Lady A: Hey everyone! Welcome back to Guardian Saga: Seeker! I am so, so sorry for not updating this sooner but between Phoenix Saga: Origin, Legacy Saga: Genesis, Warrior Saga: Rebirth, Warrior Saga: Ember, Soul of the Doctor, and Chosen, I have been quite busy. Yeah, you notice how all but one of those are Doctor Who stories, right? *giggles* Anyways, I will be attempting to post two chapters for this, but seeing as it is pretty late here already, it might end up as only one, but hopefully not.
Much thanks and love to all those who faved, followed, and reviewed this story and all the others as well. You guys are the greatest! Yeah, rambling sorry. Moving along. Gonna try something new for this chapter. One of my reviewers suggested that I start doing previews at the end of the chapter, just to give you something to stew on until the next chapter gets up. We'll see how it goes and I want you guys to give me some feedback on it as well.
Brief Recap: The Doctor and Artimes return to the flat and celebrate Christmas at the Tyler residence. After a lot of happy bantering and fun, they watched an interview with Harriet Jones which totally ruined most of the good moods of everyone there. They went outside and watched as the spaceship burned up in the atmosphere and the Timelord and his blonde haired companion invited the ginger haired woman from another reality to join them in traveling the stars. The trio of time travelers then spent a few moments gazing up at the stars and enjoying the start of their brand new friendship.
I think I have talked enough, don't you? Now on with the show!
Chapter Twelve: Fast-Flying Mind
Artimes walked up to the Tardis, stroking the wood of the sentient time ship affectionately. The ginger had already said her goodbyes, not wanting to drag things out any longer than necessary. She desperately wanted her adventures through time and space to begin and spend as much time as she possible could with that impossible mad man, the Doctor. She had made certain to pack away all her things in her bigger on the inside messenger bag. She even packed away her sonic screwdriver. She wasn't entirely certain if the nine hundred year old alien would allow her to keep it…the whole advanced technology in human hands sort of thing.
She heard Jackie, Mickey and Rose exiting the flat and she honestly didn't want to get caught up in another goodbye spiel. She wasn't sure if she could handle another emotional farewell with her friends again. She went to grab her key with her left hand while her right hand glided across the lock. She gasped slightly in surprise when it clicked open, the door popping open slightly. She grinned, realizing that the Tardis liked her very much and trusted her completely. She walked into the darkened room, closing the door behind her, and strolled up to the central console.
Her hand brushed lovingly across the coral texture lining the controls. When she reached a certain spot on the console, her hand instinctively reached up and lifted a lever. The room grew brighter in response to the action and she tweaked the glass orb off to the side. She started fiddling with a few dials and began flicking switches and pressing buttons along the way. The Doctor walked in from the hallway, coming to power up the Tardis, and froze in surprise. He watched her with curious eyes, completely fascinated by how she was powering up and operating the sentient time/space ship.
She stretched across the console, trying to reach a switch that was beyond her reach, and he decided to help her out. The Timelord moved forward and flipped the switch for her. Artimes jumped at his sudden appearance, her emotions sky rocketing in response. He was blindsided for a moment before she settled herself back down.
"Um…sorry. Probably shouldn't be touching anything." She commented backing away from the controls.
The Tardis let out a strong hum of disapproval, extremely unhappy with the ginger's sudden withdrawal. The Doctor frowned at this, wondering why his time ship was so upset when the red head stopped whatever she had been doing.
"What exactly were you doing?" He asked casually, not angry in the slightest but highly curious about her behavior.
The way the red haired woman had moved about the console...it almost looked like she had been doing it for years, although she had no previous knowledge or teaching. She simply knew which button to press or which switch to flip without even thinking, almost like it was instinctive. Not to mention, the Tardis seemed to love whatever the ginger was doing and became displeased when she stopped.
"I'm not entirely certain. I was just following my instincts and doing what felt right. I didn't hurt her, did I?" She answered her fear and unease rising quickly.
