Paris, France, two days earlier

If the average person were to suddenly have an eccentric middle-aged man with a Scottish accent who happened to be invisible to the rest of the world appearing before their eyes, and then found a 1960s British Police Box stationed right before the tent which served as their temporary home, Nina was sure they would have gone mad.

However, things were different for Nina. Not only had she never lived in a permanent home in all her thirty-two years in this world, traveling all across France and parts of Europe with bands of fellow gypsies for most of her life, but she also happened to see dozens of images and beings which few others were capable of seeing, from visions of the police coming over to remove her family from their current dwelling area to having her dead grandfather appearing to her in a dream, where he was so delighted to finally have a word with the granddaughter he never got to meet in person. As a result, her meeting with this alien known as the Doctor, who remained implanted in her mind for several months, was taken as one of her most amusing encounters, rather than something out of the Alien movies. After all, this was an alien who'd traveled to several different planets over time, and was familiar with nearly every language in the universe, so this had allowed her to form a bond with him which she never would've thought possible with anyone else.

But of course, he could only stay within her mind for a limited time. Nina had made a psychic connection with a young child, as such were the only human beings who could keep the Doctor alive for so long, and send him off to a little English girl named Rose Tyler, which turned to be very convenient for the Doctor on account of his claim that England was his favorite country (something which Nina could never understand, partly due to French prejudices against the British and partly because her previous experiences with British tourists in Paris had been unpleasant to say the least). But when he'd left, she'd agreed to look after his police box, which he called the TARDIS, and within the last two years, she'd actually made it her home.

Despite its simple exterior, it was what was inside this police box that really counted. The amazing counsel room, which was fully white, shaped like a dome, and contained a device that allowed you to operate the TARDIS and take it anywhere you wanted, was just part of its appeal. It also contained a swimming pool, a library with books in dozens of languages (and as someone who knew four languages, she had plenty of reading options), and a state-of-the-art cinema which showed everything from The Umbrellas of Cherbourg to Goodfellas. As someone who'd never had much luxuries, this was the equivalent of finding your own castle to Nina, and she enjoyed everything this place had to offer.

However, what she wanted above all else was to get the TARDIS to take her to one of the many places across time and space which the Doctor had told her about. She would sometimes spend hours going over every button and lever in the counsel room, reading through some of the manuals and books the Doctor left behind which explained how these machines worked, all in the hope that it could do something. But the most she could get it to do was make these strange whooshing sounds anytime she pulled a lever. As someone who loved being able to accomplish things on her own, it frustrated Nina to know that two years had gone by without her getting the bete* machine to work even once.

But due to a chance encounter, this was all about to change.

...

It all started as Nina was heading towards the Pain et Lait** café, where she went to have her breakfast, or petit dejeuner, at least once a week. As someone whose main source of income came from selling homemade jewelry at flea markets, she was required to rise early on the days when she had to work, and there usually wasn't enough time to prepare breakfast. At the Pain et Lait café, not only was it cheaper than other cafes in Paris, but it also opened as early as dawn, permitting her to go early and not have to worry about the curious glances and questions she sometimes got from onlookers. If the Parisians didn't outright hate gypsies, they still saw them as one would see exotic creatures: rare, fascinating, and outside of the norm. Although this was an expected reaction, it still didn't make Nina dislike it any less.

And that morning, when she noticed two solitary, elderly men sitting in separate tables as they read their morning papers and took slow sips of their steaming hot coffee, Nina did her best to avoid meeting their gaze. To her luck, the men didn't seem to take any interest in her, completely ignoring her messy dark hair and her old brown dress as they continued to read their newspapers. As far as Nina was concerned, there hadn't been much interesting news in the year following up the breakup of the Soviet Union, but she figured once you were as old as those men, you had to keep yourself interested in something if you wanted to live so long. The Doctor had emphasized that strongly enough.

