A/N: Well I felt so bad that I'd made everyone wait for so long, that I sort of had to write something. (Even if it's not very good.) I'll admit, I lost some of my inspiration for this story when I started watching Supernatural, but my love for this story seriously knows no bounds. So here I am.
Also, I'm going to try to start introducing elements from the novels and audios into the story. But don't worry, if you haven't heard or read anything like that I will do my best to explain everything. I have links and pdfs to books and audios for anyone who is interested, so just shoot me a PM.
I opened my eyes a few moments later, unsure of what I would see or where I would be. To my surprise and relief, I was in the TARDIS console room and had been sent back to the Doctor's first incarnation once again. I was surprised to be back so soon, but wasn't going to complain. I found One's company enjoyable when he wasn't in the mood to kidnap schoolteachers.
"Who are you?"
I whirled around with a gasp, startled after thinking that I was the only one in the console room. But I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw it was just the Doctor and Susan. I pressed a hand to my chest over my rapidly beating heart and took a deep breath.
"God, Theta, you scared me," I breathed.
The Doctor narrowed his eyes at me suspiciously and he tightened his arm around Susan's shoulders. "How do you know my name?" he asked.
I stared curiously at the Time Lord for a second. "Did you not want me to call you Theta anymore?" I wondered. "I can just call you Doctor if you want. I mean, now that I think about it you do look pretty young."
The Doctor still had a few wrinkles and his familiar white hair, but he easily looked a few years younger than he had when I was with him last. Susan's eyebrows furrowed together and she turned to look up at the other Time Lord in confusion.
"Grandfather, do you know her?"
"Susan, it's me," I interjected.
"Who's Susan?" she asked softly.
The Doctor pushed Susan behind him and pointed a finger at me. "Are you a Time Lord? Who sent you?" he questioned, his voice firm and demanding.
"What, no! You know I'm not."
"Then how are you speaking Gallifreyan?"
His question startled and confused me even more. I looked at the confused and almost terrified expression on Susan's face, then to the angry and surprisingly young face of the Doctor. Neither of them recognized me, Susan didn't even know her own name, and the Doctor was acting incredibly hostile towards me.
No. Please, no, I thought to myself.
I looked back at Susan and thought for a moment. "Arkytior?" I finally asked.
Her eyes widened and she gripped tightly at the Doctor's arm. "You know my name too?" she exclaimed incredulously.
My eyes flicked to the Doctor's to find that he was still glaring at me. He had taken a protective stance in front of his granddaughter, a stance that he had once used to protect me when the Aztecs threatened my life. I lowered my gaze and stared emotionlessly at the floor for a few seconds.
"You don't know me," I breathed.
"Should we know you?" Susan asked.
The Doctor quickly shushed her. "Who are you and how did you come aboard my ship?" he demanded.
I swallowed the tears that were threatening to pool in my eyes and lifted my head to look at the Doctor. The burning mistrust in his own eyes felt like a knife in my chest, but I ignored it; I had to. Instead, I ran a hand through my hair and adjusted my glasses on the bridge of my nose.
"Look, I'm not a threat to you," I said slowly. "You probably won't believe me when I tell you this, but you have to because it's the truth. I know it'll sound crazy and completely unbelievable, but everything I'm going to tell you is true."
"Why should I believe a word you say? You appeared mysteriously onboard my ship, knowing the names of both myself and my granddaughter, yet you claim not to be a Gallifreyan. Obviously you're lying."
"I'm not," I answered with a shake of my head. "My name is Diana Scott. I'm a human from Earth. I'm eighteen years old and I travel through time and space… without a TARDIS."
Susan gasped again. "That's the word I created from the ship's initials!" she exclaimed.
I nodded. "I know."
"How?"
"Because I'm from another universe. In my home universe, the life of the Doctor, your grandfather, is documented in a television show. It's a story in my world, but here it's reality. And somehow, I don't know how or why, I ended up here in your universe. That's all I know."
The Doctor scoffed. "You do know, my dear, that your story sounds entirely fantastical."
