Chapter Ten

A Shadowy Deal

"I'm starting to get hungry, Doctor," Allie stated with a frown.

"You too?" the Doctor asked with a sigh, "my brain's trying hard not to remind me of my stomach. Oh look! Over there!"

The Doctor motioned to a little food stand with both of her hands as a wide, jovial grin appeared on her face before she started jumping up a few times with a giggle. Allie couldn't help but to laugh at the alien's antics and being overly jubilant over finding a food stand. Still, Allie couldn't help but to feel bothered over how the Doctor could act so jovial and excited over a food stand while she had been driven to cry not too long ago. Was it the hormones, or was it the fact that the alien was trying to hide everything under a mask of hyperactive giddiness? She couldn't tell.

"I wonder if they have any Celennian Jales. I haven't had a good Celennian Jale in ages!" the alien exclaimed excitedly, speaking her thoughts aloud before seeing Allie's confused reaction, "it's somewhere between a sandwich and a pie. Normally made with various fruit found on the planet on Celennia where the Celennian Jale originates from. There's a variety made with a fruit not entirely unlike bananas. I do love a good banana. Well, I did. Not a single clue if I still do. Least I did during my ninth and tenth versions. Once, I managed to level a weapons manufacturing plant on Villengard and then replaced it with a banana grove."

"I swear you're a verbal wikiwalk," Allie muttered before raising her voice to her normal volume, "so weren't we going to go eat?"

"Food, right," the Doctor said cheerily, "come with me if you want to eat."

Allie chuckled as the alien abruptly turned around and nearly took off running towards the food stand. She started to jog to catch up with the unusual alien before she felt something grab her and cover her mouth with a piece of fabric in one smooth action. Within seconds, she felt her whole body grow limp as darkness overtook her. She was vaguely aware of being carried away.

The Doctor, however, wasn't aware of what had befallen Allie as she took her spot in the line at the food stand. She was starting to grow impatient and worried. She glanced at her wrist, fully expecting to see a watch there before chuckling at her natural impulse.

"Of course not," she muttered to herself with a chuckle.

She started to look around, trying to locate the slightly tanned, raven haired young woman that was Allie. She took in all of the details of the area, trying to find the girl. Panic raised its head and stirred in her hearts. She was concerned that something horrible had befallen Allie, or was about to because the aforementioned human had gone off on her own. After all, it was what always happened. But of course, she started to piece together a plan as she reached the front of the line and found out that the food stand did in fact serve Celennian Jales and that they did have the variety of Jale that she wanted.

After paying for the food by way of a credchip, she sat down on a bench. By 'sitting down', I mean she was sitting on it in a way where her feet were on the seat and she was sitting on the highest part of the bench itself. As she poked at her food with her utensil which was quite similar to what you would get if you merged a fork and a spoon twice over. She came to two realizations as she ate her Jale, the first of which was that she really hoped that bananas tasted better than the fruit used in her meal or else she would add the sad truth to her list of sad truths. The second realization was that when it came time for her to drop Allie off at her house in the early 21st century, she would miss the girl. After those two realizations, a third hit her. That third realization was that she knew what she would have to do. She had a plan and it was going to be a rather fun plan.

As the Doctor was piecing things together and eating her sandwich pie meal, Allie was just inching her way closer to consciousness. Her head was feeling not unlike someone had created a rather large hole on the top of her skull, scooped her brains out with a rather cold spoon, and replaced all the gray matter with a metric ton of strawberry flavored cotton candy. She just managed to lift her head to see a canine-like life form inching towards her. She knew, completely in hindsight, that she should have reacted in fear for her life. After all, it had rather jagged teeth, each of them obviously very sharp and very thin. Its claws were like horrible talons and it walked on two legs, stalking towards her.

"I'm not wearing a red hood," Allie commented lightly, still feeling rather dazed.

"Whut?" the alien asked, stopping in his tracks to tilt his head at her, looking rather confused.

"Little Red Riding Hood," Allie stated, seeing that the alien was still rather confused before saying, "forget it. Anyways, I'll have you know that I'm friends with someone you don't want as your enemy."

"I fear that she already is," the alien stated, "that is why I borrowed you. You are her friend and you may be able to convince her to scare away the hunting party."

"Why are your own people after you anyways? What did you do?" Allie asked, looking up at the alien, looking into its eyes for the first time.

The alien's eyes were impossibly round and appeared to be much bigger than its eyelids allowed it to be. Scars littered the alien's eyes and as it moved, she could see scars seemingly shimmer underneath the fur. She knew that this one was some sort of fighter, soldier, or warrior. Her opinion was backed up by the glint of emotional turmoil, something she managed to sneak glimpses at whenever the Doctor's mask cracked. There was also a similar gaze, a slightly unfocused look, as if everything was yards away.

"I showed mercy to a weaker foe," the alien admitted quietly, "I allowed a weaker foe to live. For no reason other than… I'm tired of the bloodshed, the constant combat between the different tribes."

"I don't understand," Allie said, watching the alien.

"My people are separated by tribes. Each tribe holds a planet within the overall territories. And we're all trying to emerge as the greatest tribe. By being the survivor. An unending civil war fueled by bigotry and religion. The religion of my people… it teaches us that the strongest tribe will reach paradise, as will that tribe's ancestors and descendants. And we believe that the strongest is the survivor. Your friend… she called herself 'the Doctor', does she not?"

"That's right," Allie said quietly.

"To my people, her name means 'feared survivor and hunter of Daleks'," the alien stated.

"So she's… a sort of boogeyman to your people?"

"No. A hero," the alien said quietly, "a being of no mercy, just rage and bloodshed. I should return you before I ask for a worse fate than to be hunted by my own people. Can you walk?"

"I believe so," Allie stated.

"Then I will take you to where I found you. Please, follow."

Author's Note 2/12/13

Okay, I'm going to be gravitating more towards manic Doctor than grimdark/emo/angsty Doctor as I go on. At least as she inches deeper into pride and denial. Because when she falls from that height, it's going to not be pretty. It's still very much a part of the character, but she's trying harder to hide it and seem all light and innocent. Especially when she accepts Allie as her companion/assistant because then, she'd be constantly trying to show off (even in just to a friend).

And I really should be careful as to what I listen to write to. I think by listening to Journey of the Sorcerer by The Eagles, I've made up a scene that's almost the texture of cotton candy (most of the chapter was fluffy). Also, it seems that 13 doesn't quite like bananas (which will make her annoyed and/or sad).

Things should be picking up in the next chapter or two (it might even be pretty long with everything happening at once). It's definitely my intention for 13 to be a bit of a chessmaster (and being able to play speed chess when things get bad). I'm trying to make 13 to have qualities from previous Doctors and not let her be a female 10. She definitely has got talkative loon down pat. (Also, I seem to have turned Allie into a troper… what have I done? The last thing I need is a self-aware character who will point out how everything is just a poorly re-written/reimagined version of another work and will pick at every cliché and trope under the sun!)

Stay awesome, everyone!

~Gregora