Here we are! The first of the three crossover stories! (Yup, I'm really going through with this).

By the way, this is set BEFORE the Timeless Child thing. I already planned it before that episode aired, and I didn't want to change the entire story based on where the Doctor ended up at the end of that episode. There is also a slight spoiler about Season 12 in here, so watch out.

Disclaimer: I only own Kate, the rest belongs to the BBC (that makes a nice change, huh?). At least I think it's the BBC...

Anyway, enjoy :P

*Space, just beyond the atmosphere of the planet Aractus*

"I promise you I did not intend for that to happen,"

"Yeah, right. You've been doing this for so long now, Doc', you knew something was gonna happen, didn't you?"

In response to Graham's bitter answer to her apology, the Doctor's nose scrunched up in guilt as she watched him furiously attempt to scrape off blobs of purple, slightly translucent and partly-dried slime off of his jacket. Next to him, equally agitated, was Ryan and Yaz. They appeared to have faired better than Graham when it came to the quantity of goo splodged about their clothes but were still coated in a decent amount of the stuff.

Yaz nodded in agreement as she pulled a clump of slimey stuff from her hair, wincing in pain. Ryan remained purely focused on a particular blob on his right trouser leg that was apparently reluctant to let go.

The Doctor's mouth dropped open like she was thoroughly shocked to the core at the accusations being sent her way.

"I had no idea! Honest!" when the annoyed trio still didn't appear convinced, she added "how could I have possibly known?"

Yaz glared at the Doctor in utter disbelief, temporairly abandoning the quest of ripping another lump of the goop from her hair.

"You didn't notice the massive bubbles filled with the stuff?" she snapped, demonstrating the size of said bubbles with her hands "they were all over that plant thing!"

The timelord she was addressing shrugged, and turned away to stare at the numerous contraptions on the TARDIS console. She fiddled with a random dial, rather sulkily, as she replied.

"I didn't know they exploded when you get near them..." she muttered, almost embarrassed by the fact that she hadn't realised sooner and was now having to deal with the aftermath of three angry, purple slime-covered humans.

Despite the Doctor's obvious guilt and (seemingly) innocence, her companions remained sceptical. Ryan, who had finally given up on trying to pick off the now dried slime looked up, and nodded sarcastically as he scowled.

"Ri-ight," he said slowly, chuckling bitterly "that's why you were conveniently on the opposite side of the clearing, I'm guessin'?"

He had a point. The Doctor had remained remarkably untouched by the slime, apart from a few droplets on her boots (which were only there due to an enraged Graham shaking his hands free of the slime and sending it everywhere). She sighed, beginning to get a little bored and hoped that the conversation would come to an end soon.

"Purely coincidental," she stated, somewhat convincingly "I found a cool rock…it's not my fault,"

She fell silent, and began to tap away at the numerous buttons on the console. Two blue switches were flicked, and a large lever was yanked downwards. The TARDIS lurched, signifying that the time-space machine was now hurtling through space.

The four travellers had just visited the planet Aractus. A world which, the Doctor had said, was rumoured to have the most beautiful cave systems in the entirety of that side of the universe. Not being able to pilot the TARDIS within the caves, the Doctor had resorted to landing in the middle of a forest close to the cave entrance. It was within that forest that they had stumbled upon a clearing with a peculiar plant with large bubbles of purple stuff protruding from it. The Doctor had been relatively uninterested, whilst the others investigated the plant further only to discover that the bubbles exploded the moment anything got near. The Doctor had explained that, luckily, the substance was only harmful to the indigenous herbivore population, but this did little to comfort Graham, Ryan and Yaz who had received a head-to-foot coating. They had promptly returned to the TARDIS after, much to the disappointment of the Doctor, they had been put off visiting anything else on that planet.

Their suspicion of the Doctor's knowledge about said plant was not misplaced, and had erupted after Ryan had snapped at the Doctor for quietly laughing to herself on the walk back. Of course, it was all in good nature, as they had been in much worse situations that the Doctor had to fight tooth and nail to get them out of, so getting too hostile over a mildly inconvenient occurrence was not what any of them had in mind.

Besides, it was rare to see the Doctor in such a good mood at that moment. The appearance of some guy called "the Master" seemed to have completely swamped the timelord, who was previously almost constantly in a optimistic manner. Now, she would occasionally dip into periods of gloominess as she tried and then failed to locate him. Anytime a question was asked, she changed the subject and, on rare occasions, snapped at them. So, despite their obvious annoyance at the plant incident they knew they had to be gentle, as her mood was currently capable of snapping either way at any given moment.

Graham slowly peeled off his brown jacket, his top lip slightly rising in in disgust as crusted bits of goo crumbled off and dropped to the floor.

"Yup, I think this thing is in need of a good rinse 'n' spin…"

At his words, the Doctor looked up from the console, and surveyed Graham's jacket as well as the rest of his clothes and the clothes of her other two friends. She nodded.

