The woman in front of her was the epitome of beauty and grace, much to Rose Tyler's shock who never had the chance to properly talk with her.
Short hair of rich chocolate color and a pair of astonishing green eyes with a circle of bright blue around the irises. A very chatty and nosy colleague had called it heterochromia, a bit envious of the unique shades of color they took under the sun or the neons of the shop.
It seemed she had a very wealthy family and her oldest brother Steven was a big deal in the Government, but she still had wanted to work as a normal young woman as soon as she graduated, much to the satisfaction of her other older brother Finn who didn't miss an occasion to antagonize Steven about their little sister's life.
Violet, that was the name on the tag on her chest, was calmly staring at the human girl in front of her and the tall stranger was in the middle of dragging Rose away from the army of mannequins as if it was a normal sight and ignored their shouts when one of those things went to attack her.
In front of the man's eyes, the girl only stood there, waiting for the plastic arm to hit her when everything stopped.
"Wha...?" Rose exclaimed, seeing the mannequins falling on the ground with loud thuds, and even the man she had met in the basement was shocked.
"It can't be possible!" she heard him grumbling at her side.
"Pretty good trick. Do you always play around on your shift, Rose?" the other girl asked, "I've never seen something like this, definitely something the boss wouldn't mind using as a marketing strategy"
"I... I was searching for Wilson. I swear, they were alive! We barely escaped from the basement and... I found him there!" the younger girl stumbled forward as the stranger poked the plastic head at his feet.
"How did you do that?"
"Do what? I did nothing" Violet replied with a knowing smile as she left the pair to argue with each other.
She could feel the eyes of the man following her until she reached the elevator and Rose rushed after her to leave the place as fast as she could.
Violet grimaced as the man pushed his way inside with them carrying a plastic arm under his armpit.
"A little souvenir" he smiled at them, eager to run some tests on it as the interest in his eyes grew, even more, when he wondered what just happened with the pretty brunette.
A normal human reaction would be running away or screaming, certainly not a smile in front of danger. Even the blond shorty had panicked and yet the other one was chatting with her colleague about clothes and fashion.
Soundlessly he sneaked away from them and let the girls leave, but he had no intention of ignoring the matter. And with a mystery like that, the Doctor had never been so impatient to find the answer to all his doubts.
After they managed to find the Nestene Consciousness and defeat it, the Doctor and Rose had another task before departing for their first trip with the TARDIS.
"What do you know of that girl, Violet?" he asked as he followed Rose to the address her boss gave her.
It had been very clever to pretend she had to return Violet's foulard, so the woman didn't ask uncomfortable questions and let them go on their way.
"Not much. We barely chat, but I know she's a very sociable girl"
"There has to be something else. The Nestene Consciousness accused me of mass murder, I presume it was referring to your workplace" the Doctor said, "This means whatever happened yesterday wasn't a coincidence and I bet she had something to do with it"
"Hold on, we can't barge into her apartment and question her" Rose protested, "She's just a simple girl"
"To stop the impulse given by an alien creature and go undetected, it's obvious that some interference cut off their communication with the source. Just like I did in the restaurant with your fake boyfriend" the Doctor had a giant smile pasted on his face, a bit unsettling for Rose who wondered what intentions he had for Violet.
"You... don't want to run tests on her too" she hesitantly asked, "Or you do?"
"I'm not a monster. I'll politely ask what she is and then we'll go on our merry way"
Rose wondered if she was still on time to hide somewhere, at least to avoid the judgemental eyes of those who surely had the authority to make them both disappear in some psych ward.
The two arrived in front of a stylish complex of apartments and Rose sighed in exasperation as the Doctor ran to the inter-phone and excitably pushed the button beside Violet Bones' name.
Much to the alien's delight, the girl welcomed them instantly in her flat where a handsome man with brown hair watched them with suspicion from the couch he was occupying. Rose could see them as related due to the share features, even if they were a bit sharper than his sister's. A good-looking man with an impressive set of muscles and a menacing air.
"Sorry for the mess, when my brother is here the word 'tidy' flies out of the window" she smiled at them, pushing a strand of chocolate hair behind her ear.
"Cut short on the pleasantries and get to the point, Vì. Tell us why you came here" the curly man stood up and went beside his sister, passing a protective arm around her shoulders.
"Well, if we put it this way... I want to know what you did in the basement yesterday. Those mannequins attacked the city not even an hour ago and yet, they stopped in front of you. Nothing a human could do" the Doctor said with a serious frown.
"I don't know what you're talking about" she replied swiftly, her hand gripping the back of Finn's shirt.
"Strange things happen in this city," Rose said, "I mean, the shopping center was a battlefield with fake brides shooting at bystanders and my mother told me it happened everywhere in London..."
The Doctor seemed to disagree with the cautious approach Rose was using to speak with Violet and with a grin offered an exchange.
