know it isn't 'The Doctor'. That's as far flung as your other stories. Just at least tell me that. What is your name?"
The Doctor, back against the rock, tried to look for an answer, a way to get past her, anything, but she stared into him. Maybe after 1000 years, it was time to come clean...
Just then, the ground shook, causing them to rock. Hannah fell forward, into the Doctor who instinctively caught her. Her head snapped up, looking at him, then back toward the inner circle. "That was Stonehenge." She muttered.
"It came right from the inner circle!" The Doctor exclaimed, pushing off the back of the rock, and shifting his hold on Hannah to her hand, and they ran up the path to it.
The tourists and guides ran out, back toward the gift shop for safety. Someone grabbed Hannah's arm, causing The Doctor's grip on her hand fall. "It's not safe! Come on! Come on!" The Doctor turned and took her arm from the woman's grasp and pushed Hannah toward the inner circle.
By the time they got there, the rocks themselves were glowing. Orange eyes, his eyes glowing again, and now Hannah could see scales of some sort on his neck and under his eyes, stood in a middle rock, his hand reaching up toward the sky with some kind of device in his hands. Wind came from nowhere whipped at the Doctor and Hannah. "What do you think you're doing!?" The Doctor screamed to him.
"Garafax will be great, Garafax will live forever! Every planet is forfeit to Garafax!" Orange eyes bellowed over the wind.
"What's he doing!?" Hannah implored of the tall man holding her hand, her other hand holding back her hair from her eyes. Looking down, Hannah saw the grass turning brown and the dirt was getting dryer and dryer underneath her feet.
"He's pulling any and every natural recourse he can from the planet, from surface to core!" The Doctor cried over the relentless wind.
"How!" Hannah urged.
The Doctor looks around. The circular alignment of the rocks and the placing on the hill...
"Stonehenge! He's using it as a beacon up to his ship!"
Hannah looked up, the glowing light from Stonehenge shot up through the sky. "What do we do!?"
The Doctor released her hand, taking off toward the Garafaxion, sonic pointed. Just as he clicked the button on the small contraption, a large crack of electricity was rebound back from the device, through the sonic and up threw the Doctor's arm, sending him flying back.
Hannah saw him land, and took off toward him. "Doctor!" She screamed, falling to her knees next to him. Not knowing what to do, Hannah took hold of his labels, shaking him. "Doctor, oh gosh please wake up!" she implored.
He regained consciousness quickly, sitting up, causing Hannah to drop back. "Right, that didn't work how I thought it would."
"What was that?" Hannah asked, looking up at the Garafax.
"Forcefeild of some sort surrounding him. Gunna have to think of something else." He said, still a bit wobbly from the impact, he leaned slightly on the small girl as she helped him to his feet.
"Like what?" She grunted as he put weight on her as she lifted him.
"I could make a counter beacon...if I had a large metal compartment with HB wires..." He said, mostly to himself, and then suddenly stood straight like nothing had happened. "Come with me!" He said, pulling Hannah up and out of the circle. "I have an idea!"
Hannah ran behind him back toward the parking lot, the ground drying and dying to fast for her comfort. "This better be a bloody good plan!" She yelled up to him.
"Idea, not plan." He corrected.
"What's the difference?" Hannah questioned. This didn't seem like the time to be pulling a dictionary out.
"An idea is like a plan...just...not as well thought through. Not as well...well, planned." He contradicted.
Hannah caught her breath as she tripped on a piece of concrete that cracked below her feet. "Oh great, that is oh so very comforting."