He pulled out his sonic screwdriver from his inner jacket pocket and started scanning her head. Fear changed to annoyance which soon bloomed into anger and she smacked his hand away.
"Stop bleeping me, Spaceman. It's rude." She ordered glaring at him for his lack of tact.
"I'm just checking a theory. That's all. Please." He replied pleading a little.
He had noticed in their few conversations that if he begged or pleaded in the slightest that she would usually acquiesce to whatever he was requesting. It was like she didn't want to hurt him by refusing him which would work well in his favor this time.
Her glare dropped into a frown and he could feel her worry and apprehension filtering through their link. He wondered why she was so unsettled by the idea of him scanning her. He smiled softly at her in reassurance and she sighed heavily, still very much against the idea, but she nodded her consent. He scanned her quickly, trying to speed through the process so she wouldn't feel so uncomfortable, and his eyes went wide at the results. Artimes had a highly advanced cerebral construct, so advanced that her own human physiology was preventing her from utilizing it properly.
Three things from the scan stuck out most of all. The first was the portion of the brain that allowed and regulated psychic abilities; things like telepathy, empathy, telekinesis, time sensitivity, etc. From the readings he had gotten, it would appear that she had exceptionally strong psychic potential, possibly on par with his own, however most of that potential was dormant. There was a slight issue with that. Both he and the Tardis were linked to her now which was causing her psychic abilities to slowly awaken. Given enough time, they would become fully activated and she would be in desperate need of training, which he was more than happy to provide. The idea of being able to teach her was actually quite appealing to him.
The second thing was how her mind was actually constructed. It was advanced, yes, but the form it was in…well, if he didn't know any better then he would swear that she had a Timelord brain, but that was impossible, wasn't it? He took another look at the scans and mentally compared them to his own cerebral construct and he was gob smacked. It was nearly identical, but how was that possible?! She literally had a Timelord brain but was lacking a Timelord consciousness. In fact, her mind was constructed perfectly to house a Timelord consciousness…without any adverse effects, namely burning out her mind. That was going to be a hard one to explain even for him, so he'd have to think about that later and what it could possibly mean.
The last thing that had caught his attention was the area of the brain that housed the subconscious or what a human would commonly call their instincts. It was nearly as active as the rest of her mind which was very unusual for a human. The Tardis sent him a flash of a memory. He and Artimes were in the control room and their heads had collided. He felt the transfer through the ship's memory and he internally winced. He had, on accident, transferred a significant amount of his knowledge into her mind. The sentient time ship had reacted in order to protect the ginger haired woman and pushed all of it into her subconscious, integrating it with the ginger's instincts in order to not overload her mind and render her unconscious or possibly physically damaged.
"Well? Find anything interesting? Maybe the reason why I'm autistic?" The crimson haired woman asked in a joking manner, but the link revealed that she was waiting for his judgment and subsequent rejection.
The nine hundred year old alien did not like how she was feeling. Did she honestly believe that he would reject her for something that was beyond her control? He didn't know about her past, but he wagered a guess that she hadn't had the best upbringing…especially if she was feeling like that. Who would make her believe that they would reject her for something as simple as a supposed mental defect? The thought made his blood boil in anger and he was inwardly surprised at how protective he was of the crimson haired woman. It didn't matter because he was going to set the records straight and show her that she was mentally broken...far from it, in fact. She was amazingly unique and he wanted to make that absolutely clear to his new companion and friend.
"You're not autistic, Artz. The cerebral construct of your mind is incredibly advanced for a human…well, for most species period. The reason why it feels like a defect or has been diagnosed as one is because your own physiology can't process all the signals quickly enough or efficiently enough to be utilized properly." He answered completely serious.
The ginger's face went blank from shock as she stared at him with wide eyes. She had been completely unprepared for that revelation and he could tell from the disbelief surging to the surface that she was having a hard time accepting and believing that.
