A rambler wirily walked towards a large pillar of stone in the Wiltshire countryside, before stumbling down and dropping their rucksack to the ground, resting themselves against the pillar and looking up towards the clear night sky. 'It's a good night tonight' she thought, she rested there before she started getting a warm strange tingling feeling in her back, she tried to stand up, but she couldn't, he back seemed stuck to the rock. "What-" she didn't get a chance to think about it though "AAAAAAARGH!" a bright white glow enveloped the girl before she dissipated as nothing more than dust in the wind.
The TARDIS slowly started to materialise on a stretch of moorland in the Wiltshire countryside, before coming to a thump. The doors opened and an energetic Miku walked out of the doors her arms in the air "ENGLAND!" she yelled at the top of her voice, before she realised that it was lightly drizzling with rain although she was barely able to feel it. The Doctor followed suit and walked out of the door, although somewhat less enthusiastically.
"You know" He grumbled "When I said that the TARDIS could travel anywhere in time and space, I figured that you, would have had a bit more of an imagination. It's not a taxi service to famous cities you know."
"Well, I've never had a chance to see these famous cities, whenever we're on tour it's usually: Arrive, practice, hotel, practice, concert, practice, next city. It's rather boring, I've never got to see the famous landmarks of the places we've been."
"Even so you could have at least picked another planet to start with, rather than, London, Paris, New York and now Wiltshire." Miku turned towards the Doctor.
"Wiltshire? Is that the name of the place where Stonehenge is?"
"It's the name of the county." The Doctor explained matter-of-factly. "But do you have to keep sticking to Earth? It's a lovely place, don't get me wrong, but it gets a bit tiresome after a while. There is this planet in the Oronganan system, that's really one of a kind."
"We can do that later!" Miku shouted as she ran down the hillside. "Come on, we've got to see Stonehenge!" The Doctor gave a sigh, before sticking two fingers in his mouth and giving a loud whistle, which resulted in Miku stopping where she was and turning back to look at the TARDIS. The Doctor pointed at a 45-degree angle from the direction Miku was.
"It's in that direction!" The Doctor shouted. Miku gave a wave, and then went about running in the direction that the Doctor had pointed. The Doctor shook his head and closed the TARDIS door, but when he did so he felt a strange chill go up his spine, as if there was something that was here, but was unsure of what that could be. The feeling passed after a few seconds, the Doctor shook his head and proceeded to walk down the hill in the direction of the teenage idol.
Miku had finally reached the pillars of Stonehenge, it was a lot bigger than she imagined, but it looked like the actual stone circle part was a good 30 or so metres in diameter from each end, she ran in between the stones, carefree, before spinning around and collapsing on the ground. She just lay there staring up into the sky and enjoying the cool breeze on her face for a few minutes before she sat up again and looked around at the majestic monuments, she lifted herself up onto her feet and gazed around at the monument, eventually curiosity got the better of her and she walked towards one of the stones. "I wonder what it feels like…" Miku reached out to touch one of the stones.
"DO NOT TOUCH. THE STONES!" Miku instinctively drew back her hand and looked from side to side to find whoever had shouted at her, before she spotted a figure with a short bushy beard and wearing a long white robe walk out from behind one of the stones. "You dare sully the pristine craftmanship of this sacred monument?"
"Umm…I…err…"
"You do have to forgive her, it's her first time here." Miku turned around to see a familiar face approaching.
"Old man!" Miku rushed over to the Doctor and wrapped her arms around his waist before hiding behind his frame.
"Humph! Well as long as she doesn't interfere with the monument then it's fine!"
"OI YOU!" another voice cried out, the three of them turned around to see a figure wearing a black suit and a black hat walking towards them. "No-one's allowed here without special permission."
"I have permission." The man in the white robe said taking a piece of paper from under his robe and handing it to the guard, who inspected it intensely.
"Yep, this checks out, here for midsummer, eh?" Miku tugged on the Doctor's sleeve.