"I know it does. I didn't believe it either when I first came here. But when I did come here, I met you, Doctor. In your future. You tried to explain to me where I was, that it wasn't a dream, and I didn't believe you. But then something happened that forced me to believe it: I time jumped. I don't know how and I don't know how the vortex hasn't killed me already, but I don't need a TARDIS or a vortex manipulator to travel through time. But, I can't control it. It just happens and I never know when or for how long I'll be gone. I jump all over your time stream, Doctor. Our lives are intertwined somehow and wherever I go, you're always there."
The Doctor shook his head. "No. No, I refuse to believe your ridiculous lies."
"I'm not lying, Theta! I swear to you. I would never lie about this."
"No," he said again. "I have no reason to trust you. I should throw you out of the ship this instant."
"Don't," I pleaded. "Please, don't." Not again. "How can I prove it to you? What do you want to know? I'll tell you anything to prove I'm not lying."
The Doctor ignored me and stepped towards the console. He tried to open the doors but the TARDIS groaned and refused to obey him. I smiled slightly and rested a hand on the console.
"See? The TARDIS won't let you throw me out."
"The ship's malfunctioning," he grumbled.
"No, it's not. She won't let you throw me out until you believe me."
I could tell the Doctor wasn't going to listen to me, so I had to do or say something to prove to him that I was telling the truth. I racked my brain for important information about the Doctor's life and began spewing it desperately.
"Your nickname at the Prydonian Academy was Theta Sigma. Your best friend was Koschei, who later took the name the Master. Your other friend was, um, Ushas, I think? She later became the Rani, a Time Lord who was obsessed with science and experimentation on other species." I looked desperately at Susan, trying to think of more information to prove myself. "Arkytior's name means 'Rose' in High Gallifreyan. Um… Oh!" I suddenly remembered the Doctor telling Jack and Martha about his childhood. "When you were still a boy, you looked into the Untempered Schism and you ran away… And you haven't stopped running since."
The Doctor looked up from the console at me in surprise. "How do you know that?" he asked. "I never told anyone about what happened then."
I nodded slowly, but continued telling the Doctor facts that could prove my honesty. "Your brother's name is Irving Braxiatel, I think. He might have changed it when he got older. I don't know. I just know that he's your brother. And that you're from the house of Lungbarrow."
"Only a Time Lord would know these things," the Doctor said seriously.
"But I'm not a Time Lord! I'm human. I know these things because I'm from another universe! Theta, you have to believe me."
"How can I?" he countered angrily. "For all I know, the Time Lords sent you here to bring me back. Well I have no desire to return there! And neither does Susan." He placed his arm around his granddaughter again. "Susan and I are running away together because we want nothing more to do with Gallifrey. We want a new life, to travel, to see the universe. Not even the Time Lords can stop us."
I shook my head. "I don't want to stop you. I want to help you."
"I don't believe you."
"You should! Look into my eyes and tell me if I'm lying. Have Susan read my mind or my memories or whatever it is you Time Lords do. I know she has incredible telepathic abilities. She can do it. She can see if I'm lying or not."
"No. I won't let you anywhere near her."
I sighed heavily and ran a hand through my hair again. "What can I do to prove I'm telling the truth? What do you want to know?" I looked at the console and an idea suddenly came to mind. "I know. I'll fly the TARDIS. Will that prove I'm telling the truth?"
"You won't be flying my ship anywhere, young lady!"
"But I can fly it! I've done it before! Look, just tell me what you want to know and I'll tell you. Just let me prove it to you, please. Theta, I'll do anything."
The Doctor pressed his lips firmly together and shook his head again. "There is nothing you can say or do that will make me trust you."
He started for the console again and tried t make the ship work, but the TARDIS only whirred angrily. I tried to think of something else, of more facts that would make the Doctor understand I wasn't lying, but most of the things I knew were of his future and not of his life on Gallifrey.
"Doctor, please," I tried again.
I ran my palm across the lower half of my face and sighed heavily as I thought. What could I possibly say? If Susan didn't read my mind and the Doctor didn't, then how could I prove myself to him? I didn't have telepathic abilities. Then a thought came to me.
"Your name," I said softly. "Your name was a promise. When you took the name 'Doctor', you made a promise to yourself. You promised never to be cruel or cowardly, to never give up, to never give in." The Doctor stopped working at the console and slowly turned to look me in the eye. "You never told anyone that, did you? You may have said what your adopted name was, but you never said why. So how would I know?"
