Raven sat in the TARDIS as the engines whirred. She glanced over at the Doctor, still not able to bring herself to mention that Calissa didn't exist as of three weeks ago. Her eyes darted to the phone, expecting a call from River Song at any moment. There had to be something to explain this. Maybe Calissa died, or she was kidnapped and taken to another dimension? Another universe perhaps? Something to explain all this.
"Everything alright?" the Doctor asked her. "You seem kind of odd lately. Bit of a gloomy day for you?"
"I'm fine," she replied. "Just thinking."
"Thinking about what?" He asked her.
"The first time I met you," she lied. "It was in here, inside the TARDIS. Then you took me somewhere and left without a trace. Then you came back so suddenly. Without any warning."
"Well," he explained, "I simply took the short way around. It was a hospital, you know? That place where I dropped you off. You had a bit of amnesia and they had to get your memory started again. That was all."
"It's still odd though," she muttered. "How I don't remember much. Like my history and past are busy writing themselves out. Yet, I still remember some things. Like they're important or something."
"I suppose they are." He smiled at her. "Now, where would you like to go?"
"Anywhere," she answered, standing. "Anywhere the TARDIS decides on."
"You heard her, sexy." The Doctor winked. "Anywhere you like."
The engines whirred and stopped as the TARDIS landed. The Doctor pulled Raven behind him as he ran to the doors and threw them open. He stopped, his mouth wide open.
"Ravena?" he asked. "Get back into the TARDIS."
"Why?" She peered around him and stared in horror.
Five Daleks had turned to face them. They had landed on a Dalek spaceship.
"The Doctor has arrived!" one Dalek announced.
"The Doctor will step forward!" another commanded.
"He will do this or be exterminated!" a third chimed in.
The Doctor slowly stepped forward. Raven hung back, fingers clutching the doorframe of the TARDIS.
"Alright," The Doctor spoke. "I'm here." He snapped his fingers and the TARDIS doors slammed shut. Raven ran to the monitor so she could see what was going on outside.
"Now," he continued, "what do you want?"
"The Doctor shall be our prisoner!" the fourth Dalek announced. "Prepare the ship for arrival at Skaro!"
Raven blinked and gasped as images filled her brain. She was imprisoned and chained up in a small metal room. Around her, Dalek voices shouted commands to each other. She was young and scared, and she didn't know why she had been imprisoned.
The memory flashed forward, and she was escaping Skaro in a small ship as the Daleks exploded behind her. There was a faint glow around her, and then nothing. The memory ended in blackness.
"Doctor" she whispered. "Don't."
"You think that you can take me prisoner while my ship is still on board your vessel?" the Doctor pointed out.
"You will have no choice!" a Dalek explained. "You will do as we say!"
"Or what?" he asked.
"Or we will kill our other prisoner." Another Dalek pulled up an image of a small girl, curled up in the center of a room. The Doctor walked toward the image and stared at it. It was a girl with dark brown hair and warm brown eyes. She was young, maybe ten years old. Strangely, Raven felt like she knew the girl from somewhere.
"Calissa," the Doctor whispered, his hand reaching out to touch the screen.
"Doctor," Raven whispered.
"I will need a moment to think about this." The Doctor turned back to the TARDIS and opened the doors. He closed them behind him and leaned on the railing.
"I can't believe that they have her!" He yelled. "How could they even do that? I thought she was safe with River Song! I thought she was safe from them!"
"Doctor?" Raven asked him. "Are you thinking about letting them imprison you?"
"It's not like I have any other choice."
She walked over to him. "You could leave this ship and keep saving lives in the TARDIS. You don't have to be a prisoner there. It's not worth it. Trust me. Life imprisoned in Skaro is not worth it."
"How do you know what Skaro is like?" he asked her.
"Because it feels like I've been there before." Raven blinked. "I think that Skaro is part of my history. Part of the history that I still have to remember. I can remember being there, yet I can't remember. It's like there's something keeping me from filling in all those holes in my memories. Doctor, the only thing that I really know is that Skaro is not a place for you to be in."
"You're suggesting that I leave my daughter to be killed by Daleks?"
"How do you know if you'll live through the Daleks if you go with her? How do you know if they won't kill her the moment you agree? How do you even know that's really Calissa on the screen and not just some fake imposter? How do you know any of this?"
"I just know that I have to try something." The Doctor turned back to the door and placed his hand on the wooden panelling.
"Ravena?" he called back. "When I'm off of this TARDIS, you are to fly it far away from here. Somewhere the Daleks will never find it."
"I just hope you know what you're doing," she whispered.
The Doctor was led along the metal halls of the ship, his chains connected to the Daleks. It seemed odd to him how slowly the Dalek ship could travel to Skaro. As they walked, he caught sight of the TARDIS, chained up as it had been these past seven years now.
The Daleks shoved him into his cell. He pressed his face against the bars as he stared at the TARDIS. It hadn't vanished yet. That concerned him greatly. He had told Ravena to get the TARDIS out of here. Now, it was in the hands of the Daleks.
He dug around for his sonic screwdriver, shoved it between his teeth, and used it to unlock his chains. He then switched it over to his hands and used it to open his cell door. The Doctor ran to the TARDIS and used the sonic to undo the locks. He opened the door and rushed inside. There, to his surprise, he found nothing.
The TARDIS was empty. Completely empty and untouched for seven years. He checked under the controls and around the engine room. Nothing. Not a single sign of Raven anywhere, almost like she had just vanished into thin air.
He hopped over to the monitor and punched in a command to access the security cameras. The Doctor searched for a tape dating back seven years ago. He found what he was looking for and pressed play.
"I just know that I have to try something." The Doctor turned back to the door and placed his hand on the wooden panelling.
"Ravena?" he called back. "When I'm off of this TARDIS, you are to fly it far away from here. Somewhere the Daleks will never find it."
"I just hope you know what you're doing," she whispered.
The Doctor left the TARDIS and Ravena went over to the monitor.
"Alright!" The Doctor called to the Daleks. "I will go with you and be your prisoner as long as you spare the life of that girl right there."
"The Doctor is our prisoner!" the Daleks shouted.
There was a flicker on the screen...it was Raven who was flickering...not the screen….
The Doctor sighed in frustration and backed up.
"The Doctor is our prisoner!" the Daleks shouted.
Raven's image became fuzzy, and she was no longer there.
The Doctor turned off the monitor and switched to hologram mode. There was Ravena, standing at the controls. He flipped a switch so that the hologram was running in slow motion. Suddenly, she became stiff, and her entire form broke off into atoms. Then, Ravena was no more.
"She vanished?" the Doctor whispered to himself. "Just like that? No sign of injury or anything! She just...vanished."
He sent the controls into life and the TARDIS whirred away.
The Doctor ran out into the ship. He held up his hands.
"Stop everything!" he yelled. "You don't want that man! He's not the Doctor! I am."
"I'm not the Doctor?" The Doctor pointed at himself.
"Just get back into the TARDIS and go far away from here," he instructed. "Trust me."
He explained what had happened. The Doctor nodded and stepped into the TARDIS.
"What happened?" Raven asked him.
"I have no idea." He shook his head. "Anyways, looks like we're going somewhere else for today!"
Raven shook her head in disbelief as the Doctor took the controls. As she watched him, she could almost feel the part of her memory that had been shaky before lock into place. It was a part of her now. A definite, whole, part of her.