"It was January when we left right?"
"Well, I figured that if you weren't going to go anywhere spectacular in space or time, I figured we could travel in time by a few months."
"What about you?" The guard asked turning towards the Doctor and Miku "Where's your permission?"
"We don't have any, my poor grandchild here hasn't been to Britain before, she's still trying to understand the etiquette here."
"G-grandchild?" Miku stuttered. The guard didn't pay much notice though.
"I see, well tell her to stick to the path next time." He pointed behind him to show a concrete path the other side of the fenced off area. "Unless you have special permission, you can't just go wandering around here, this is a priceless monument, we can't have every Tom, Dick and Harry ruining the place with cigarette buds and crisp packets."
"I completely understand." The Doctor said leading Miku by the hand towards the fence "It won't happen again."
"It better not!" After climbing the fence, the two time travellers walked down the concrete path.
"I didn't think it was going to be like this!" Miku muttered.
"Well not everything is going to be open to the tourists, especially if it's tens of thousands of years old." The Doctor explained.
"I see~"
"Satisfied?" Miku shook her head, a big grin on her face.
"No, I want to see what a typical English village is like; cream teas and cricket pitches!" Miku exclaimed. Cricket pitches, that brought back memories.
"Well, there's a town called Upper Middlington not far from here, I take it you'd like to go?"
"YESyesplease!" Miku couldn't contain her excitement she ran a short distance ahead before pumping her arms in the air and giving a loud "Wahoo!" The Doctor gave a wry smile, cricket pitches hey? He gave a sigh and placed his hand over his face, and then suddenly his head started to throb, a rhythmic pound hitting his skull. "Old man?" Miku turned back to face the Doctor with a worried look on her face.
"It's nothing, only a headache, nothing serious. But what is serious, is your dress." Miku looked down at her classic grey and green dress that she was wearing, before examining the rest of her clothing.
"Is there something wrong with my dress?" she asked.
"Well, you might be able to get away with saying you're a 'cosplayer' in New York or London, but in a small English village like this, you stick out like a sore thumb."
The Doctor and Miku were sitting in a small tearoom in Upper Middlington, Miku, now wearing a lacy white dress was scrunching herself up with glee. "Ooooh! This is amazing! Real English tea! Eee~ This is brilliant, I've always wanted to practise my English!" Miku held up her hand to grab the attention of the waiter that was passing by. "(Hello, one tea and scone special please.)" The waiter looked at her confused for a moment, before replying.
"I. Don't. Speak. Chinese!"
"Huh? I was speaking English?"
"You are now, what will you order, miss?"
"Errr… could you come back in a few minutes?"
"Certainly!" and with that the waiter walked over to another customer's table. Miku just stared at him, confused.
"I don't understand, he didn't understand English, but when I spoke in Japanese, he thought I was speaking English." She turned towards the Doctor, who was staring out of the window with an emotionless expression. "Is this your doing, old man?" The Doctor explained.
"The TARDIS automatically translates any known language that it has come across and translates that language both written and spoken into your mother tongue so you can understand what they are saying." Miku looked deflated.
"Awww~ I wanted to practise my English!" her face then scrunched up, perplexed and turned back towards the Doctor. "Wait, does that mean…that you don't speak Japanese?" The Doctor ignored her and instead looked towards the headline of a newspaper that someone was reading, it read.
Another Hiker Missing!
Fifth disappearance in a fortnight!
The Doctor rubbed his forehead for a bit, trying to think of something. "That's okay!" Miku continued, oblivious to the Doctor's deep thought "It doesn't matter if you don't speak Japanese, you're still a kind person." She raised her hand again "Excuse me, waiter? I'm ready to order now!"
"Well, that was fun!" Miku exclaimed as she climbed the hill towards the TARDIS, the Doctor a few paces behind her, she turned and leaned against the door, "Hey? Old man? Can we go to Sydney next?" The Doctor leaned on his legs, catching his breath. "Are you alright old man?" Miku asked concerned.
