The woman calling herself Sarah Jane was going through Hell. A serum slithered through her veins making her lightheaded, everything became excruciatingly hot and soothingly cool at the same time. Sweat made everything she wore heavier while her body twitched in confusion of how to face this substance. Within this tempest, a command was heard.
Speak the truth, it said.
Speak and die.
"Who are you, Sarah Jane?" Tia said, the fever gripping the woman made her interrogator appear to pop up anywhere around the table. The dark-skinned woman's face took up all of Sarah's vision, cold eyes glaring at her.
"How about we start with something basic," she said. "Like how that's not your real name."
Sarah choked on air, her body stifled any form of talking back.
"Here's a fun tidbit," Mia voice chimed in. "The harder you fight, the more likely you'll see something freaky."
Chrome figures with bumps aimed specialized guns at her face. Stone hands appeared in flickering light, faces worthy of Hell, all inching closer in the growing darkness. The last face was an old foe, the Master before becoming Missy, saying something only he could.
"You ever wonder, all those little people you put in that box. Would you have dared to step into that Tardis, little Susan in tow, if you knew those doors were to be stained in blood?"
The scariest thing of all was that she had no answer.
"Answer me, or the nightmare continues."
"No."
Tia leaned in, a new syringe full of the horrific serum. "Speak clearly, no one survives two shots of this."
The woman turned her head up, tears forming.
"I'm not Sarah Jane."
"Then who are you?" Elton said.
A picture slid onto the table. Peripheral vision showed the hint of a forest she did not know, but the silhouette was a blonde woman whose image was becoming better understood. There was also a hint of a blue rectangle.
"We tried to acquire the Tardis, but it vanished before we could find it. All we know is that you left it. A companion of the Doctor."
Companion!?
The woman tried her best to ignore how irritating it was to be accused of being a passenger in her… why couldn't she call the Tardis hers?
"He always seems to have thing for blondes." Elton said. "What better bait than the Doctor's latest girlfriend."
"It could be her." Elton and Tia turned as Mia stepped forward. She was the mirror image of her twin, but the smile expressed unhinged malice.
"Wouldn't that be funny, asking our own target to be bait. The Doctor herself, legendary Timelord, helpless." A knife shined in the fluorescent glow, the woman's panicked features in its reflection.
"Please," Elton said. "The Doctor is a man, always, why would he decide to be a woman?"
"I'm not liking that tone, Elly" Mia said. "You make being a woman sound like stepping down. Not nice. You should be more respectful to our guest."
"Oh please, you're here promising to carve her up and worse, how am I scum for stating facts?"
Mia snickered and sheathed the blade.
"My tone and toys mean that this woman impresses me enough to have my attention. Same for you right, Tia?"
Her sister's face showed no response to the question.
"If she's really the Doctor, then her being here is what we've all been training for. I say we let her recover, and give me a proper challenge. I've read the field reports, heard the stories, and if she's half of what they've promised, it would be a beautiful bit of carnage between us." Her eyes glimmered with the toxic possibilities.
"Before you continue daydreaming, dear sister, I may not agree with Elton's poor expectations of women but a question must be answered."
Tia gripped the woman by the chin and drilled her eyes into the other. Mia leaned, excited for the answer. Elton, while clearly skeptical, didn't turn away.
"Are you the Doctor?"
The question made the woman lurch. Nightmares gave to a thousand needles worth of agony drilling into her skin. Screaming in pain wasn't possible because of the agony bombarding her flesh. She was more confused than hurt.
Because she wanted to say 'yes'.
The serum, however, forced the truth out of her.
"I'm not the Doctor." The words were Hell to speak.
"See," Elton said. "Told you."
Tia wasn't dissuaded.
"Why is it hard to admit the truth? Do you wish you were the Doctor?"
"Yes." This time the answer shot out immediately, with desperation.
"Can't blame her for that," Mia said. "All that power, all that chaos, girl's best dream."
"But you aren't the Doctor, are you?" Elton said.
The woman fought but the truth couldn't be stopped, her willpower burned to nothing.
"No, I'm not the Doctor."
Elton leaned in.
"Not a companion either, are you?"
"No."
"I bet he left her, he does that all the time. Bet you're just another failure, someone who messed up and can't go back."
She wanted to scream how he was wrong, but that only brought pain. It was worse than a lie, the woman believed that moving on had been the worst decision.
"Yes." The woman placed her head against the table, not giving them the satisfaction of her pain.
The three looked at each other, not saying a word. They had gotten their answers.
"The serum has a way of making people exhausted," Elton said. "You can tell us all about who you really are, later."
They started to walk away. Mia apparently was the last one out the door.
"Just so you know, I don't think you're being honest, maybe a little unsure is all. You got an aura about you. When it's all clear in the head, let me know, I'm looking forward to seeing what you can do."
Darkness consumed her, it was welcomed. Whatever the woman wanted, this rite of passage had only proven she wasn't worthy of it. Perhaps, she had thought this was the case all along and fought to ignore it.
Only then did the woman's mind drift to someplace… peculiar.