"Mm…" she hummed "…probably best to go get changed and get those clothes washed or, even better, incinerated" she once again scrunched up her nose as she stared at the unsettling slime "you do remember where the wardrobe is, right? Past the macaroon dispenser?"

There was hesitation from all three companions as they mentally drew out a map of the labyrinth that was the TARDIS. After half a minute, in which time the Doctor had raised a questionable brow, there were slow nods, although they were accompanied with looks of deep confusion. There was more silence until Yaz decided to break it, shrugging with some hint of confidence.

"We'll figure it out on the way. We usually do,"

Graham and Ryan both gave up trying to figure out a path at Yazs' words, and gave a half hearted "yep" in addition.

Seeing this, the Doctor's raised brow softened into a gentle smile. She gave a slight shrug, and lifted a hand as if to say "go ahead" before her focus returned to the console.

They had expected something else, like a laugh, or even a sarcastic comment, but there was nothing. The smile remained on the Doctor's face, but an uncomfortable atmosphere stayed with it as the three companions remained standing there awkwardly. Of course, they couldn't blame her. They didn't know who the Master was, but they could tell the Doctor did, and whilst she let no information about him leave her lips they could tell it hit her hard.

Besides, she wasn't like this all the time, just every now and again. So, they all had reached an unconscious agreement to put up with the Doctor's occasional mundane behaviour and to not pester her about the subject.

There was around ten seconds of absolute silence, only broken by the rhythmatic wheeze of the TARDIS and the clicking of buttons on the console. Then, eventually, Ryan jerked his head to the other two, and began to walk away from them and towards the stairs that led into the infinite corridors of the TARDIS. Graham and Yaz promptly followed suit, tailing behind Ryan and stepping up the amber steps on the opposite side of the console room.

However, unlike Ryan and Yaz, Graham didn't immediately disappear into the corridor beyond. Instead, he stopped at the top of the small staircase, his hand resting on the equally amber banister. He turned around to look back at the Doctor, who hadn't noticed his hesitation until he spoke.

"Oi, and don't be plannin' a surprise trip whilst we're gone, a'right? An' no sulking,"

The Doctor still didn't look up, but gave a quiet snort.

"You know me," she replied simply.

Knowing he wasn't going to get much more out of the Doctor, Graham sighed, and then frowned.

"Yeah, I do…that's the problem,"

After standing there for one more second, Graham nodded, and span around slowly to take the last step up to enter the corridor, jogging a little in order to catch up with the others because, despite previously nodding along, he had no clue regarding to whereabouts of the wardrobe.

The footsteps and murmurs of the companions died down until they were barely audible and then disappeared completely as they went out of earshot. It was only then that the Doctor glanced up from the console, her smile becoming less defined.

She knew that the other three had a habit of lingering near the entrance to the flight deck to make sure the Doctor didn't randomly take them somewhere without them knowing (she failed to see why, as the prospect of the unknown only added to the excitement). So, she strained her neck around the stare over her shoulder, and watched to opening to the rest of the TARDIS intently, trying to detect even the slightest hint of movement.

She squinted at that same spot for a solid minute, before deeming the area to be clear. She gave a little hum of surprise, and her attention returned to the console.

Her hand inched forwards ever so slightly towards the panel of controls that activated the TARDIS' scanning systems, but hesitated. Biting her lip, the Doctor once again looked over her shoulder in evident guilt. She hated lying to them. Utterly despised it, but she had to keep looking.

The Master had been taken by the Kasaaven, yes, but if the Doctor knew him at all, he wouldn't be long until he managed to get himself out of that dimension, wherever it was. There was every possible chance that he was already out, and that meant trouble, naturally. It was also his teasing about the lie that was the Timeless Child that had creating a burning urge to find him. And Gallifrey…she had to find out what he had done…and why…

With this reasoning, her hand completed its journey, and her guilt was replaced with concentration as she programmed the system to scan for basic Timelord lifesigns. The displays in front of her became alive as complex Gallifreyan began to dance about, merely odd looking circles to anyone else but words of meaning to the Doctor.

Strange noises soon began to emanate from the TARDIS as new bits of information (or rather, lack of) began to pop up. The Doctor observed each one closely, her determination lessening with each reading. In other circumstances, she could put down the lack of results to the TARDIS accidentally missing something, but the reading of a Timelord was so distinct and so rare it was virtually impossible for it to be overlooked.

The scan seemed to finish quickly and, much to the Doctor's expectation, drew up nothing. Well, nothing except herself. She groaned, and placed her face behind both of her hands as her elbows collided with the console, eliciting a small noise of protest from the TARDIS. She let the whirring of her beloved time machine fill her head as she tried desperately to forget about the Master for one, single second...