"You seem to forget, that I am an old man." The Doctor wheezed "I'm not as young as you are."
"Oh, sorry!" Miku apologized "Don't worry you don't look a day over 50!" The Doctor took a large gulp of air before standing up.
"I'm not sure whether that is a compliment or an insult." He said, "I haven't long passed 900."
"EH? YOU'RE OVER 900 YEARS OLD?"
"Yes, so when I was around 50 or so, I would be merely a babe in arms."
"Oh! I'm so sorry old man!" Miku profusely apologized. The Doctor gave a small smile.
"Not at all, I don't mind being called old, but being called a 'babe in arms' at my age is rather distasteful."
"I'm sorry~" Miku again, apologized "But, can we still go to Sydney?" she asked excitedly.
"Not just yet, there is a bit of reading that I want to catch up on first."
"Eh? What type of reading? Is there something wrong, old man?"
"Nothing to concern yourself with." The Doctor reassured her. Miku gave a small nod.
"Okay then, but don't be too long, okay old man" She said opening the TARDIS door and walked inside, the Doctor walked towards the TARDIS door, but stopped before he could reach it, he rubbed his head a bit before shaking his head before opening the door and stepping inside.
It was a cloudy night, the moon that was nearly full hidden behind the thick layers of cloud, making it seem darker than usual. The guard hummed a tune to himself, occasionally shining his torch into the darkness, to see if there were any drunken yobs around, not that they'd intentionally come to a place like this, but even they would see a good opportunity to vandalise a historic monument in their inebriated state. Something caught his eye, a flash of white from withing the stone circle. "OI! YOU!" The guard yelled, walking towards the fence and stepping over it "You're not allowed here! Hey!" The guard walked around a couple of stones before he spotted a figure dressed in white robes, the figure turned at the sound of the guard, revealing it to be the figure for earlier in the day. "Oh, it's you is it?" the guard shouted "You have a nerve coming here! I've heard from my boss this afternoon that you don't have permission to be here! Now come on! Clear…off?" The guard froze, spotting the figure's hand, dripping red with blood, a small knife in the other. Suddenly more figures in white robes began appearing from behind the stones. "OI! I'm w-warning you! I'll call the police~" his voice wavering as the group silently surrounded him. The guard fumbled for his radio, but never had a chance, as one of the group stabbed him in the leg, causing him to drop to his knees and cry out in pain. He crawled away as fast as he could, breathing heavily, the group making no effort to catch him, instead slowly surrounding him, seemingly herding him towards the far side of the circle. He crawled over to one of the stones and with what was left of his strength grabbed hold of the stone and tried to lift himself up, only to find both of his hands stuck to the rock. "Why can't I-?" However, it was far too late. He gave a blood-curdling scream as his body evaporated, turning to dust to be carried of into the wind, his black cap the only sign he was ever there.
The Doctor stood motionless as he stared at the famous stone circle, deep in thought. Sitting on the ground behind him, still wearing the same bright white dress was his companion. "Is there something wrong, old man?" she asked.
"Possibly…" he mused "I feel as though I know what I'm looking for, but I can't quite seem to remember…"
"Is there a monster hiding in these stones?"
"Not quite…Could you count the number of stones that there are?" Miku looked taken back somewhat
"All of them?"
"All of them, including the ones that are a little way from the main circle and the ones that barely big enough to see without having to squint" Miku looked exasperated, but did as the old man said and made her way towards the circle.
"Hey! What about the guard?" Miku said turning back towards the Doctor.
"…I don't think we have to worry about him…" he replied sombrely. Miku looked worried but continued to do as the Doctor asked. "Oh, and Leek girl!" he called out after her. "Don't touch any of the stones, alright?" Miku gave a nod
"Okay" and continued to make a note of the number of stones there were. The Doctor looked down at the ground and noticed some weird marks in the earth, he knelt down and rubbed his chin a moment before standing back up and thumbing his lapels.
