So I more or less got this chapter out on time! Yay! The next one isn't all the way written yet but I'll try and get that one out on time. Also the Doctor finally got rid of the wacky hair colors- she might go back to blue for the finale, I'm still deciding.

Also, these episodes are going to be strongly influenced by (and name-drop) the book The Neverending Story.


"Doctor?" Natalie exclaimed. "It's been two months!" The Doctor, slightly disheveled as always but thankfully without blue hair, had just turned up at the door of their flat. And to top it off, Natalie was hosting a small party in an hour and she hadn't found anyone to watch Alex.

"Sorry about that, I must've messed up the controls some," the Doctor mumbled, closing the door behind her. "Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?" she added.

"Not unless you can watch Alex while I have some people over," Natalie griped as she ran back into the kitchen to turn off the stove. "He's got a new movie he wants to go see, but I told him he couldn't, at least not in theaters, it's too violent. He's up in his room reading right now, but I'm worried he might cause trouble during the party if he doesn't have something to do later."

The Doctor said, "I'm sure he wouldn't cause trouble, Natalie. I can watch him, if you like, or take him on the TARDIS somewhere." Someone rang the doorbell.

"There's not supposed to be anyone here yet!" Natalie griped as she opened the door. "Just go take Alex somewhere, but somewhere safe, you understand?"


WONDER

(by Gakorogirl)


The Doctor stuck her head into Alex's room. "Hey, Alex," she said cheerfully. "I'm watching you for a bit, you want to go somewhere?"

Alex was laying on his bed reading something, but the cover was turned away from the Doctor. "Doctor!" he shouted, dropping the book. "Where are we going?"

"Anywhere. Your mum said someplace safe, but you know... we can just stay close to the TARDIS."

"Can we go see Age of Ultron?" Alex asked.

"Is that the movie you aren't allowed to see?" the Doctor asked. "Let's go to a planet instead- Harry Potter!"

"What?"

"Harry Potter," the Doctor repeated in an explanatory tone as she walked over to Alex's bookshelf.

"Yeah, it's pretty easy," Alex said. "I read all of them a couple years ago." He noticed the Doctor had pulled out a copy and was flipping through the pages. "Are we going to a planet, Doctor?" he said. "Are there lots of planets with breathable atmospheres?"

"Oh, enough. I've got some oxygen masks in the TARDIS, though, it's the pressure you'd really need to worry about. And a very strong gravity, you can't stay there for too long. Not even I can do that."

"So, can we go now?"
"Yeah, you want to bring your book?"

Alex doubled back and grabbed the book, which turned out to be The Neverending Story. "That's a good one," said the Doctor. "The power of names."

"The Doctor isn't your real name, is it?" Alex asked as they walked out the door. The Doctor's sloppy clothes drew a disapproving glance from Natalie's early-arriving friend, who was sitting in the kitchen and talking in a loud voice about gardening.

"No, it isn't. Time Lords don't use their real names, they use sort of nicknames. But the nicknames have power, too. They mean what we really are."

"Like The Doctor."

"Yeah. The word was Gallifreyan, before it was in any other language. Healer."
"What are some other names?"

"The Corsair, they were a friend of mine. And The Master, very much the opposite. Most of the time, anyway. Here we are!" she exclaimed as they stepped into the TARDIS. The ceiling was glowing in sunset colors, like the sky outside.

"Let's go to Adakite III, it's very nice. The people are made of light," she said. Alex shrugged. "Sounds cool- what's it like?"

"A planet of light and fire and crystal," the Doctor said as the TARDIS doors swung shut and she began to fiddle with the controls.


The doors swung open onto a glittering plain of white grass. "Whoa," Alex gasped. About a mile away loomed a city of blocky buildings. "You want to go to the city?" the Doctor asked. "Sure!" said Alex. As he looked up at the sky, he saw that it had a green tinge, and the sun was high overhead. "What's in the air here?" he asked.

"Oh, you can breathe it just fine, there's just a bit less nitrogen to filter out the colors. Here's the footpath to the city." She pointed towards the city. "See, between the rooftops there's cables? Or maybe you can't. The speeders go on suspended cables, so there's no chance of us getting hit by one."

They started to walk, and the Doctor commented, "There are fire rivers here, in the cave systems. The ones aboveground are water, but don't drink from them. They taste bitter without filters."

"So, the caves must be too hot to live in?"

"Oh, people live there. Not humans, of course, but there's lots of life down there. And if you get a special suit you can go down and do some sightseeing. The fire really does flow like water, it's not lava. Some species can even drink it."

"Can you?"

The Doctor laughed. "Not unless I want a speedy regeneration."

The city was close now- the buildings were only a few stories tall, but made of a opaque rocky material. Some of them had square corners, and some were rounded and worn-looking. "The Adakitan grow their cities out of living rock," the Doctor said.

Alex stopped for a moment to stare at the structures. They didn't seem to be moving in any way, and they looked like ordinary rock. "So those are alive?"

"Yeah, the same way a tree is. They suck minerals out of the soil when they grow too big, which is why only the white grass grows on most of the planet." "It's really pretty," Alex said.

