The Doctor sighed as he rubbed his hands over his face as he sank down in his chair in his office at St Luke university. He had gotten the job as the physics professor about, oh, 70 odd years ago now? It was honestly the best place for leave the vault, somewhere no one would think to find it and the person inside.
70 years now they had been at the university. Himself, Raven and Nardole, guarding the vault with Missy locked up inside.
He had hoped that he would be further along by now helping her realise the errors of her ways and turn good but so far nothing. She was just angry at him and at the universe, mostly taking it out on poor Nardole. He only ever went down there himself if Raven ordered him too, which honestly they were both thankful that it wasn't often. Usually if they needed to urgently go to see Missy, Raven would go first knowing that however angry Missy was none of it would be directed at the girl herself.
He had just had to tightened a few bolts of Nardole as they had come loose but luckily no one had noticed.
He had sent the man to send up Bill Potts, a young woman he had seen working in the kitchen but also sneaking into his lessons. She had even completed a few assignments and he had to admit he was impressed.
And so he wanted to speak to her face to face. She was a brilliant young woman, full of curious questions and so he had offered to get her a place as a student as well as private tutoring sessions as long as she worked hard.
She had sworn to get a first in every assignment he set.
He looked up with a heavy sigh as the doors slammed open and Raven storm in looking sour faced.
"Am I going to have to avoid Missy for a few weeks because she's throwing things?" The Doctor sighed, just knowing the slam was from some sort of mother-daughter argument over being good or bad.
"I don't want to talk about it." She replied tensely, ignoring the out of order sign and the TARDIS doors where the box was tucked in the corner of the room, and walking in, knowing better than to slam those doors. Slamming them would probably end with being chased by a holographic tiger for the entire night.
~.~
Raven closed her eyes as she sat on a bench just round the corner from the basement where they had hidden the vault out of peering eyes.
"Tough day huh?"
She snapped her eyes open at the voice, seeing that standing before her, wearing a bright yellow puffer coat-She actually blinked a few times to get used to the brightness standing before her- was Bill Potts. The young woman the Doctor was currently tutoring.
"It's Raven right?" She asked, the smile on her face not seeming to falter as Raven only stared at her, clearly unamused at being interrupted. "I've seen you at the Doctors lectures. Hiding at the back. Honestly I'm not going to tell the board that you sneak into his lectures, honestly I don't think he cares either. Sorry!" She grinned realising she had been rambling and Raven just stared, expressionless, "I'm Bill by the way."
"I know." Raven finally spoke, "you serve me my chips."
Bill flushed at that. So she clearly had recognised her in her apron in the kitchen. Great. If she recognised her then maybe she realised...
"You always give me an extra few chips than you're supposed to."
"Ah!" Bill grinned with a small shrug, "well pretty girls deserve free food."
"Please." Raven scoffed.
Bill kept her grin on her face as she sat on the bench next to Raven-she was sure that was her name- but she hadn't confirmed it, well she hadn't denied it either.
"So..." Bill continued, "has anyone ever told you, you look like that girl."
"Yes."
"I didn't say which girl."
"I look like that girl, daughter of the old prime minister who shot the president."
"Oh!" bill laughed, "you get it a lot then."
"Yeah…" she pulled out a flask from her pocket as Bill blinked at her, "I hate it."
"Do you fancy, I don't know, going to the pub this weekend? With me?"
"Not interested."
"Wow." Bill blinked. She was blunt. But at least she was honest and tried to let her down easy more than some straight girls on this campus, "Ok. Cool. Gotcha. Not interested. Still, pub this weekend?"
Raven smirked at her, "I'm a lone wolf on this earth."
"The lone wolf dies but the pack survives."
"I've got a pack thanks." Raven pulled a face as the words left her mouth. Rassilon has she really just said that? Had she really just called the Doctor and Nardole her pack? She glanced up just in time to see the Doctor hurrying across the grass, she caught his eye and sighed.
"See you around..." Raven stood and turned to Bill only to frown, "um..."
"Bill." She supplied.
"Bill Potts." She nodded, "keep it up with those good chips." And with that she walked off following the Doctor down to the vault.
Bill stared after her. Ok, so maybe she wasn't good at flirting but at least it wasn't so bad that Raven (she really needed to confirm if that was her name) just laughed in her face. She just really needed to stop going for straight girls. Maybe she want even straight, she said she wasn't interested, maybe she meant at all. Maybe she was Asexual. Maybe she liked girls but just didn't like her, she was cool with that.
She frowned, seeing hurrying across the grass was the Doctors assistant, behind the building that led the basement stood Raven looking exasperated as he hurried to follow.
How strange.
Why did they know each other?