However, there happened to be a new server this week. She was a chunky blonde girl, probably in her early twenties if not still a teenager. Her hair was in a ponytail, and she was wearing the blue dress and white apron which were worn by all female employees. Nina instantly noticed that she was grunting as she was shuffling through the kitchen supplies, and even heard her muttering in English, "Great. Here comes another stiff old French snob."

Nina happened to have learned English from watching American gangster/action films like The Godfather, Taxi Driver, and Scarface back when she was a teenager, which she thought to portray a world that was very familiar to her, with tough-as-nails protagonists, dangerous foes in every corner, and situations where you had to commit questionable deeds just to get by in the world. For some reason, she felt as if this was a girl who could have stepped straight out of these films. You could see it in that gruff look in her eyes and her contemptuous tone of voice as she questioned her next customer, all of which were noticeable in individuals who had seen too much of the world.

But her accent was neither American nor Italian, but English, which was rather unusual to Nina. Whenever she thought of the Brits, the first thing that came to her mind was fancy period dramas and a love for tea, not streetwise wanderers. And with her past experiences with these people, she was probably going to have to watch out for this girl.

But when the girl came up to serve, she had this awkward smile plastered on her face as she said, "Bonjour, Madame. What may I get you today?"

Madame, ha! She either believes I'm married or doesn't know French that well, Nina thought. But out loud, she said, "Bonjour, Cherie. Could I please two crepes, one with chocolate filling and another strawberry, and one medium coffee with crème and sugar."

The girl wrinkled her nose when Nina called her "Cherie", but maintained a hospitable appearance as she said, "That will be right up, Madame." And before she went off to give Nina's order to the cooks, Nina noticed that her name tag read "Dorothy".

Dorothy. For such a plain name, it was associated with some of the strongest personalities Nina had ever heard of. For instance, there was Dorothy Parker, the influential journalist and writer, as well as Dorothy Day, the social activist who also happened to be a journalist. And then of course, there was the lovely Dorothy Gale who discovered the magical land of Oz. And at one point, she remembered the Doctor bringing up someone called Dorothy, who disliked the name so much that she went by a nickname that she felt better suited her personality…

And suddenly, Nina started remembering certain things. Recently, she would often wake up in the middle of the night feeling overwhelmed and confused and not knowing why she felt that way, leaving her to think that she'd just been having disturbing dreams. But now, she could remember the voice of the Doctor calling out urgently, Nina, I don't have much time left! You must find some way to help Rose and me before it's too late.

That made one thing clear: The Doctor wasn't going to be able to survive in Rose's mind long enough. The two of them had encountered trouble of some kind that had made things too overwhelming for the girl, and since much of the cerebral power that had previously been used in keeping the Doctor soundly stored within her mind was now being used to help her resist some sort of paranormal force, the Doctor's days with Rose were now being numbered, and if something wasn't done soon enough, his life could be at risk as well.

But then there had been another frequent vision which Nina had: of a young girl who was running from someone or something during the night. At one point, triggered by fear, she would always jump up, keeping her eyes fixed towards the moon as she did so. Suddenly, as if through a sudden puff in the air, the girl was replaced by a light-colored wolf, who would always appear golden because of the moonlight. Once reaching the ground, it would howl intensely, not taking its eyes off the direction of the moon. Then, it would turn to look at its persecutor with its sharp white teeth becoming fully visible. But at the point when it started running once again, the vision would come to a halt.

What could that possibly mean? Could the wolf be the symbol of an immortal being? Nina remembered how in the novel Dracula, vampires could transform into wolves, and although this was supposed to stand for evil, she didn't believe that this represented all immortal beings. Or perhaps this was supposed to represent a misunderstood person with strong powers who found themselves defenseless when facing those who feared or hated them, resulting in them…

And just then, four teenaged boys who were dressed in the style of eighties rockers walked into the café, and upon seeing Dorothy, they gave off those smiles which were characteristic of troublemakers, including those in gangster movies. "Bonjour, Mademoiselle Dorothy!" they shouted out in faux cockney accents, then started laughing hysterically.

Dorothy shot a frown at them. "Hey! I thought I told you scum bags that you can't come back if all you're going to do is act like idiots!"

