A/N: Sorry it's a bit of a short one this time- college seems to be taking up all of my time! I had an English Language lecture today on nouns (fun, right?), and I may have spent the time that I was supposed to be working composing the beginning of this chapter instead... All for you guys! I'm not updating as often as I'd like to, but don't fret- I've got some ideas in the works at the minute and I promise I'll get them down on paper (or computer) as soon as I can :)

Monster.

It was such a tiny word when you thought about it. A concrete noun; seven letters, two syllables, two vowels and five consonants. It was really quite insignificant in your mind, or even written on paper, but held so much power in reality.

Jenny had met many monsters in her four hundred and twelve years. Creatures so despicable, so mind-numbingly, irreconcilably evil that she sometimes wondered how the universe was still standing. She had realised pretty early on that a monster wasn't just a word, or even a being, though. It was so much more.

A monster was an idea. It was a game of Chinese whispers, constantly changing its form as its story was passed from generation to generation and, as Jenny sat safely in her little ship just outside Meridane 5's outer atmosphere, watching the entire planet explode and burn, she realised that she was the very worst monster of them all.

She'd managed to destroy an entire planet. Again.

Cursed; she was almost certain of it. Wherever she went, death and destruction followed her. Perhaps the worst part of that thought, though, was that there was a part of her- no matter how small that part was- that revelled in it all. Killing was programmed into her DNA- the very base of her existence focused on imaginative ways to slaughter and maim- and, no matter how hard she tried to repress that side of her, a small, dark place in the bottom of her corroded soul still felt a rush of adrenaline once put into a battle situation.

She had always functioned best under pressure- in life or death situations- because she was able to flip a switch within her and become not only what she was created to be- a heartless soldier- but the fully formed, merciless monster that her reputation proceeded, and so could fight her way out of pretty much any and every situation. Sometimes she told herself that she didn't want to escape- didn't want to keep killing- but as soon as she found herself in that sort of situation she would find herself- her compassionate self- completely powerless to the beast that hid beneath her skin. It was its instinct to try and escape, no matter the consequences.

Sighing deeply as her inner conflict seemed unlikely to settle any time soon, Jenny took one last look at the planet that had pretty much been swallowed by fire and smoke right before her eyes, then turned her little ship away and headed out towards the stars. Where she would go next, she didn't know. Usually she would have been filled with a sense of excitement and wonder over that prospect, but now all she felt was a dull pain- not only from her increasingly reddening, burnt skin that she hadn't noticed before, but from the pit of her stomach as well.

When did I become this? she asked herself, seeing her gaunt face, speckled with dried blood and ash, reflected in the windscreen in front of her. The urge to vomit rose inside her.

Of course she knew there were many factors- the abandonment by her father, having no-one to raise or guide her when she was young and foolish, learning the hard way that some things were just meant to be left alone- but she could pretty much pin the birth of all her most pressing problems down to one specific day. A day she would never forget for as long as she lived, a day... No. She couldn't think about that. It had been the worst day of her life- the fuel that most of her nightmares and inner rage still ran on. She wasn't allowed to be angry now- not when she was supposed to be mourning the, undoubtedly, countless innocent people whom she had murdered before even stopping to think.

"Warning- now entering planetary orbit. Impact in thirty seconds." A monotonal, female voice sounded all around her and she jerked back into reality. Glancing at the clock on the dashboard, she realised she had been flying for hours and hadn't even realised. It was surprising she hadn't crashed before now, really...

A series of sharp, warning beeps began as a large, blue and green planet loomed ahead of her. She gripped at the steering rods in an attempt to turn herself around, but knew before she'd even tried that she was trapped in the planet's gravitational pull. There was nothing she could do except buckle up and hope the ground wasn't too hard.

The outside of the small ship began to glow a fiery red as it hit the planet's atmosphere, gaining speed fast. Jenny saw, to her overall (though not total) dismay, that parts of her vehicle were beginning to peel away and spiral to the ground. She was breaking up on entry.

When an entire wing snapped like a twig and went hurtling away, Jenny realised that no amount of pressing buttons or pulling levers was going to be able to save her so, as she hurtled towards a mass of green that littered the blue around it, she resigned herself to the fact that, one way or another, it was highly unlikely that she was going to get out of this without at least a new face being required. She didn't really mind that, actually- this regeneration had been very unkind to her. Nobody listened to a thirteen year old, no matter how clever or insistent they were.

As she was thinking this, it took her a few more seconds than it should have to realise, amidst all the green that was quickly beginning to turn grey and beige and burgundy as cities began to reveal themselves in patchworks below her disintegrating ship, she was spiralling towards, what appeared to be, an actually quite large lake. Maybe there was still hope!

As the last of her ship fell apart around her, leaving Jenny free falling towards the body of water below her, she let a yell escape her lips for the first time and, as she hit the water, the last comprehensible thought that came to mind was: maybe, finally, my fire will be doused.

A/N: So there you go! I realised a couple of days ago, going back over some of my previous chapters, that I should have probably said that I don't own Doctor Who, etc. I don't. Also, could I possibly pester you for a comment? They make my day :)

More soon!