Deciding to follow them, Bill quietly followed them, sneaking through the basement doors and hiding behind the wall, peeking round to see the trio standing before a large metal door.
"So you're tutoring her, then?" Nardole asked.
"Yes, I am." The Doctor huffed.
"Why?"
"Why not?"
"You're not supposed to get involved. What are you teaching her, anyway?"
"Everything."
"Well, how can you teach anyone everything?"
"Because everything rhymes. Links apple and alpha, synchronous and diverging. Descending multiples."
"Yeah, you want to turn that." Nardole murmured as something beeped, "You want to rotate it."
Bill frowned hearing a whirl, but didn't dare take a peek in case they noticed her spying.
"What about Raven?" The Doctor asked.
"What about me?" Raven sighed.
"You were getting close to Bill just minutes ago."
"She was getting close to me." She defended, "Thought it best try to be nice just so you wouldn't complain as much."
"Is that it?" He raised an eyebrow.
She scoffed, "that's all. I don't do friends Doctor, and I'm not going to start with an ape like that."
Bill moved to leave at Ravens words, not wanting to hear any of her insults only to walk into an empty paint can. She winced, knowing they heard it and quickly scampered off before they came to investigate.
"The door upstairs," the Doctor murmured, "how did you set the security?"
"Friends only." Nardole answered.
Raven poked her out of the basement doors looking for anyone who looked as though they were hiding anything, noticing a bright yellow coat turn a corner. Of course. She had heard everything.
Oops.
"So turn it, and then it'll..."
Raven sighed as she returned to find them both fighting for the wheel on the vault doors, "I'm turning it, aren't I?"
~.~
They never really celebrated Christmas while at the university but Bill had asked the Doctor if he had any family to see during the holidays and since she only had her foster mother she suggested they got together for a few hours before the term finished to celebrate together.
So here they were, just the two of them in his office with a few snacks on the table before them, both wearing the hats from Christmas crackers as Bill handed the Doctor a small Christmas present she got him.
"It's a rug." He frowned, "Haven't got you anything."
"It's ok," Bill waved him off, "it was cheap. Going anywhere for Christmas?"
"I never go anywhere."
"That's not true. You go places, I can tell. My mum always said, 'With some people you can smell the wind in their clothes."
"Oh. She sounds nice."
Bills smile turned sad, "She died when I was a baby."
"Oh." The Doctor murmured, "If she died when you were a baby, when did she say that?"
"In my head." She admitted with a laugh, "I'm supposed to look like her, but I don't really know. There's hardly any photographs. She hated having her picture taken. But if someone's gone, do pictures really help?"
The Doctor glanced at the photos he had on his desk, one of River and one of his granddaughter, Susan. Did having those pictures really help him? He wasn't sure.
~.~
Raven sighed as she sank into the four poster bed in the vault while Missy read one of the books the Doctor left for her in a chair by the heater. She really needed new books but the Doctor was cautious on what ones to give her, trying to avoid books with death mentioned. Raven tried to get a few others in but there wasn't much she could sneak in with Nardole always watching her suspiciously. It was like this morning when she came down, he followed her down, more like stalked after her, always glaring at her until she shut the vault doors on his face.
She didn't really care what he had to say about any of this, she paid him to help keep others away from the vault (not that he would be much use against their enemies) she didn't pay him to follow her and complain about it all, he did that all himself.
The Doctor was having a small Christmas get together with Bill upstairs in his office and honestly she would rather Bill didn't know they knew each other. So either she stayed in the TARDIS during tutor times or came down in the vault.
Sometimes when the vault was quiet like this it was awkward, it had only been a few years since Missy had finally stopped trying to hit anyone who opened the doors and try to break out. But right now the silence was lovely, peaceful even.
"Do you ever miss it?"
Raven looked over at Missy as the woman was still staring at her book. She could only assume that she was now just staring at the words and not actually reading it.
"Miss what?" She swallowed. Clearly she didn't mean home or Gallifrey or anything else as simple as that.
"Ruling the world." Missy murmured, "having everything at your fingertips. All you ever wanted, no one telling you no. Having everyone do as you said. Do you ever miss it?"
"No." She stated sharply, sitting up, "not a minute of it." She sighed avoiding Missy's gaze as she felt her eyes land in her. The one conversation they should have had ages ago but never dared to. Until now, until Missy was getting the same thing from the Doctor only far worse. "Maybe if I was braver I would have told you before, but I never wanted to let you down. You wanted me ruling at your side, and the way you burned every moment of everyday. I couldn't possible argue against you. I thought..." she sighed heavily. Here she went, once she got started she just could not stop until she said everything she had locked away in her mind, "if I just kept going then one day I would eventually be happy. I never did- shit!" She hurried wiped her eyes before the tears fell, "I just kept going, because I knew if I didn't I wouldn't stop myself from saying something." She kept her eyes shut, fighting the tears she refused to let fall, she heard Missy moved, felt the mattress shift and she felt herself being pulled into her arms, a soft kiss on her forehead.