"Hmmm…who…and for what purpose…?" His thoughts were interrupted as his companion ran back towards him, a little out of breath.
"91! There are 91 stones here!"
"Hmm…" the Doctor rubbed his head "I figured as much."
"Is there too many…?" The Doctor gave a short snorting laugh
"Heh. No on the contrary, there are too few!" Miku looked puzzled.
"I don't get it, why would anyone steal some stones?"
"That's not-" before he could explain he dropped to his knees, his head thumping heavily as something persistently attacked his mind, inside his head he could hear a single, terrifying voice which only uttered two words.
'FOUND YOU…'
"Old Man!" Miku cried, rushing to his aid as the Doctor struggled to get back to his knees, leaning on the teenage idol for support "Are you okay, old man?" Miku asked, worried. The Doctor shook his head as the mental attack faded away.
"Of course…they would be one of the last creatures alive in the universe…and he'd still have the influence to send them through time and control the minds of others…" He looked into Miku's eyes as he got to his feet, Miku could see that he looked worried. "Follow me!" he said turning around and heading back to the TARDIS, Miku followed suit, eventually reaching the familiar blue box and stepping inside.
"Is something the matter old man?"
"Plenty!" he muttered as he turned towards his companion, "There was something that I did, years ago now, I faced a powerful foe, one which scared even me, he practically had me on a string throughout our last encounter, and could best me in every way, the only reason why I'm still alive is because he thought I was inconsequential, I managed to banish him to the far reaches of time, but now it seems like he's found a way to come back, and he is not going to give me a second chance to defeat him. You should be safe in the TARDIS, what little power he has he's using to control his minions, anything left he'll use to make me suffer. Stay here, what'll happen tonight will be down to me alone!"
"But I want to help"
"I said, stay! Here! You have no idea of what you'd be getting yourself into! He'll tear your mind to shreds!"
"But I want to help you old man! I-"
"That is an order!" he snapped with an authoritative voice, causing Miku to be startled somewhat. The Doctor realised what he had said and sat down on the floor "I'm sorry…it's just…I don't know what came over me…" As the Doctor sat on the floor in silence, Miku whispered
"Old man…what have you been through…?"
As the light of the midsummer moon shone, a group of people dressed in white robes were busy performing a strange ritual, chanting incoherent words as they swayed to and fro, the lead cultist raised his hands up to the air, silencing the rest of the group. "Tonight! We shall at last achieve our goal. Tonight, my fellow believers, we shall start the reign of our lord and saviour. Tonight, we shall set him free!"
"I'd rather you didn't" The group turned to see an old man wearing a somewhat scruffy and worn brown leather jacket, just casually standing a little way off from the stone circle. He slowly moved towards the group, who were slowly drawing their knives, but made no move to attack him as he moved into the middle of the group. "A rather unusual activity that we have here. Is this all in aid of your 'lord and saviour' then?" The lead cultist gave a snarl
"You dare mock our lord and saviour?" The Doctor stared the cultist dead in the eye.
"I happen to know this 'lord and saviour' and by no means is he an angel. But then again, I've met many 'angels' that had less than good intentions."
"Then you are clearly a non-believer! You do not appreciate our lord's work!"
"Oh, just listen to yourself spouting this simplistic mumbo jumbo!" the Doctor huffed "If your brains weren't so simplistic and you gave yourself time to stop and think, you might end up having a true epiphany of sorts, that nothing good will come of this!" The leader gave a slight nod and the Doctor found his arms being held by two of the cultists "Perhaps you might be naturally unintelligent after all, your colleagues her might find it hard to perform their bit with me in their arms" The Doctor frowned as he noticed something moving between two of the stones.
"Oh Contrare my unbelieving friend, you'll see first hand the power of our lord, as a sacrifice to his eminent lordsh-" He didn't have time to finish his speech as something whacked his head from behind.
