Time's Heart: Fiery Twin
A Doctor Who Fanfiction
Rating T

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or any related characters and/or quotes, nor any corporate entity mentioned herein. However any original characters are mine, and are available for use with permission.

AN: Chapter 2 of Fiery Twin is here! YAY! I can't tell you how happy I am to be typing again. I've had all this written up for such a long time now, that it's just so thrilling to be posting it here for you all to read. I hope to keep up the every other week posting schedule, so that no one thinks that I've fallen off the face of the Earth again. Which, honestly sometimes it feels like I did. But as it's been requested that I add more from Gallifrey, I will. Just not in this chapter. However, Theseus is finally making his appearance. I hope that you all like this. Banana's to all.

X Fiery Twin X

"Koschei, Zedric and Elean, meet Thera and her brother," He paused.
Theseus. Aiden supplied.
"Theseus. They are children of the house of Lungbarrow."

"My son. I haven't seen him in twelve hundred years. Good lad. Physician will help. You'll see."

X Fiery Twin X

Aiden Thomas Tyler-McCrimmon. One hundred and eighty-three years old on his next birthday. A Time Lord with an extraordinary gift for numbers and medicine. A man named by his own calling as the Physician. A man who was now staring dumbly at the read-outs on the screen of his beloved time-ship Valencia.
"This can't be right." Pushing a stray strand of his now ginger hair behind an ear, he groaned. He had just gone through his first regeneration on his own, and now he was paying for it. Valencia was being absolutely insistent that he must make the dimensional jump immediately. "The program isn't ready. I don't know what it would do to you."

"Probability index indicates that damage to my primary systems will be minimal. Simulations indicate that now is the ideal temporal jump point." The ships voice was soft as she spoke.

"Now?" Aiden slumped against the control panel as a lance of burning hot pain shot through his midsection. By Rassilon, how he wished his sister were with him. Amser always did know what to do. "What about Tech, or Sue, or Mum?"

The ship let out what could only be described as a sigh. "The program has been sufficiently completed that returning to retrieve the others should be possible after slight system modifications."

A quiet knock on the door preceded its opening. "Physician are you here? It's Teacher." A slender blond with delicate features entered slowly through the young time ships' brilliant blue doors. "Aiden?"

The Time Lord crashed to his knees as another wave of agony passed through him. "Sue?"

Susan Foreman Campbell Carnsworth, the once brunette grandchild of the Doctor, took all of two steps towards her uncle when Valencia gave a mighty shudder and slammed the doors behind her. "Valencia?"

"Initiating trans-dimensional locator beacon.
"Signal acquired. Locking on to coordinates.
"Coordinates locked. Initiating trans-dimensional jump."

"What? Valencia you're not ready. Physician is sick, can't you see that? We need more time," Whatever else she was going to say was drowned out as the ship lurched again and again. All she could do was watch helplessly as her sweet uncle's beloved ship tore herself to pieces.

X Fiery Twin X

With a soft groan Sarah Jane Smith rolled to her side as her stomach heaved in protest. Her head was pounding with the drums that the Master always claimed to hear. A soft Irish voice spoke words of comfort in her ear.
"It's all right. Dinna worry. You're not alone."
Another softly feminine voice spoke to her in a gentle Welsh accent. "Don't worry. The sickness should wear off in a few minutes. Scribe." She addressed the other woman. "Do you know who this is?"
"No. But I think that I remember a woman that my mother described, that looked like this. She traveled with my Dad for a while back in his third incarnation. Sarah Jane Smith, I think it was."
"Sarah Jane Smith. Sounds familiar. Like from the papers or something."
Sarah Jane opened her eyes to look up at the two brunettes sitting to either side of her. "I'm a journalist."
Thera smiled down at the other woman. "Hello." She nodded at the woman sitting by her side. "This is Gwen Cooper of Torchwood and I am the Scribe."
"Sarah Jane Smith, but you already knew that didn't you?" She moved to sit up, but was stopped by a soft hand on her shoulder.
"Wait just a few more minutes. I did know, but only because my mother knows you. My father is notoriously tightlipped about his old companions."
"Your father? You're Gallifreyan?"
"Yes. I'm the Doctor's daughter."
Sarah Jane gasped as she pushed herself up to sitting. "But he said that they all died. That Gallifrey was gone."
Thera nodded as she looked out into the darkness surrounding their little circle of light. "He didn't lie. The Doctor never lies." She turned tear-filled eyes back to the other woman. "Gallifrey burned. Everyone is gone. My family is all that is left."
"I'm sorry."
Gwen cleared her throat, catching the other women's attention. "I hate to interrupt, but how are we getting out of here?"
"I don't know. This is the Dark and only the Storm's Sword can free us from it."
"The Storm's Sword?"
"My brother, the Physician. I am the Heart of the Storm and he is the Sword." She sighed and brushed her bangs from her face. "My family protects Time. My father, The Doctor, is called the Oncoming Storm for good reason. He watched our world die. He committed genocide fro the sake of all these tiny little worlds that will never even know what he did for them." Her voice became distant as her eyes focused on a lost time. "The Destroyer of Worlds. He hurts so much more than any save the Bad Wolf will ever know."
"Bad Wolf?" Sarah Jane looked to Gwen, who nodded in confirmation. She knew that phrase, that name.
Scribe nodded as she once again focused on her companions. "She is known throughout all of Time and Space. She creates herself. She alone has seen and knows the Doctor's pain."
"Your mum?"
"My mum." She smiled brightly and gestured at the darkness. "And this is the Dark. Don't know who or what it is, but that is half the fun of it."

X Fiery Twin X

"Am I right?" Sixteen year old Theta bit his lip as he stared at Thera, his blue eyes huge in a pale face. "Is what I saw right? Am I going to watch everything I love burn?"
Thera hung her head, her long blond hair falling to cover her face. It hurt her to see her future father this fragile and unsure of himself. She didn't want to answer his vision, seen in the same Schism that he had run from eight years earlier. She knew that Gallifrey would burn. Her mother had told her of it. She had seen it for herself in her own visions. She knew that she couldn't say anything, but that did not mean that she could not turn his fear of the future into inspiration. She was his Heart after all. "Use the fire that you saw Theta." She looked up into his eyes, her own the colour of tempered steel. "Use it to protect those that you love. You are the Storm. Fire cannot hurt you."
"Truly?" A faint glimmer of hope worked its way back into his eyes. "Me a Storm? Fantastic." He brushed the back of his hand against her temple. "Thank you Thera. What ever will I do without you?"
Thera grinned. "Get caught getting into trouble with Theseus of course."
Theta laughed, as he started to lead Thera back towards the classrooms, her hand firmly gripped in his. "Undoubtedly. Let's run, before we're late."
"Run. You are always running Theta." And he always would she knew. His first word to her mother was 'run' after all.

X Fiery Twin X

AN2: Yay! I got a mouse! He's so cute and creamy. : - )