"I love you, Saska, not matter what."
~.~
The Doctor has been sat in his office marking assignments only for Bill to interrupt him, going on about a girl she had a crush on, a girl with a star defect in her eye. Said girl had found a weird puddle round the back buildings of the campus and showed Bill seeming to have noticed something odd about it but Bill found nothing wrong, but she knew it was wrong, just something she couldn't see. Something had been wrong with her face.
Of course, the Doctor being the Doctor had wanted to see the puddle himself and so took off to where Bill said they found the puddle, snatching Raven back down the stairs as she headed up from spending most of the morning down in the vault.
"What have we said about you pulling off without explaining?" Raven huffed, punching the Doctors arm as they arrived at the area.
"Not to do it." He grumbled crouching before the puddle.
"And what did you just do?"
"Doctor!" Bill ran after them, "Why do you run like that?"
"Like what?" He didn't look at her as he frowned at the bubbles in the puddle.
"Like a penguin with its arse on fire."
Raven snorted at that, "that is...I'm using that one."
"Ergonomics." He ignored Raven, "That's my face, yeah?"
"You seem a bit flexible on the subject." Bill said.
"Oh, you've no idea."
"Maybe it's got to do with that thing in her eye."
"How?"
"Maybe she's like, affected by something."
"By what?"
"I don't know." She huffed, "Look, I know you know lots of stuff about, well, basically everything, but do you know any sci-fi?"
The Doctor straightened, that was pretty much his entire life, "Go on."
"Well, what if she's possessed. Something like that."
"Possessed by what?"
"I don't know. I saw this thing on Netflix. Lizards in people's brains."
"Right. So, you meet a girl with a discoloured iris and your first thought is she might have a lizard in her brain? I can see I'm going to have to up my game. Raven do you see anything?"
The girl sighed heavily as she leaned over to peer down at the puddle, staring intently at her reflection, her face was all there, down from the violet eyes to the sonic cuff on her ear.
Wait.
That's not right. No wonder Bills friend would have noticed that.
"It's not a reflection!" She exclaimed.
"What?" Bill blinked. This Raven girl was very strange, never hung around with anyone, well besides that Nardole bloke in the waistcoat and beanie, and now she suddenly found out that she as the Doctor knew each other. Enough to banter. Was she another student he privately tutored?
"What?" The Doctor agreed.
"Your friend saw it because of the defect in her eyes."
"What, because it gives her special powers?" Bill shook her heads
"Because her face isn't symmetrical. One eye is different than the other. Look!" Raven moved the Doctor to look besides her, "what's wrong with my ears?"
"Everything." He answered only to get a punch, "I was joking! Is it the fact that they're freakish small?"
"I will punch you twice as hard if need be." She warned, a slight threat to her words. "But my face is the right way round. If this was a normal puddle and reflecting my face my sonic would be the other way round!"
"Oh!" The Doctor looked between her face and her reflection, seeing they were both on the same side but shouldn't be.
"You never see your face the right way round."
"Look for a freckle or a funny tooth." The Doctor said, "Something that's not symmetrical."
"My badge!" Bill cried, her hand covering the badge on her jacket.
"See, your friend saw it straightaway because of her eye."
"But, it's moving like a reflection."
"It's not reflecting you. It's mimicking you. There's something in the water pretending to be you." He pulled out a test tube from his coat pocket and scooped up the liquid to check it later, "Of course. It isn't water. Now what are these? Let's have a look."
"What are they?" Bill frowned at the black sponges around the puddle.
"Scorch marks." Raven murmured.
"Right, you." The Doctor pointed at Bill, "Let's get you on the bus."
"The what? The bus?"
"Tutorial's over, take the night off. It's all cancelled. Go and be a proper student. Texts, snogging, a vegan wrap."
"But what about the puddle?"
"Oh, it's just some freak optical effect." He waved off, already walked back to his office, "I'm bored already."
Raven waved as she followed him.
Leaving Bill confused. It wasn't a normal puddle, couldn't be something as simple as an optical effect, it was something more.
~.~
"Well?" Raven demanded, getting up from her seat before the Doctor at the desk and pacing before him as he analysed the liquid from the puddle, the puddle that probably wasn't a puddle.
"Working on it." He looked at her for her impatience, "Why are you so impatient?"
"I hate not knowing."
"You think whatever it is, is here for the vault, don't you?" He asked quietly.
"I mean, it's just...the chances..." she fumbled before sighing, "yes! And you're worried too, don't lie to me! Once word gets out she's down there no defences can stop anyone wanted to keep and get revenge and kill her."