"Seriously?" She asked an incredulous look appearing on her face.
"Yes, seriously. You literally have the human version of a Timelord brain, almost completely identical to my own. Not entirely sure how that is or why and it should be impossible, but clearly it isn't, but that's beside the point. The point is that when we hit our heads on Christmas Day, I inadvertently transferred a large amount of information into your mind. The Tardis merged it with your subconscious to avoid any chances of physical damage. Among what was transferred was how to fly and repair the Tardis, not to mention other useful things like how to use my sonic and psychic paper along with a great deal of my technological and engineering knowledge. You could take the Tardis apart and put it back together blindfolded." The Doctor rambled like an idiot.
He had felt her initial confusion then bewilderment but he had been completely taken off guard by the sudden surge of happiness, causing him to ramble like an over excited fool. She felt everything so strongly; every emotion and every shift in mood was like a slap or punch to his system and it nearly knocked him off his feet every time. Still, it made him rather happy to have this kind of connection with someone again rather than having to deal with the bone crushing emptiness that practically killed him day after day from the lack of his people's presence.
"Bet I can fly her better than you can." Artimes challenged her eyes full of humor, "In fact, I know I can. I've heard plenty of stories about your driving, Spaceman."
She crossed her arms and had a smirk on her face.
"Jackie is never going to let me live that down, is she?" The Doctor moaned already knowing what she was talking about.
The red head beamed at him, laughing at his pouting face.
"Nope. Twelve months instead of twelve hours. Did you actually pass your pilot's test and don't tell me that there isn't one because the Tardis already told me that there was." The ginger haired woman teased.
He put away his sonic screwdriver and walked over to the console, not wanting to answer her. He didn't want to come across as unimpressive and he honestly couldn't understand why he felt so self-conscious about this. He tweaked a few of the controls, looking anywhere but at her. The controls sparked slightly and he winced, knowing it was the Old Girl's way of getting him to answer the ginger's question.
"Alright, so I failed." He stated giving in.
Artimes laughed happily and he pouted at her. She moved over to console as well and began to flip a few switches and press a few buttons. Rose finally came in, closing the door behind her, and tossed her stuff to the side. She noticed the red head moving about the console and doing things she had only seen the Timelord do before.
"What ya doing, Artz?" The blonde asked highly curious.
Artimes glanced back at her new female friend, a smile on her face.
"Not entirely certain, but the Tardis seems to like it." The ginger replied flipping another lever.
The sentient time ship let out a loud hum of happiness, most definitely pleased by whatever the crimson haired woman was doing.
"Then how do you know that ya doing it correctly?" Rose asked joining the ginger at the console and watching her work.
"Instincts. Long story short, I have a super brain that moves so fast that I can't understand everything that it does. He and I whacked skulls on Christmas day and a whole boat load of stuff got poured into my head. The Tardis merged it with my subconscious which allows me to pilot this absolutely fabulous time ship instinctively." Artimes rambled off in a very Doctor like fashion making her blonde haired friend smile widely.
"That's amazing! Could you teach me?" Rose asked happily.
The ginger grinned at the younger Tyler.
"It would be my pleasure, my flower, but let me find the manual first. I'm certain that he didn't chuck all of the spares into a supernova like he did the original one." The red head responded.
"Oi! I'm not that bad and it was only one time!" The Timelord commented looking like he was about to start pouting.
"You threw the manual into a supernova because you disagreed with it." The ginger replied cheekily.
"It was wrong!" He insisted.
"It wasn't wrong! You were being childish!" The red head countered.
Rose descended into laughter at the hilarity of their conversation and Artimes soon followed. The Doctor pouted like the over grown child that he was which only led to the girls laughing harder. He scowled playfully at them, his eyes bright with happiness and amusement. He grumbled a bit about how his girls were ganging up on him which sent both the ginger and the blonde to the floor in side splitting laughter. After several minutes, they managed to pull themselves off the floor and took a few deep breaths so they could actually talk like normal people.