"Why don't we put on the table everything we know?"
There was no way she wasn't involved in it and judging by her brother's tension, it would be alright to explain the affair with the Nestene Consciousness. Uncovering his existence as an alien wouldn't be the end of the world and he could always lie in the worst case.
"This has gone far too long. Go out and leave my sister alone" Finn Bones growled and for a second the Doctor saw his eyes flickering black.
"You aren't human, not you, and certainly not your sister. Maybe even the other brother has something more special, but for some reason I can't detect what species you belong to" he replied, pulling out his sonic and scanning the pair in front of him.
Finn's eyes went black and the Doctor felt the oxygen leaving his lungs painfully. It added up with none of his theories and wondered if his calculation was wrong as Finn kept his eyes on him. He was lucky Time Lords were a bit more resistant than humans because in normal conditions he would have run out of air faster.
"Finn, leave him! Steven will throw a fit if you kill someone!" Violet exclaimed, her eyes flickered in black as a warning when her brother ignored her, "I mean it, put him down"
Rose stood in a corner worried for the Doctor, who was slowly standing up with Violet's help as soon as Finn let him go, but terrified by the temperamental man in front of her.
"You aren't aliens" he wheezed out.
"Maybe your devices only detect traces of extraterrestrial DNA, but we have none of it. Instead, it identifies us as humans" Finn smirked at him, "But we're something else. A bit more... special as you said than your average mortal"
"You're an alien" Violet observed, "I thought there was something strange about you"
The Doctor stared at the young woman in front of him with interest and sniffed her cautiously, making Rose grimace at the frown on Violet's normally sweet face.
"And I thought your people were only a myth" the Doctor was intrigued by what his nose caught from the siblings.
He had not noticed it at the beginning with all the candles Violet kept in the apartment, but there wasn't any kind of scent coming from their skin. Even aliens had some kind of essence that could be detected by a particularly keen nose, not to mention the number of different scents on humans, but in Violet and Finn's case, there was nothing.
As if the body was only a shell of flesh that contained power and not a proper functioning being. The Doctor wanted to ask a myriad of questions and began to formulate some hypotheses.
"What are they? Doctor?" Rose asked.
"Sorcerers, those who influence the fate. You cut the strings that connected the mannequins to the Nestene Consciousness. Fantastic and pretty rare"
"Strings?"
"Everything in this universe has been created by something else, that establishes a connection and ties them. Imagine this connection as a string, something you can cut to destroy like she did yesterday or knot to create a completely new being. It means pure and absolute power on life and death"
"They weren't true living beings and there was only one string. Easy enough for me, even if I'm still young" Violet shrugged, "It's not so fabulous like he thinks, but that's the idea. Sadly we are fairly vulnerable like humans in front of an alien. With multiple strings at once, I would be useless"
"She can see the strings of life, Rose. Once you grow older, you could even be insanely powerful and write a new future from scratch" he repeated with amazement, staring at the sorceress, "Magic is something I know very little, but they say it's beautiful to observe a sorcerer in action"
"Like Harry Potter? I don't see wands or flying brooms here" Rose felt the Doctor elbowing her in the gut fiercely as the older Bones growled at her.
"Incompetent and rude" he commented, "One random human writes about magic and suddenly the world believes in magic wands. Disgusting"
"Calm down, Finn," his sister said before glancing at the Doctor, who was staring at her with
confusion and interest, "Our people went in hiding long ago, even before the great witch-hunt of the 17th century. Humans butchered many of us, even some of their own suspected of consorting with evil forces, but no one has ever taken the time to understand us"
"It's the same with us. Aliens are treated as badly as you are" the Doctor could sympathize with them, because he knew what was the reaction of humans to the word 'alien'.
"But you had an entire universe between yourself and a stake" Finn frowned, "You wanted to know the truth about my sister, now that you do, go away and don't talk of this with anyone. Our brother is a powerful man and capable of defending our family if needed"
"Times changed. I have no problems with aliens, sorcerers, or whatever creature is still out there" Rose spoke directly to Violet, "People can be stupid and ignorant, but not everyone is out to persecute you anymore. I mean, I'll join this mad alien in a trip through space and time, no human is more open-minded than me"
"You could come with us, Violet. A Time Lord, a sorcerer and a human" the Doctor smiled at her.
"How dare you...!"
"Shut up, Finn" the girl snapped at her brother, "Do you want me to...?"
"If you want" Rose shrugged with a smile, "He said it will be fun, but another girl's presence would be great"
"You seriously are planning to join these two nutcases?!" Finn exclaimed, "Steven will kill me and then he'll come for you"
"Don't be so negative, brother. Just a couple of trips and they will bring me back" she promised.
"Only a couple?" the Doctor pouted, "I'll work to change your mind, companion"
"It will be an epic adventure" Rose smiled brightly at Violet, taking her hand reassuringly.