"That's not going to happen."
"How can you be so sure?"
"I made a promise."
"Daleks don't care about your promises."
"I promise, Raven." He looked at her, "I promise you, that's not going to happen."
She stared at him a moment longer before she sat back down waiting for the results to show what the liquid really was, only for the door to slam open and Bill run in, slamming the door behind her and using a chair to keep it shut.
"Hello, Bill." The Doctor rolled his eyes at her rude entrance.
"Is that..." Raven frowned as the liquid began to deep under the door into the office.
Bill back up towards them, "I'll tell you what it isn't. It isn't a freak optical effect." A figure formed from the liquid of a young woman with short dripping hair, and a star defect in her eye. "And it's following me." She swallowed.
"Doctor?" Raven frowned, eying Heather closely, her hand ready to sneak in her bag if the need arose.
"No, no, what are you doing?"
"I'll tell you what," the Doctor stood, "let's just pop into my box."
"Your box?" Bill repeated, "What good is getting in your box going to do?"
"What an extraordinarily long and involved answer this is going to be." He muttered, ushering her in, "Raven."
Slowly backing away from the liquid woman, Raven backed up to the TARDIS not daring to take her eyes off her in case that was how she moved.
It was only when the Doctor shut the doors did she finally blink and look away, moving to the console to lighten the room up seeing how the lights were always on low when they weren't in the console room. Though, thinking about it, Nardole was around somewhere.
"How do we stop it getting in?" Bill peered out the windows. She still hadn't looked around to see the magnificence of the ship. "We're trapped in here!"
"Nothing gets through these doors." The Doctor assured her.
"But they're made of wood." Bill argued, "They've got windows! Look, this is all mad, I know, but that's the girl I told you about. Heather. Only I don't think it's really her. I know this is hard to believe. I know you're not exactly a sci-fi person..." she trailed off as she turned around to finally noticed the TARDIS, her mouth open.
"Time And Relative Dimension In Space." The Doctor smiled at her, "TARDIS for short. You're safe in here. You're safe in here and you always will be. Any questions?"
"Is this a knock-through?"
"Well, in a way, yes."
"Look at this place." Bill breathed, a hand running over the edge of the console as she looked around the room, "It's like a..."
"Spaceship." The Doctor supplied.
"Kitchen."
"What?" Raven blinked.
"A really posh kitchen, all metal." Bill beamed, "What happened with the doors, though? Did you run out of money?"
"What you are standing in is a technological marvel." The Doctor explained, "It is science beyond magic. This is the gateway to everything that ever was, or ever can be."
"Can I use the toilet?"
"What?" Raven blinked again. Had Bill really just asked that question? Out of everything people have said when first entering the TARDIS, That was a new knew one.
"I've had a fright. I need the toilet."
"It's down there, first right, second left, past the macaroon dispenser." The Doctor pointed down the staircase to the side.
"Thanks." She muttered hurrying down before she forgot the directions and got lost, only to pass Nardole as he made his way up.
"Oh, human!" He gasped, "Human alert. Do you want me to repel her?"
"She's just passing through." The Doctor rolled his eyes.
"Hmm. Just passing though." Raven nodded mockingly.
"Shut up, Raven." The Doctor huffed, "She wants to use the toilet."
"Oh. I'd er, give it a minute, if I were you." Nardole warned Bill.
The TARDIS jolted and Raven turned to Nardole, almost automatic, "what did you do?"
He raised his hands, "it wasn't me!"
The Doctor hurried to the console, "We have an incursion on campus. Extra-terrestrial. We're under attack." He spun the scanner to him showing that Heather was just outside, "Let's move."
Raven joined him at the console, dematerialising from the office and down to the basement. They needed to check, to be sure that whatever Heather was now she wasn't after Missy.
"Oh, my God!" Bill laughed at the noise, "This isn't just a room, is it?"
"No, it's not just a room." The Doctor remarked.
"This is a lift!"
"Not quite." Raven muttered, walking past and outside to the vault.
"Well, come on, then." Nardole smiled following the Time Lords out as Bill followed him.
"No interference," Raven breathed a sigh of relief, "The vault's secure."
"Good." The Doctor set a hand in her shoulder.
"So your box can move?" Bill questioned, "It can go anywhere it likes?"
"Mmm. Good, innit?" Nardole grinned.
"Anywhere at all, in the whole university?"
"Is it my imagination, or is this taking longer than normal?" The Doctor muttered as he scanned the door with his sonic screwdriver, just to be sure.
"Hang on." Bill frowned looking back is for the TARDIS, "The room's still inside the box. This isn't a knock-through."
"No."
"Doctor! It's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside!"