"So, where are we going?" Rose asked giggling slightly.
The Doctor shook his head, a huge smile on his face.
"I figured we would let Artz decide, seeing as this is going to be her very first trip." The Timelord replied before smiling at the red head, "Why do you say, Artz: backwards or forwards in time?"
"I'm fine with anything. You two are the seasoned time travelers here, not me. You guys should decide." Artimes answered not wanting disrupt the time line.
She wasn't entirely sure how her presence would affect things in the time line but she figured that the episodes needed to be considered as key points, some things that should not be altered all that much. Oh, she was going to save as many as she could, but they went to New Earth directly after he regenerated so she wanted to stick as closely as possible to the rough guesstimate of the show's time line. Some things were meant to happen though the nine hundred year old alien had given her some hope for his future companion, Donna Noble. Maybe her 'Super Temp' could be spared from having to forget her adventures with the impossible mad man.
"Oh come on, Artz! Everything that ever happened or ever will. Where do you want to start?" The Timelord asked again.
The crimson haired woman stared at him a moment. He had sounded exactly like his Eleventh regeneration just then. She had not been expecting that and it had thrown her for a moment. Perhaps the different Doctors were not so different after all.
"Forwards." She blurted out without thinking.
She mentally frowned. The Tardis had basically just slapped her telepathically to get her to answer. The time ship's amusement washed over her and the ginger sighed inwardly. There was just no way to stay angry with the sentient time/space ship.
"How far?" He asked the excitement building in his eyes.
She studied him for a brief moment and she realized that he desperately wanted to show off. He wanted to impress her… her of all people and she could feel a bit of giddiness bubble up inside of her. She smirked as she placed her hands on the edge of the console. She leaned towards him, her eyes dancing with mischief and amusement. He raised an eyebrow at her actions, but waited for her reply.
"I am not so easily impressed, my dear Doctor, so I suggest that you show me just exactly what this magnificent time ship of yours can really do and it had better be amazing or I will be so disappointed." The ginger answered the proverbial gauntlet being thrown down.
He leaned towards her in a similar fashion, his eyes full of excitement and anticipation.
"Is that a challenge, Artz?" He asked his tone low and sending shivers of pleasure down her spine.
That impossible man knew exactly what he was doing to her if the smirk on his face was any indication. Two could play that game. She smirked right back, her eyes taking on an almost smoldering look. She saw the time traveler swallow slightly, his eyes flickering to her lips briefly before realizing what he was doing and redirecting his gaze back to her eyes.
"You bet your sonic it is." She answered softly.
The Doctor's eyes took on a manic gleam as he jumped into action. He raced about the console, flipping switches and levers like a mad man.
"So, where are we going?" Rose asked again, her eyes darting around to try and follow the hyperactive Timelord.
The nine hundred year old alien leaned around the console to look at them, a huge grin on his face.
"Further than we've ever gone before." He answered confidently.
The girls looked at each other, their faces forming grins of their own. This was the start of something brand new, the beginning of an exciting adventure, and things were going to get very, very interesting.
Lady A: Voila! Chapter Twelve: Fast-Flying Mind is complete! Funny thing is, this chapter was originally one of my shorter chapters but it has ended up over 3k words long after typing it up. Totally awesome, right? Leave tons and tons of reviews and be on the lookout for Chapter Thirteen: New Earth! Stay Tuned!
*Sneak Preview*
"What's the city called?" Rose asked.
"New New York." Artimes blurted out.
Her fear and confusion spiked as she tried to understand why she had just blurted out knowledge that she was not meant to have. She could try to explain it away, but it was highly unlikely that she would succeed because of the Doctor. What was she going to do? What if he found out about who she was, where she was really from, how she came to be their reality and more importantly, what if he found out about the television show that depicted key points of his life as episodes?