The annoyance had turned into guilt.

She wasn't surprised. It always happened. Everytime the Doctor gave in to the temptation to look for the Master behind her friends' backs she was overcome by a crushing feeling of guilt and almost regret. It was only a small matter. She knew that. But it felt like she was letting them down in a way by betraying their trust. Perhaps she was over thinking it…but she couldn't help it.

How long the Doctor remained like that, she didn't know. Time became irrelevant as thought after random thought shot through her head at its usually lightning fast pace as she tried to piece together to few strands of information that the had gotten, hoping that a new and testable theory would present itself. What could all of it possibly mean?

A familiar voice cut through the whirlwind of questions, and the Doctor nearly jumped out of her skin.

"Oi! What did I say 'bout you sulkin'?"

It appeared Graham and the others had returned. The Doctor had been so lost she hadn't even heard the loud footsteps and conversation from her companions. She snapped up, and whipped around in her usual (almost over-the-top) fashion, waving and clapping her arms about in defence.

The three of them were all stood at the base of the amber stairs, watching the Doctor with quizzical looks. They had all changed into fresh, slime-free clothes, and despite their suspicion, they appeared to be in a much better mood (except for Yaz, who was still struggling to free her hair of a few evasive clumps).

The Doctor put on a smile, subtly reaching round to switch off the scanner with her right hand, which was out of sight.

"That was quick," she remarked, earning a particularly curious look from Ryan.

"Quick?" he laughed "we've been gone half an hour. I swear this place switches itself up all the time," his brow then furrowed "what were you doin'?

The Doctor opened her mouth to answer, already having whipped up a quick lie, but Yaz answered.

"Sulkin'," she muttered distractedly. There was another rip, and she threw a mix of slime and hair away from her in disgust.

The Doctor folded her arms and leaned back on on of her legs.

"I was not! I was thinking. How about Ancient Egypt for our next trip?"

There was mixed reception of this suggestion: a grimace from Graham, a semi-excited nod from Ryan and nothing from Yaz.

Graham stepped away from the other two to join the Doctor by the console.

"As long as we don' 'ave to see no mummification, Doc'. After that slime I don' think I'd have the stomach for it,"

The Doctor seemed disappointed, but gave a "meh" in half-hearted agreement. Ryan, on the other hand, almost bounded forwards to join them in obvious excitement.

"Can we actually go in? Into the tombs?"

Grinning, the Doctor nodded, turning around again back to the console. As she spoke, her glance switched between Ryan, who was next to her, and Graham, who was opposite. She also occasionally turned her head to look at Yaz, who had given up on her hair, but still fiddled with it slightly.

"Even better than that," she told them all, eyes glinting "despite what people say, there were actually traps in the tombs, and we can see them being set up…" she trailed off, and frowned as a rather unpleasant memory resurfaced

"…although, we'd have to be careful. The last time I did that, I got stuck. Nasty shock to the archaeologists when they fou-oh!"

Everyone but the Doctor jumped slightly at the odd noise the timelord had suddenly let out, and eyed her in curiosity as her hand shot to her inside coat pocket at the sensation of something heating up a little against her side.

After fumbling round for a couple of seconds, in which a tongue of concentration formed, she produced her leather-bound Psychic Paper from the depths of her coat. It glowed slightly from within. The Doctor's brow furrowed, and she opened up the wallet to read whatever message she had received.

Barely a second had passed when she looked up from the message, the furrow becoming deeper. Yazs' voice piped up from behind the Doctor as she noticed that she was quite troubled by whatever she had read, even though she could see the Doctor's face. She finally joined the others at the console.

"What does it say?"

Breaking out of her thoughts once again, the Doctor turned the Psychic Paper around, showing it to each companion in turn. Upon the usually blank paper, two words were clearly written across it in chunky block capitals:

"HELP ME."

It was such a simple message, but it automatically stirred up worry inside of all three of them, just as it had done with the Doctor. The paper was lowered, and the timelord began tapping it against her free hand distractedly.

No one spoke for a few seconds for some reason, before Ryan broke the silence.

"Didn't know you could get messages on that thing," he stated, looking at the little piece of paper with wonderment.

The Doctor nodded, and began to flick numerous switches. There was a noise of something powering up, and a small slot nestled in between the time column and the main console lit up with a bright white light.

"It only received messages if someone's mind is strong enough to send them, or if someone knows what they're doing and how to do it. Guessing this one was accidental, otherwise it would address me personally,"

She opened up the wallet again, and carefully slotted it in to the lit up section with the words facing out. There was beeping.

"Now, let's find out where this is coming from…"

The displays once again became alight with Gallifreyan, and the Doctor became solely focused on it.

The other three watched on curiously as they often did, talking amongst one another quietly as the Doctor worked. As always, all of them were in great anticipation as they waited to find out where this short message would lead them next.