"Way-hey!" Nardole cheered, "We got there!"
"How is that possible?" Bill gaped, "How do you do that?"
"Well, first you have to imagine a very big box fitting inside a very small box." Nardole began, "Then you have to make one. It's the second part people normally get stuck on."
"Can we shut up, please?" Raven snapped, "checking the vaults safe. That's what's important at the moment."
"Why, what's inside it?" Bill frowned.
"Just Nunya."
"What's nunya?"
"None of yours or anyone else business!"
The Doctor snorted at that, "Sorry!"
"So you put it in the middle of a university?" Bill frowned at that.
"Ooo, valid point." Nardole chuckled, "Yeah, nice." He fell silent at Ravens glare.
"Either the creature came here specifically for what's in here, or it's just a coincidence." The Doctor murmured.
"It's just a coincidence." Bill waved him off.
"We can't be certain!" Raven argued.
"Raven." The Doctor murmured, setting his hands on her shoulders as she grew frantic, "it's fine. You know she's fine. Calm down. Go back in the TARDIS, have a cup of tea and calm down."
Bill watched as Raven glared at the man, her dark gaze looking like she was about to murder him before she stomped back inside the TARDIS, cursing under her breath as she went, muttering about men telling her what to do.
"This puddle thing," Bill looked back at the Doctor once Raven had shut the doors on them, not slamming them surprisingly, probably because despite being a spaceship they were only made of wood, "It was here for ages before it did anything. If it had work to do, why would it lie around in a puddle?"
"I don't know." The Doctor sighed, "Maybe it's a student?"
"Oh, banter." Nardole laughed, "It's good, this. It's different when it's not you and Raven."
The Doctor glared at him for that, only to notice water pouring down the stairs behind him, "Nardole, we need to move away from the doors and towards the TARDIS."
"What if it attacks us?" Nardole whispered as the liquid morphed into Heather.
"Well, that's the good news. It means it's not interested in what's inside the vault. Raven will be happy about that. It just wants to kill us. Run!"
Heather screamed as they ran back into the TARDIS.
"It's not interested in the vault," the Doctor explained to Raven as she moved to sit in her chair.
"Good." She nodded.
"It's chasing us."
"Shit."
"Let's give it a proper challenge. Let's see how far she's prepared to go." He sent them off again.
"But what about my friend?" Bill frowned, "What about Heather? Can you save her?"
"First things first." He set them down again, "Let's see if we can survive her." And headed out with Bill following. Nardole looked up to see Raven getting comfortable in her arm chair, shrugging he left her there as they went out into the harbour side with people enjoying the sun and sea.
"But..." Bill shook her head.
"Yes." The Doctor agreed.
"We've moved again."
"We have."
"It was night." She recalled.
"Yep."
"Now it's day."
"Definitely day."
"Oh, my God!" She gasped loudly, "Have we travelled in time?"
"No, of course not." He scoffed, "We've travelled to Australia." He gestured to the Sydney Opera House begins him on the other side of the harbour.
~.~
Raven walked into the ladies restroom at a local cafe, having been asked by the Doctor as Bill excused herself to the toilet, really needing to go now. The surprise of the TARDIS having momentarily made her forget she needed the toilet but now she really needed to go. And of course they were on the other side of the world it was only natural that they couldn't really leave Bill unattended. "You doing ok?" She asked, as Bill splashed her face with water.
"What do you think?" She countered.
"Look I'm not good with people, alright. Be thankful I came in here to ask. It's more than most people get."
"Alright." Bill muttered, "Sorry. I'm alright, I think." Was she? It was a lot to take in so suddenly. First her crush got turned into a puddle who was now following them, and she had just entered a spaceship, a proper bigger-on-the-inside spaceship and had moved to Australia in moments. "Can I ask you a personal question?"
"Are you going to ask it even if I say no?"
"Of course." Raven waved a hand for her to speak, "What's the deal with you and the Doctor?"
She shrugged, "I'm in his care."
"What's that mean?"
"I'm in his care." She repeated slower this time, "he gives me a bed to sleep in, food and shelter."
"Are you from space? You and the Doctor?"
"Don't be absurd." She scoffed, "no ones from space. No one can survive in the vacuum of space."
"So...you're from a different planet? You come from the same one?"
"Yes." She sighed.
"Doesn't make sense, then."
"What doesn't?"
"TARDIS. If you're from another planet, why would you name your box in English? Those initials wouldn't work in any other language!"
"Not my box."
"You're just there for the free stuff." She nodded, "why does it look like a phone box?"
"It's a cloaking device." She answered, "it's meant to disguise itself wherever it goes."
"It's hidden itself as a box with 'pull to enter' on the front?" Bill asked, skeptical at that.