"Excusez- moi. Ne parle pas anglais!" one of the guys called out, resulting in more laughter from the others.

"Oh, so you want to hear me speak French? Is that it?" Dorothy demanded. "Well, how about this? Parlez vous a moi, imbecile? Parlez vous a moi?" Then, she pulled out a small can of some sort of spray and aimed it at the boys.

"Hey! What are you doing with that?" The same guy who'd spoken before asked urgently.

"If you don't shut up, I'll spray this in your faces and you'll have troubling seeing anything for hours afterward!" the girl said. "Now, are you still going to go on talking like idiots, are will you get out of here before I get madder?"

She didn't have to any further, however, because as soon as they heard her threat, the boys started running straight towards the door, yelling, "What the hell? Is that fille*** out of her mind?"

"Better to be out of your mind than to be a pack of fools!" Dorothy yelled back. The two elderly men looked at her in a rather amused manner, seemingly glad to see something interesting happening in the café for once, and despite her better judgement of the girl's behavior, Nina felt the same.

However, Claude, the tall, lanky man who was the Pain et Lait's manager, didn't looked very amused as he was suddenly standing in front of Dorothy. "Dorothy, how many times do I have to tell you that you can't go around threatening customers whenever you feel like it?" he demanded in English.

Dorothy glared at him. "For the hundredth time, Claude, the boys were the ones who started it!"

"But even when customers are rude, Dorothy, you must remain as polite as possible," Claude insisted. "Ask them why they are being so difficult, and if they don't stop, then you report them to me. What part of that is so difficult to understand?"

"That's maybe how a schoolteacher or a therapist should act, but not a server in a café!" Dorothy said. "And no matter how much times customers cause trouble before your eyes, you still act as if this is the server's fault. Four times is already enough; I'm not going to let you go on doing that any longer." She then threw her name tag and apron onto the floor with an angry smack. "I quit!"

"Now Dorothy, you don't know what you're getting yourself into!" Claude said. "How is an English girl like you going to get around Paris when you have neither friends from here nor a knowledge of the French language."

"Oh, I'll find someone to help me for sure," Dorothy responded. Then, turning to look at Nina, she said, "Perhaps you could do the honors to start with. Sound good to you?"

"Nina's a gypsy, Dorothy," Claude said. "It would be very hard for you to adapt to her lifestyle."

"Actually, Claude, I wouldn't mind having someone by side for a while," Nina said, giving Dorothy a smile. "As a matter of fact, I have a place now where I think she'll be comfortable enough."

"Well, if you insist," Claude said, looking as if he wasn't sure of this.

"And besides," Dorothy said. "I've been living like a gypsy for several years now, so I wouldn't mind her lifestyle one bit."

…

Once they were out of the café, Nina said in near perfect English, "Now Dorothy, the main reason I played along with you there is because I was aware that a job as a server doesn't suit you well at all. However, I don't know if I can have you tagging along with me all the time, unless you like the idea of selling fruit at flea markets or out in the streets."

"Anything's better than serving a bunch of rude idiots," Dorothy replied. "And believe it or not, I worked in food service before, and it didn't go any better for me back then than it did now."

"Then why did you go back to doing the same work again?" Nina asked.

"Because I was desperate for money, and Claude was the only person I'd spoken with who'd been willing to hire me. All the others turned me away as soon as they realized I couldn't speak French well enough," Dorothy said. Then, eyeing the plastic container which held the crepes Nina ordered (Dorothy's last order of business was giving Nina's order over to her, under the condition that she'd offer part of it to her). "Now, don't forget what you promised me, Nina. I'm starving, and I'm not very useful when I've got an empty stomach."

"Eat now if you want to, Dorothy," Nina said, handing her the box. "But then, we've got to talk more about where you're planning to go."

"Thanks," Ace said, taking a big bite out of a crepe as they kept walking. "But don't call me Dorothy; call me Ace."