"YOU LET HIM GO!" Miku shouted, baseball bat in hand as the cult leader fell to the ground. The Doctor gritted his teeth, sounding very displeased as he berated her
"What part of STAY AWAY did you not get?" With Miku's appearance it caused the remaining cultists to start panicking.
"Another intruder!" one gasped
"They're here to stop the ritual!" Another yelled "Come my brothers and sisters! The time is now, or NEVER!" with his rallying cry the rest of the cultists all turned their knifes onto themselves, much to the horror of the vocaloid, the two cultists holding the Doctor pushing him to the ground and plunging their knives into their flesh before the Doctor could get back to his feet and stop them, the cultist dropping to the ground as the life drained from their bodies. In the few seconds that was quite save for the howling wind, the Doctor and the idol stood in silence, Miku walked a couple of steps towards the Doctor before he turned his head and gave a cold, hard stare, stopping her in her tracks.
"I told you to STAY! THERE!" he rasped. Miku stood there trembling.
"W-w-what were t-they doing…?"
"We have been chosen…" The fallen cult leader yelled from behind them "Chosen…to free our master!" drawing a blade towards his chest.
"NO!" Miku yelled trying to make up for her mistake by stopping him from plunging the dagger into himself, she wasn't quick enough as the man plunged the dagger into his flesh and keeled over, lifeless onto the ground. Miku knelt down by the man trying to stop the life from escaping his body.
"Leek girl. Move. Now!" the Doctor demanded, Miku turned back to look at the Doctor.
"We can still save him!" she cried back before turning her head back and jumping back in fright as she almost headbutted a large stone. "Whoa! I didn't notice that stone there before!"
"That's because it wasn't" The Doctor explained. Miku slowly got back to her knees, terrified as the 'stone' slowly creeped towards the body of the cult leader, the merest touch causing his body to turn into ash.
"The stones are moving, why are the stones still moving? WHY ARE THE STONES STILL MOVING? I DON'T WANT TO GO!" Miku cried jumping into the Doctors arms, tears pricking her eyes.
"They're not stones, they're silicon-based lifeforms known as the Ogri, they usually feed off natural forming proteins on their home world, but here they have to make do with Globulin in the blood to stay alive."
"Behind you!" Miku yelled, causing the Doctor to turn around to see another ogri just behind them, only the two ogri didn't seem to pay much attention to them and instead seemed to move off in different directions. "W-what's going on old man?"
"Ogri leave a trail of Silica when they move, like mucus from a snail, they're finishing the final components off!"
"The final components of what?" Miku asked.
"Stonehenge…is one big teleporter, built to last over thousands of years to serve as an anchor point to a time where there is an influx of life to control!" as the ogri stopped moving various stones began to light up. "But even with the ogri's help it'll only cause a time window to open!" The Doctor rushed towards one of the glowing stones.
"Why would the…ogri want to open a time window-" The Doctor cut her off.
"The ogri aren't the masterminds here, they're only pawns, controlled by someone aaaaaargh!" The Doctor collapsed to his knees, holding his head tightly.
"Old man!" Miku cried. The sky cracked with lightning as what appeared to be a rip formed across the night sky, and, on the other side sat a figure, wearing heavy black robes and wearing a black stone mask, his glowing green eyes staring hauntingly at the pair. The Doctor steadily rose to his feet. "Who is that?" Miku whispered.
"He's the one who sent the ogri back in time and manipulated those poor souls into giving up their blood for-"
"Kneel" The Doctor cried out in pain as he dropped to his knees and writhed along the ground.
"OLD MAN!" Miku cried.
"You will finish my work, to set me free and destroy every living thing in the universe"
"NO!" Miku yelled "OLD MAN! OLD MAN!" Miku screamed. The Doctor stopped writhing on the ground and slowly sat up and got to his knees.