"The Doctor broke it centuries ago." Raven smirked, "the effort in trying to fix that, the effort of everyone claiming that I am probably the only one who can-as accurate as that is- pisses me off."
Bill laughed at that, turning to the sink to splash her face again only to notice the plug gurgling., "Raven..."
"We should go." She grabbed Bills wrist and tugged her back into the busy restaurant. "It followed!" She gasped, passing the Doctor as he and Nardole waited outside.
"Really?" The Doctor glanced back through the doors seeing Heather, "out!" He yelled trying to get everyone out of the restaurant as Heather stepped out of the restroom, screaming, the humans fleeing at the sight of her.
"Where are we going?" Bill asked as they hurried back to the TARDIS, the Doctor and Raven racing round to send them off again.
"As far as we can. She made Australia in a minute. Let's see what she can really do."
"Sir, we're leaving Earth." Nardole frowned, "What about the vault?"
"It'll be fine, right?" Raven looked up at that.
"If there's any trouble, I'll get a message on this." He assured, holding up the psychic paper, "Let's see how long it takes her to get here."
"Where are we?" Bill breathed, clinging to the console at the jolt. She could only assume that meant they had landed.
"Other end of the universe. 23 million years in the future. Oh, yes," he grinned at Bills face, "it's a time machine too."
Raven smirked at Bills shock, "Expect the unexpected." She headed out followed the Doctor and Nardole, leaving Bill little choice but to follow out onto the rocky landscape, rocks cut out into archways, glittering in the light.
"So this is somewhere else?" She breathed, staring around at the different planet in awe. "This is a different planet? Not Earth, a different one?"
"That's the general idea." The Doctor nodded.
"That's different sky? Is it made of something different? What is sky made of?"
"Lemon drops."
"Really?"
He grinned as Raven snorted, "No, but wouldn't that be nice?"
"You can be very silly sometimes, you know that?" Nardole looked at him.
"So how do we know this water thing is actually dangerous?" Raven frowned.
"Ah, because most things are." He replied.
"Mmm, that's true." Nardole agreed.
"You also have a track record for being wrong in public." Raven pointed out.
"Also true."
"Why?" Bill shook her head, "Is everything out here evil?"
"Hardly anything is evil, but most things are hungry. Hunger looks very like evil from the wrong end of the cutlery. Or do you think that your bacon sandwich loves you back?"
"So what is it, and what was it doing on Earth?" Nardole questioned.
"Well, there were scorch marks on the concrete where we found it. Could have been left by a shuttlecraft. The puddle, what did it look like? I mean, if that was a car, what would you say that was?"
"An oil leak?" Bill blinked, "So it's space engine oil?"
"Intelligent oil. Super intelligent space oil. No, part of the ship itself. Shape-shifting fluid that becomes anything it needs to be."
"Seriously?"
"But it spent ages laying around being a puddle. What changed? Your friend. She looked into it, didn't she? More than once."
"So?"
"Maybe it saw something it needed. What was she like, your friend? What did she want? What did she need?"
Bill frowned, thinking back to her conversations with Heather. How she always wanted to leave wherever she went, "I think she wanted to leave."
"You see?"
"The puddle found a passenger." Nardole realised.
"A left-behind droplet of a liquid spaceship. A single tear drop, alone in a strange world. Then, one day, it finds someone who wants to fly away. Not just a passenger. More than a passenger, it found a pilot, so it ate her."
"Doesn't explain why it's chasing us." Raven remarked.
"Everything wants, everything needs."
"But why does it want her?" Nardole wondered.
"I don't know." He huffed, "I don't know everything, Nardole. I don't have it all written down."
"You act like you do."
"I act like I do, because I don't."
"It must be looking for something." Raven reasoned.
"Of course it is, everything is." The Doctor sighed.
"But what?" Nardole shook his head.
"What, in the end, are any of us looking for?" They just looked at him blankly, "We're looking for someone who's looking for us."
Bill screaming interrupted them as they realised she had wandered off and found a puddle a few feet away, Heather having followed them and reaching for Bill.
"Bill!" The Doctor rushed to her side to help free her from Heather strong grasp, "Bill! Quick!" Nardole rushes over to help and they managed to pull her free, leaving Heather screaming at them. "Back to the TARDIS!"
"Ok," the Doctor sent them back into the vortex, hoping that Heather wouldn't be able to reach them floating in the vortex, "it's fast. It time travels. It never gives up. Plan! Basic sterilisation. We're going to run that thing through the deadliest fire in the universe."
"Yes, that sounds excellent." Nardole nodded eagerly, "The deadliest fire in the universe. That's definitely good."
"How do we do that?" Bill asked.
"The only way we can." The Doctor said, "we run through it first."
"Less good now." Nardole commented.