"Ace?" Nina asked, sounding surprised. "That's funny. Someone I knew once said that he'd had a friend named Dorothy who went by Ace as well…"

And then, it hit her. Could it be possible that this girl was the same girl who'd been the Doctor's previous assistant. Now that she thought about it, this girl highly resembled the picture of Ace which had been shown through the TARDIS, which showed her to be a chunky blonde girl who was wearing a black leather jacket…

"Hold on," Dorothy said, interrupting her thoughts. "There are over a billion people in the world, and the chances of someone else named Dorothy being nicknamed Ace seem very small to me. Could it be that this friend of yours has met me before?"

"Well, I think that can be solved with one quick question," Nina said, "Do you happen to know someone who calls himself the Doctor but refuses to give out his actual name?"

When she said this, a look of astonishment shot through Dorothy's face. "Wicked!" she exclaimed. "You're the latest companion of the Professor, aren't you?"

"I was, but not in the usual sense," Nina explained. "I'll tell you more about it later, but if you want to know how much the Doctor came to relay upon me, I've currently got something of great importance to him."

"You're not talking about something simple like his time ring or one of his old sonic screwdrivers, are you?" Ace asked.

"It's something bigger than that," Nina said. "In fact, if you turn around right now, you can see it for yourself."

Ace turned around to find the TARDIS right in front of her. "All right!" she said. "I knew he would get back to me at some point! Can't wait to get started on our next…"

"Actually, Ace, the Doctor isn't here with me right now," Nina said. "He hasn't been with me for two years, as a matter of fact."

Ace frowned. "But why on Earth would he leave the TARDIS behind?"

"Because in the state he's in now, he's not able to access the TARDIS," Nina explained. "When I met him, he was a host in my mind, incapable of getting around in a physical state after something that had happened to him in Gallifrey."

"Are you saying that the Doctor's been reduced to the state of a parasite?" Ace asked, unable to believe what she was hearing.

"If you asking whether he regenerated again, I wouldn't put it that way. When the Doctor was at the point of execution, he literally vanished into thin air before anything could be done to him. This somehow brought both him and the TARDIS to Earth, but once he was there, he became very weak, as if being sucked into air had made him incapable of existing in a physical state. The TARDIS wasn't any better off either, breaking down right here in this very alley, which is what brought me to him in the first place," Nina said.

"Well, it sounds like you've got quite a story in there," Ace said. "Why don't you tell me the rest once we've gotten inside?"

"Sounds like a good plan," Nina said with a smile. Then, pulling out a silver key from her bag, she placed it right into the door, opening it up immediately.

"You're already reminding me a lot of the Professor," Ace said with a grin as they stepped inside. She found it nice to see that little had changed about the TARDIS interior, with the same white walls and shape of a dome that had been in place during her own travels.

"Well, I never went to school, but I did learn an awful lot through my travels, including some stuff that I'm sure are left out of classrooms. Not to mention how I knew certain things that others never can…"

"What do you mean by knowing things that others don't?" Ace asked.

"It's a long story," Nina said, not wanting to go into detail on her ESP just yet. "Anyway, I could really use your help in doing certain things right now."

"If you're asking me whether I can get the TARDIS working, the Professor did show me a bit of the basics, but nothing beyond that," Ace said. "Shouldn't you have learned by now, seeing how long you've had it to yourself?"

Nina laughed. "I've tried to run it nearly every day, but without any luck."

"Well, perhaps it takes two people to be able to run that thing," Ace said, starting to scan all the buttons in the console.

"Watch out, though. I had a couple of near accidents after pressing some the wrong buttons," Nina warned.

"Do you really believe I don't know what I'm doing?" Ace asked with a scowl. "If something's important, I don't tend to forget it that easily, and the first steps in setting the TARDIS up to go is certainly not one of them."

"If you're sure, then go ahead," Nina said. "You seem like a sharp girl despite your quick temper, and I have no doubt of how useful you'll be in helping me out with this whole situation."

"I promise I won't disappoint you in that," Ace said, and then went back to work.

*French for silly or dumb

** Bread and Milk

*** Girl