Chapter Three
A/N: Thank you to TheDoctor'sAmazingCompanion, DoctorWho50 and TenthStories for reviewing.
The tingle of electricity in the Doctor's veins had hardly diminished, though a whole day had passed since it had begun. He had not pointed this out to Wilfred Mott, of course, who had found him just a little while after he had left the prison's rubble, and it had not even left his mind when he had chased the Master across the wastelands of the area. But now that night had fallen, he had decided that this was the time to discover the identity of the child.
The man threw a quick glance over his shoulder, to where Wilfred was sat on the crash seat of the TARDIS control room, his face still a picture of slight confusion as the room shook with the force of their travel through the Vortex. He had expected nothing less, to be fair to him, as his ship tended to have that effect on people, especially on humans, but currently, he had bigger problems to face.
As the tremors ceased, the TARDIS having landed, the Doctor finally leaned against the console. He had arrived at the very place he had wished to find, the place that may hold the answers to all of his questions, and yet he made no movement towards the door. Now that he was so close to discovering the child's identity, he was unsure whether he wanted to know.
"Well, aren't we going to leave the box?" asked Wilfred, unaware of the Time Lord's internal debate on this very question. For a moment, silence reigned, as the elderly man waited for a reply and the man who appeared younger considered the one he would give. Finally, he decided that there was only one cause of action that could be taken.
And so he nodded his head and ran to the doors, flinging them open and rushing out, leaving Donna's grandfather stumbling along behind him. They had landed just outside a large building, which cut a rather imposing figure against the darkening sky. It looked down upon the wreckage of the prison, and the Doctor took a moment to glance down at the ruins. There were black vans outside there now, which he knew for a fact belonged to UNIT, as well as a rather flashy convertible which belonged to Captain Jack Harkness. The man had become something of a friend of Lucy's during the year in which the Master ruled the world from the Valiant, and so the Time Lord had thought it appropriate that he take care of her now.
Turning his head away from the ruined jail, a sense of guilt overwhelming him once again as he recalled his failed attempts to save the woman, the man rang the doorbell of the large, grey-bricked institution.
As he had expected, no one came to the door, and so he used his sonic screwdriver to unlock the door, moving swiftly to the computer which sat on a desk near the entrance. He knew exactly what he was looking for, and he got to work, sifting through the files on the various children living at Broadfell. The girl had to be one of them. She had to be.
Finally, he came to a photograph that he recognised, and cried out with delight. He had not expected to accomplish his mission so quickly, and it was a great relief to know a little more about the girl that had made the hair on his arms stand on end. Something was wrong about her, and he could not quite put his finger on it.
The Time Lord brought up the file on the child from the system, hoping that something, anything, about the girl's past could bring him closer to discovering who she was.
Name: Clare Lia Cole
Date of birth: Precise date unknown (aged 10)
Emergency Family Contact: Samuel Cole, Claret House, Tarminster
Specifications: To be kept in sight at all times. Parents not to be allowed access UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.
History: Clare has a history of being extremely disruptive among other children and adults, both inside and outside the home. She has a strange fascination with Broadfell Prison, and should be kept away from it as often as possible. When provoked, she can be extremely dangerous, and though she is not violent, she has a tendency to take revenge in a secret and sadistic manner. She also seems to have strange abilities, such as a lack of sustaining injuries. When she fell out of a 10ft tree at the age of 5, she sustained extensive injuries right after falling, but when examined in hospital, she had no injuries at all.
"That's not right." the Doctor whispered to himself. "No human could fall from that height and have no injuries at all an hour or so later. It's not natural."
"What, are you saying she's not human, then, this kid?" asked Wilf, shocking the Time Lord, who had been unaware that the man had been listening to his rambling, or that he had apparently been reading the file over his shoulder.
"Looks like it." he sighed in response, using the sonic screwdriver to delve further through the layers of code, trying to find any changes that had been made in the system since the file had been created. "Either that or she is very strange. A-ha! There's another layer in here, the whole thing's been changed!"
"Is that good?" Wilf questioned.
"It depends what was underneath. But it hasn't been added to, it's either been changed or deleted, which means that there was something here they didn't want to stay on the record. And it's encrypted. It's something they didn't want anyone to see." He rambled on for a little while, as he hacked into the code.
But suddenly, the new updated information disappeared, to be replaced with the original copy of the files, and the Doctor found himself staring in wonder. All of the pieces were coming together, to leave a clear picture of the child's identity in his mind. It all made sense now; everything had fallen into place with one simple fact.
Her name was Clarelia.
A/N: I will explain further in the next chapter. Please review!