"No..." Raven swallowed, "no, I'm not going! I'm not doing, I can't do it."
"Where?" Nardole frowned, looking at the scanner, his eyes widening, understanding Ravens reaction, "No, not there. I don't like it there!"
"Nardole!" The Doctor tossed him a spare sonic, which he caught and held firmly.
"I don't like there."
"I want you running interference. Can you do that?"
"Can I say no, sir?"
"No."
"Yes, then."
"Thank you."
"But no really."
"Where are we?" Bill frowned at their reactions, wherever it was they were going it couldn't be that good for both Raven and Nardole to react like that.
"Well, we're basically in the middle of a war." The Doctor answered, "No, but, well, it's a war zone, and this is just your basic skirmish. And it's not as bad as it sounds, I promise you. Come on, I've got friends here, old friends. Raven." He glanced back at her as she stood stiff by the console.
"No." She refused.
"I'm doing the face." He jerked his head back to the doors, "when I do the face you follow."
"No."
"Whatever you want I'll get you it."
She pulled a face, thinking about how much she really wanted certain things but also how much she really didn't want to go out into the battlefield. "Fine." She grit her teeth, "I'll hold you to that." And with that she lifted her head up and walked past them heading out into the fires.
Bill looked at Nardole at that, the man just shrugging before following out of the safety of the TARDIS.
"The Doctor is detected." A Dalek called somewhere down the many corridors of the spaceship, Daleks firing at humans who fired back, "Seek. Locate. Destroy."
"Are we still in the future?" Bill gasped as Nardole hurried off, whimpering and clutching the sonic for dear life.
"No. This is the past."
"Doesn't, doesn't look like the past. Are we safe here?"
"Well, that's up to Nardole."
"So probably not." Raven muttered.
"Did you want to go instead of him?" The Doctor turned to her.
She swallowed thickly, keeping her eyes on him, "no."
"There we are then."
"True though."
He sighed. "Yeah."
"Where are we going?" Bill asked as they hurried through the corridors, avoiding the blasts and yells
"Into the fire. Come on."
Bill gasped as a group of spillers ran past down an intersection, "Who are those guys?"
"Never mind them, it's who they're firing at." They ran round a corner only to stop dead seeing a Dalek before them.
"Fuck!"
"What's that?" Bill breathed, staring at the large pepper pot on wheels, with a whisk and plunger."
"The deadliest fire in the universe." The Doctor stated
"Identify. Intruder. Identify."
The Doctor held his sonic screwdriver out before the Doctor, "Scan this device and identify me!"
"You are the Doctor!" The Doctor exclaimed, "You are an enemy of the Daleks!"
"Oh, yes, I am!"
"Exterminate!"
They quickly moved out of the way as the Dalek fired, flattened against the wall, only to find Heather at the other side of the corridor, the Dalek fires going straight through her.
"Exterminate!"
"Exterminate." Heather repeated.
"What was that thing?" Bill breathed.
"A Dalek." Raven deadpanned.
"A what?"
"A Dalek."
"What's a Dalek?"
"The most dangerous race in the universe."
They snuck round the corner seeing the Dalek and Heather distracted by the other, stopping as a blast whizzed straight past them and down another corridor to find another Dalek slowly rolling before them.
"That's wrong." The Doctor frowned at it, "I know my Daleks, and that's wrong." He squinted at the Eye, making out the star shape, "Oh, I see."
"This thing is unstoppable." Raven breathed.
"You see what?" Bill looked between them and the Dalek trying to see what they've seen. It looked identical to the others.
"I've sealed the area." Nardole skidded round the corner, panting heavily, "All the Daleks are quarantined. Except that one."
"It's not a Dalek." Raven remarked calmly, "there's a star defect in the eye."
"Heather." Bill breathed.
Water began to pour out of the Dalek casing, dissolving and morphing into Heather who stood before them, dripping.
"Heather." She repeated
"Interesting." The Doctor mused, walking around Heather as she followed him, "You had a gun but you didn't use it. Why? You've already taken one person from the Earth. I'm going to let that pass, because I have to, but I will not let you take another. Go. Just go now. Fly away. Why won't you just go?" She didn't answer him, turning back to look at Bill.
"Oh, my God." Bill gasped, as she realised why Heather had been following them, following her. Just before she had been taken by the puddle Heather had promised she wouldn't leave without Bill, she was keeping her promise, "I understand."
"You what?" Nardole blinked.
"The last thing she said to me. She promised she wouldn't leave without me."
"Her last conscious thought," the Doctor followed, "driving her across the universe. Never underestimate a crush."
"Oh, you don't have to tell me." Nardole chuckled.
"What do we do?" Bill asked.
"I don't know." The Doctor admitted, "She's not chasing you, she's inviting you."