"Mmm- the Adakitan have virtually destroyed the environment, making the living rock grow so high. There used to be trees here, that looked almost like the ones on Gallifrey. Trees with shining leaves. The planet, though, it'll adapt. The Adakitan won't."

"What do you mean?"

"The atmosphere is changing, and soon most of the agriculture will collapse. Most of the Adakitan will go offworld, but a lot..." The Doctor trailed off. "We're almost at the city," she said. In another minute, they passed the first (and smallest) rock structure. It was translucent in the sunlight, with a slightly shimmering quality. Alex laid his hand on the rock and jerked it away. "It's warm,"

"Brilliant, right? The rock produces a little bit of heat when it photosynthesizes. It's a little chilly here- this is one of the warmest days of the year- and so the Adakitan save loads on heating."

"What do they do if it gets too hot?"
"Move up onto the roof, of course," said a small voice behind them. Alex spun around and gaped as the Doctor chuckled quietly.


The Adakitan was even shorter than Alex, only about a meter tall. It- or she, maybe- had shimmering white-gold skin and massive golden eyes, and brilliantly glowing white hair floated down to its ankles.

"You must be a tourist," it said softly. "I've never seen anything quite like you before!"

"Well, I've- never seen anything like you, either," Alex said. "I'm a human."

"I'm Adakitan," it answered. The corners of its eyes crinkled in what looked like a smile. "Call me Wonder."
"Wonder?"

"It's short for my real name. Or the Common translation of my real name."

"Andromeda Galactic Common," the Doctor said quietly. Addressing Wonder, she asked, "What's your full name?"
"Well, it translates out to Wonder at the whole of creation," Wonder said. "Nobody's ever asked that before- they just want pictures. Are you a human too?"

The Doctor shook her head. "I'm- no. Not human."

"Is that why you have such pretty hair?" Wonder asked, reaching up to tug on the end of a stray spiral of hair. "You like it?" the Doctor asked. "I usually dye it, I was going to do purple this week but there wasn't time. But nah, there's humans that look like me, too."

"There must be lots of different kinds of humans," Wonder said. "We look different, but not that different. Oh- there're my friends, want to meet them?"

It danced away, the tips of her toes barely touching the path, and Alex and the Doctor followed. Wonder grabbed the hands of two other Adakitan and pulled them over, chattering as she did. "And the smaller one's human, but the one with the fluffy hair is-"

It paused. "What planet were you from?"

"Oh, I travel around," the Doctor said. "What are your friends' names?"

"This is Joy, and this is Maggie."

"Maggie?" Alex asked. Maggie- at least he thought it was Maggie- said, "My name translates to That pain without which the joy would be meaningless, and I couldn't go by Pain, obviously." It laughed quietly. "And Joy's full name is The joy of being able to love. It's a much nicer name."

"What's your name?" Joy asked, its eyes smiling.

"I'm Alex." "I'm the Doctor," the Doctor said, and all three Adakitan gasped. "The Doctor?"


"I mean-" the Doctor said, but was cut off by Maggie. "You can help," it said, eyes wide. "Please?"

"What's wrong?" the Doctor asked.

Joy and Wonder exchanged a glance and looked up silently at the Doctor. Maggie answered, "There's people disappearing. And nobody notices, except me and Wonder and Joy."

"There's nothing wrong," Joy said at the same time. "You're all so silly-" it laughed, when everyone looked over.
"Not you, too!" Maggie gasped. "Joy, you remember me, right? Look at me. Remember what we did yesterday?"

"Friend things," Joy said vaguely. "It was fun." Its eyes seemed to be clouding over.

Wonder grabbed Joy's arm. "We went down to the fire rivers, Joy."
Joy's eyes cleared for a moment. "I drank the fire water," it said, words starting to slur as its eyes clouded again. "There's nothing wrong here, nothing's wrong-"

The Doctor whipped out her sonic and began to scan Joy. "Joy drank the fire water?" she asked. Wonder and Maggie both nodded. "The rivers were in full flame, it was beautiful," Wonder said. "And Joy drank the water, but I don't like it so much, and Maggie was trying to find Eternity- Eternity disappeared down in the caves, two and a half days ago. Do you think the fire water's making her like this?"

Suddenly, Joy wrenched loose of Wonder's grip and began to run. "Joy?" Maggie called. "Joy!"

Joy turned and looked back, laughing a jingling laugh. "I will tell the Core, the Doctor has come back." It whisked away between the buildings, the laugh fading away.

"That can't be good," Alex said quietly. "Maybe we should've stayed home."

"I would've ended up here anyway," the Doctor said. "I always turn up where people need me." She had started to run in the direction Joy had gone, and Alex sprinted after her. Wonder and Maggie ran beside him, their tiny feet barely touching the ground.

Joy's small form disappeared on the outskirts of town. "Where'd it go?" Alex gasped.

Maggie looked up at Alex. "Into the Crypt," it said sadly. "Nobody ever comes back from there."


Adakite is actually a type of igneous rock, which seemed perfect for a "planet of fire and crystal." Please review (even just a few words makes my day!)

The next chapter/episode will be called Joy. And the one after that I'm thinking of making a companion-light episode. With Cybermen, maybe. What do you guys think of the title Dreaming of Gold? It was kind of supposed to parallel Nightmare in Silver.