"I…will obey my master's wishes"
"NOOOOO!" The Doctor turned to work on one of the glowing stones, but Miku wrapped her arms around him, only for the Doctor to turn around and push her to the ground. "O-old man~" she sobbed, her sadness soon turned to anger though as she stared at the figure on the other side of the time window. "YOU LET HIM GO!" she screamed pointing the baseball bat angrily at the figure "OR YOU'LL BE SORRY!" The figure very slowly turned its head towards Miku.
"You believe you're a match for me? I am Sutekh the Destroyer! And your will bends to me!" and without any forewarning of any kind Miku suddenly clutched her head in overwhelming pain. She saw glimpses of her…past? Future? It all felt so real, but it shouldn't be true, it couldn't be. In one moment she was being dragged by a leash around her neck by her friends, laughing and jeering at her misfortune, in another she was sitting on a throne as her friends bowed in fear at her presence, a large sadistic grin on her face, in another she was kneeling in the remains of her friends, their robotic bodies torn and shred as she cried to the sky, and in yet another she was all alone in an endless white void, getting smaller, and smaller, and smaller. Miku let out a scream of agonizing pain.
"NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!" She screamed, occasionally between the horrifying visions she could see the Doctor working on one of the stones "o-old…m-man~ AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"
"The teleporter is ready, my lord!" The Doctor called out. Sutekh turned to look towards the Doctor and without moving a muscle release Miku from her mental torture, causing the teen idol to almost cry from her temporary release. The Doctor pointed his sonic screwdriver at one of the glowing stones and pressed it. "You may proceed, my lord!" Miku looked towards the Doctor, her face upset.
"Now, take comfort, as your lives are claimed by Sutekh the Destroyer!" The image of Sutekh slowly started to vanish, but as his image got fainter and fainter, the angrier he seemed to become "WHAT? THIS-?" before his image and the rip in the sky eventually faded into the starry night sky. The Doctor gave a sigh.
"This time I hope it will be permanent"
"Sutekh was a powerful foe, being able to send a couple of ogri back in time from the end of the universe as well as manipulate a handful of human minds to build the teleporter and power it with their lives in the first place takes an awful lot of power." The Doctor explained. It was now early morning, the blue sky turning ever so lighter as dawn approached, the Doctor rested against the TARDIS door as Miku sat on the ground a little way off, hugging her legs, she hadn't said anything since Sutekh was defeated, and the Doctor could understand why. "I knew it was only a temporary measure, when I first banished him, I knew he could always come back and manipulate others to set him free. So I worked on my mental defences, I had to get it right though, if I resisted his control too much he'd put that little bit more effort into his attacks and utterly break me, but if I was far too easy to control, he'd know I was planning something and attack me even stronger than before. I had to make it look like he had control over me, which is why I pushed you, instead of attacking you, nevertheless I'm sorry." Miku remained silent. "Don't worry you don't have anything to worry about, when I set the teleporter up, I set the destination to our location…in a parallel universe, one whose big bang has yet to occur, he wanted to destroy every living thing in the universe, so he got what he wanted, and maybe, in a few trillion millennia's, he might realise how boring that world would be. And with his influence out of our world the ogri are now nothing more than another pair of stones in Stonehenge." No sound escaped Miku's lips. The Doctor gave a heavy sigh, perhaps bringing a companion with him was not a good idea. "Do you want to go home then?" No response "I'll take you home then." The Doctor turned around and had his hand on the door handle when he felt something tug at his sleeve. The Doctor slowly turned his head to see the teen idol standing behind him, her head looking at the ground. It was a long minute of silence before she spoke.
"You said…that there was a planet…that was one of a kind…" Miku's face lifted up to meet his eyes, her face slowly starting to smile again. "Could we…perhaps…go and visit it…?" The Doctor gave a small smile, which lead to Miku giving a big cheery grin in return. It seemed this girl was stronger than she looked.
"Alright then." He said as he opened the door of the TARDIS as the two time travellers walked in. As the TARDIS began to dematerialise the two of them discussed where to go next.
"After this can we go to Sydney?"
"Really?"
"In the future!"
"Fine~ As long as it isn't the 51st century then I might just consider it."