"Release her." Raven murmured, "Release her from her promise. Her promise to never leave you."
Bill nodded slowly, staring at Heather, "You have to let me go."
"You have to let me go." Heather repeated.
"I will."
"I will."
"I really liked you."
"I really liked you." Heather reached out to Bill who reached to her, clasping their hands despite their yells and warnings.
"Bill!" Raven waved a hand before the woman seeing her just staring ahead, a daze smile on her face, "Bill, can you hear me?"
"Bill, listen to me." The Doctor tried to reach out to her, "Whatever she's showing you, whatever she's letting you see. It's a lure, it's a trap. She's making you part of her, and you can never come back."
"I see what you see." Bill whispered, "It's beautiful."
"Bill, let go! You have to let go! She is not human anymore."
"Goodbye, Heather."
"Goodbye, Bill." Heather returned, dropping Bills hand before dissolving into a puddle as the Doctor pulled Bill away.
"You all right?" He frowned at her.
"Yeah," she swallowed hard, "I think so."
"She doesn't look it." Raven countered.
"She's fine."
"What would you know? You know nothing!"
"I know a lot of stuff."
"Do I need to remind you of the orient express?"
"You didn't even know you were sick!"
"That's besides the point!"
Nardole chuckled as they walked off, Raven seemingly more stalking after the Doctor as they bickered, "That's the Doctor for you." He smiled lightly at her seeing Bill was silently crying, "Never notices the tears."
Bill frowned as she wiped them away, "I don't think they're mine."
~.~
"False alarm." Raven said as she came up into the office after the vault alarm went off, but found nothing, even went in and checked on Missy. The woman oblivious to whatever happened in the outside world, well of course she would, she had no idea what happened outside the vault. "A student was sick outside and it registered as a biological attack. It's fine, it's all good. Well, as good as it can be with the circumstances."
"Good." The Doctor smiled.
"I saw it all for a moment." Bill murmured, thinking of what Heather had shown her, "Everything out there. She was going to let me fly with her. She was inviting me. I was too scared."
"Scared is good. Scared is rational. She wasn't human anymore."
"Will we see her again?"
"I don't see how." He looked at her sadly only to notice her gaze shift to the TARDIS, a look of hope in her eyes, "No, no, no, no. No, no. You have to forget about that."
"I don't see how I can." She argued.
"I do. Come here, Bill."
She moved before him, "What's up?"
"No."
They both looked at Raven for that.
"You can't just go wiping people's mind just because it suits you Doctor! You're a fucking arse if you think you can do whatever you please just because you can. Do you remember what happened with Clara? No, of course you don't, because you were about to wipe her memory without her permission and it backfired on you."
"You were about to wipe my mind." Bill frowned, stepping away from him.
"I have no choice." He murmured, "I'm here for a reason. I am in disguise. I have promises to keep. No one can know about me, or Raven, or the vault."
"This is the most exciting thing that's ever happened to me in my life. The only exciting thing!"
"I'm sorry." He whispered.
"Ok, let me remember just for a week. Just a week. Okay, well, just for tonight. Just one night. Come on, let me have some good dreams for once. Ok." She sighed, "Do what you've got to do. But imagine, just imagine how it would feel if someone did this to you." Bill closed her eyes, bracing herself to forget all about them, the TARDIS and Heather only for the Doctor to tap her chin, making her open her eyes and look at him.
"Get out. You can keep your memories. Now get out before I change my mind! Don't speak, don't start, just run! Now. Go!"
Bill bolted from the room before he could change his mind.
The Doctor ran his hands through his hair, noticing the picture of Susan on the desk, "Shut up. You shut up as well." And then River Song only for the TARDIS to give a low hum, "Will you all please just leave me alone? I can't do that anymore. I promised!"
"You did promise." Raven agreed, leaning her back against the TARDIS, "I get that you're confused. Wanting to keep your promise, but also desperate to just run away. Itching to save a planet."
"Shut up!" He cut her off.
She continued, unhinged, "What's one trip a week? One trip, gone for 5 minutes. No one will even notice."
"Nardole will."
"Nardole isn't your boss."
"Neither are you."
She cocked an eyebrow up at that, a small smirk on her lips, "you don't have too. I just thought, you can still do both. Mum won't mind, not really. It's you and it's me. Come on. Don't you just want to get back out there and see the stars?"
~.~
"It's a big universe," the Doctor smiled as they materialised down outside just before Bill, "but maybe one day we'll find her."
"What changed your mind?" Bill frowned.
"Time."
"Time?"
"And Relative Dimension In Space." He smirked, snapping his fingers and opening the doors. "It means, what the hell?"
"Welcome aboard miss Potts." Raven curtsied as Bill stepped back inside.