"So," Ryan said, placing both hands on the console and leaning forwards "what d'you think it means?"

Yaz snorted.

"Not exactly cryptic, is it?"

Ryan gave her a disgruntled look, standing up straight and habitually shoving his hands in his pockets. Graham, meanwhile, ran a hand through his hair thoughtfully before straightening his jacket.

"Nah nah nah…'ang on, 'ang on," he blurted out suddenly, catching the attention of everyone but the Doctor "is anyone else noticing that this is playin' out exactly like that Kerblam thing? Ain't no way I'm going back there. Not after last time,"

It was customary of Graham to oppose certain trip ideas if they were too similar to past disasters, and it was customary for Ryan and Yaz to mock him. This time, however, they actually agreed with him. A combination of creepy robots and frankly boring production lines was enough to put anyone off returning.

The conversation was interrupted by more beeping from the scanner, and the Doctor gave a whistle, which was a cross between admiration and nervousness.

"Wow…well don't worry, it's not Kerblam," she told them "according to this, whoever sent this message is outside this universe, in a barren dimension,"

She fell silent and pushed her coat aside to place both hands on her waist, clicking her tongue. Her vision was fixed on the display, but it was obvious her mind was elsewhere. Whatever a barren dimension was, it was apparently troubling the Doctor more than the actual message itself.

Eventually, she spoke to them again, but her body barely moved.

"What d'you think? Should we go?"

She looked up, and began to examine each of her companions in turn with hazel eyes, studying their responses for any hint of what she should do. It wasn't uncommon for her to leave a decision in the hands of her friends, as some times she trusted their judgement much more than her own. Besides, rocketing off to a potentially dangerous dimension without consulation was likely to have dire consequences and the Doctor would probably never hear the end of it.

A few meaningful looks were thrown around as the three of them attempted to meet some kind of unspoken consensus. Then, finally, there were nods. The Doctor grinned as Ryan became the spokesman for the small group.

"Well, if someone needs our help, do we have a choice?"

This, apparently, was exactly the answer the Doctor wanted. Her grin became wider and began to quiver slightly in excitement. Like an electric shock had been blasted through her, she began to punch numerous buttons on the console in quick succession.

"Good-oh!"

She darted round the hexagon-shaped console, forcing Graham and Ryan to leap out of the way as the eccentric traveller came hurtling at them at what seemed like a million miles per hour. It was rare for any of them to understand what the Doctor was up to when she was programming the TARDIS for their next flight, but they could tell something was different this time.

The ship seemed almost, reluctant, as with the more commands the Doctor punched in the more noises of protest the machine made, and the more the Doctor would scowl and mutter under her breath.

Eventually, however, she managed to persuade the TARDIS into some form of compliance, and she stopped dashing around. Her hand rested on the lever. One pull and they would be hurtling into another dimension.

She hesitated, and looked up at her friends, eyes glinting with that characteristic, almost childlike sense of adventure.

"We're headed out the universe, now, and trust me, it's no easy ride," she gestured to the massive, amber, claw-like pillars surrounding them "probably best if you hang on to something…"

At her words, there was a scramble as Graham, Ryan and Yaz made almost frantic attempts to get a decent grip on the unfortunately smooth pillars.

After three thumbs up for confirmation, the Doctor took a deep breath, her face scrunching up in determination. Her hand forced the lever down.

The TARDIS began to wheeze as it usually did. The time column pumped up and down slowly, in sync with the wheezes. The Doctor eyed the column carefully, as if expecting it to blow up or something.

The peaceful sound of the TARDIS continued for a few more moments, before an awful, high pitched, almost metallic sound ricocheted through the flight deck. If no one was hanging on to the TARDIS for dear life, they would have clamped their hands down on their ears. However, they were all waiting for the time machine to go haywire, and so they could only manage a painful expression as the noise pounded their ears.

And haywire the time machine went.

There was a small, fairly tolerable jerk, which was shortly followed by a violent pivot which gave the impression that the TARDIS had completely tipped onto it's side. Then it tipped the other way, before the entirety of the ship began to rattle and jolt, almost sending the four of them flying.

Sparks began to erupt from the control panel, signifying the TARDIS was fighting against the boundaries of the universe itself. The wheezes sounded more strained.

And the four travellers could not stop laughing.

Andddd we're off.

Oh, The Master will not be in this story. Originally, he wasn't even going to be mentioned. I put him in just to make the whole thing seem more Doctor Who-y

Whether I'll be uploading regularly or not, I can't say. There's little clarification right now regarding how A-Levels are gonna play out. I have no idea whether to study or not so, yeah I've got no clue.

Anyway, I don't know who's reading this, but whether you're isolating or still having to carry on as normal, make sure you stay safe and well, and don't let this mess get you down :)

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed!

Feel free to drop a review!

~W.O.T~