I'm back. NaNoWriMo is okay. Ish.
Disclaimer: I own neither Harry Potter nor Doctor Who.
Luna sat up with a start. There was something special about today, an almost-though right at the edge of her mind. Before she could focus on it, however, the TARDIS began bouncing around and she didn't have time to figure it out. Instead, she did her best to struggle into jeans and a blouse and hurry to the console room.
They had been on the TARDIS for about two months, though it seemed like they might have been there forever. Everyone fell into a sort of family, with the eccentric guardian, a protective older brother, and a sweet younger sister.
In that time they hadn't done anything too dangerous. A chase through the Helverian Rock Statues and a minor dispute on Borella Six had been the most trying events of their companionship. They had visited around other places too, waterfalls and cities and villages and the future and the past. All around the universe, for weeks. Luna loved it.
Now, of course, Luna was crossing the control room to get to the central console, which was no small feat. The ship was quaking madly.
"What's happening?" she asked the Doctor, who was running around the column as if the ground wasn't bucking under his feet. He was frowning though, and looking almost panicked.
"I don't know. We've been grabbed by something, I think, or she's just being independent. She does that every once in a while, you know."
Will chose that moment to tumble into the room, rolling and popping up again as the TARDIS shook.
"What's with the TARDIS?" he asked, clinging to the nav chair.
"We don't know," Luna replied. "The Doctor says she's taking us somewhere."
"Oh," the werewolf managed to get out before they all lost their grips and went flying. The Doctor ended up tangled in the railing, and Will found himself flipped over the nav chair, while Luna had fallen against the door. "Well, happy birthday Luna," he shouted over the wheezing TARDIS.
Everything quieted at once. The Doctor jumped up immediately. Will and Luna followed more slowly.
"It's your birthday?" the Doctor asked, looking interested. Except for his eyes, they were guarded, worried. "How old are you?"
She had to think about it for a moment before answering. "Eight." Already? Yes, that was right. Eight. Hmm. So that was the almost-thought that morning.
The Doctor was looking at her strangely though. "Eight?" he repeated.
"Yes, eight," she replied, wondering why the alien now looked openly worried. "Why? Are you alright?" Maybe the wrackspurts from Helvaria's sister planet Helvania had gotten to him.
"Eight," he murmured again to himself, knowing the kids could hear him but not particularly caring. A Gallifreyan's eighth birthday… He shivered, remembering his trip to the Untempered Schism. Everything he had seen… running since then, always running. He shook his head quickly, trying to dislodge the memories, but they still hovered in the back of his mind, darkening everything. His mouth was uncomfortably dry.
"Doctor?" Will asked, smelling the sudden sorrow and slight fear coming from the Doctor and turned. "What is it, what's wrong about eight?"
"Back… before. When Gallifrey still stood… A Gallifreyan child would be taken to see the Vortex through the Untempered Schism. It was a… an initiation of sorts," he struggled to explain. "Some became cold and unfeeling, some ran in fear, some went mad, but no one came back unchanged. My best friend began to lose his mind that day… And Luna is eight today… If she were still on Gallifrey she would be going down the Schism today. Right now, probably."
"So? If you're worried about Luna, don't be. There's no Untempered Schism anymore," Will reminded him.
The Doctor shook his head, eyes boring into Will's, trying to make him understand, and for a moment Will was overwhelmed by the different emotions he was receiving. Fear and worry and sorrow and loneliness and a fierce protectiveness and something completely alien, a memory that he couldn't share with anyone. And there, buried under the tangled web of fear and sorrow, was a tiny, brief spark of hope that was still burning, after everything. The wolf inside Will howled, a keening sound of loss.
"Will, the Untempered Schism was a rip in the fabric of reality that showed Time. Everything and everywhen, all the places that ever were or ever will be and everything happening there, all at once. Do you know what the closes thing to that is, that still exists today is?"
"No," Will replied, but he had a sinking feeling. Time, in it's raw form… that was how the TARDIS traveled…
The dawning must have shown on his face, because the Doctor nodded. "Right. The Vortex. Which means she can see it at anytime. And with an awakening Time Lord brain in a human body…"
"Boom?" Will guessed. The Doctor nodded, and Will understood his fear. The wolf inside was roaring to protect his packmate, but he couldn't tear his eyes away from the Doctor's immensely deep and haunted eyes. Until Luna made a small "oh" sound. As one, the two spun around to see what had caused her quiet exclamation of surprise. Will shielded his eyes, stumbling out of the control room, while the Doctor's panic level spiked sharply.
The door was open.
The TARDIS spun gently, floating with the eddies of the Time Vortex, calm for once. All around her swirled Time, strands of might-have-beens and will-bes. Reds and blues and golds, all glowing and pulsing and changing every instant. Everything at once and a void at the same time. There were no words to describe it properly, no way for anyone human to look at it and stay whole. Yet, standing in the door and illuminated by the eddies and paths of time, stood little Luna Etoile.
Her hair was floating around her face, like a halo. She stood like an angel, only eight years old and looking over time and space and eternity. The Doctor approached cautiously, uncertain. Was she even still alive? He could only see her back. As he moved closer, her profile came into focus. Her silver eyes were wide, staring at it all, taking it in.
"Luna?" the Time Lord asked, worried but oddly calm. "What do you see?"
"Everything," the girl replied, her voice calm and slightly dreamy like always. "All that is and all that was, and all that will be. The would-have-beens and the never-will-bes, and the death and life that spans across eternity." She turned to face him fully, and the Doctor could see she was crying. "It's so beautiful, Doctor. So terribly beautiful."
"I know," the Doctor replied, standing next to the young girl, hand on her shoulder while they stared out at the Vortex together. He could see that beauty now, beauty he had missed when he was her age, when he had seen the war and the pain and the suffering. But beauty, that was there too. He smiled faintly down at Luna, who looked up at him, smiling back. Her mind brushed against his, the Time Lord part of her mind moving to overtake the human part. She fiddled with the watch in her hands.
"Should I?" she asked him quietly.
"You're a Time Lord now. The choice is yours."
Luna nodded, eyes fluttering closed. Time moved around her, holding her and comforting her. She could feel the brush of the Doctor's mind against her own, providing support that he had missed growing in the strict Time Lord society. Nodding silently to herself, Luna opened the watch.
It was frightening. A rush of sensations, knowledge, feelings, memories she didn't know were hers. But it only lasted a second, and then it was done, and she could feel everything around her. The TARDIS, humming warmly. The Vortex, spinning and continuing on unendingly. Will, deep in the TARDIS, hoping she was alright. And the Doctor, standing at her shoulder. Older than he cared to admit, a genius and a protector and the last. No, not the last. Not anymore.
And yet, she felt so alone now. They were the only two of their kind, the very last, and with that in mind she reached out, suddenly very frightened, searching for him, for comfort and protection. The Doctor met her halfway, holding her protectively both physically and mentally. But the girl couldn't take the strain anymore, and her eyes slid shut as she fell into comforting darkness.
The Doctor grabbed Luna as she sank to the floor, overwhelmed. He shared the feeling, though had better control. It wasn't her change that had overwhelmed him so much as what she had done afterwards, unknowingly. As he carried the girl back to her bed, he felt a new bond in his mind, a place that had been empty since the Time War, or maybe since before that. A place where the bond between father and child resided.
Reviews are, as always, welcome.