"That's impossible," he said incredulously.
"Or I'm telling the truth," I replied.
The Doctor looked at me for a moment longer before he shook his head. "No. No, I cannot believe you. It's too incredible. You easily could have discovered that, o-or made a lucky guess."
"I'm not a Time Lord! How could I have guessed that, even if I was one? Theta, please. Just trust me."
The ship suddenly whirred and the console sparked. Blue sparks of electricity flew through the air and the Doctor, Susan, and I all jumped back with a shout. The lights in the console room flashed on and off for a moment before they flashed back on. The console had stopped sparking, but the panels were smoking.
I started waving my hands over the console in an attempt to clear the air when the Doctor stepped forward and grabbed my wrist. He glared angrily at me and suddenly shouted something in a language I didn't recognize or understand. I stared at him for a moment and then tried to pull my arm from his grasp.
"Theta, let go!" I exclaimed in a panic.
The Doctor suddenly froze, although his grip on my arm didn't loosen. He looked curiously at me for a moment before he said something else, still speaking in the strange language I didn't understand. All I could tell from what he was saying was that it was a question, if the tone of his voice at the end was anything to go by.
I shook my head in confusion. "What happened? Why aren't you speaking English?" I asked. "I-I can't understand you."
The TARDIS whirred overhead and the smoke suddenly cleared. Susan stepped forward and asked the Doctor something in what I guessed was the same language. They both glanced at me and then back at one another. I tried tugging my arm out of the Doctor's grip again and this time he let me go. I stumbled back a few steps and stared incredulously at him.
"What the hell was that for?" I snapped. "I was trying to help. And why are you speaking a different language all of a sudden?"
The scanner above the console suddenly lit up and circular Gallifreyan writing appeared on the screen. Susan and the Doctor were still busy talking to one another, although they kept sparing me curious glances. I couldn't read Gallifreyan at all, so I cleared my throat and called the Doctor's name.
"Theta?" He looked at me in surprise and followed my finger when I raised it to point at the screen. "What's that?"
He stepped forward and muttered something under his breath that I couldn't quite hear. Susan stepped up after him and they both started reading the writing on the scanner. After a few moments the writing appeared to disintegrate and then reappear looking slightly different. I looked up at the ceiling and glared so the ship could see how I felt about being left out.
The ship whirred softly as the writing changed once again. This time, the writing was smaller and only took up the left side of the screen. The right side of the scanner was filled with what looked like a strand of DNA that was slowly spinning around in circles. There was something off about the DNA strand, but I didn't know what because I didn't know much about DNA to begin with.
"Theta? What is that?" I asked worriedly.
The Doctor didn't acknowledge me, but Susan spared me a glance over her shoulder. She looked at me for a moment before she tapped her grandfather on the shoulder and whispered something. Whatever she said upset the Time Lord because he replied with a hint of anger in his voice.
The language they were speaking was very strange to me. At times it sounded like Latin, but then it would suddenly sound like French or Russian or even Hindi. Sometimes it sounded like all the languages of the world combined into one beautiful, flowing, alien dialect. It almost sounded like music. Then I realized: they were speaking in Gallifreyan, their home language.
The Doctor asked how I could speak Gallifreyan if I wasn't a Time Lord. The TARDIS must've been translating for me! I realized. Does that mean the Doctor doesn't know English? Has he really been speaking Gallifreyan all these months and the ship was just translating for me?
The two aliens suddenly fell silent. Susan pushed past her grandfather and approached me, her hands reaching for my head. Her hands grasped the sides of my face and pulled me down so my forehead was pressed against hers. Her hands loosened their grip and then her fingers pressed gently, yet firmly, against my temples.
Susan's consciousness was suddenly in my mind, searching through all of my memories and thoughts much like her grandfather would in his tenth incarnation to heal my concussion. Her mind was surprisingly stronger than the Doctor's was and I gasped outwardly when a burning sensation started at the back of my skull. I grasped at her wrists and leaned into her touch as she looked through my mind, seeking comfort and support as the burning sensation grew stronger.
My memories of the past few months flashed across my mind's eye and then my memories of home followed. Susan saw everything from my life at home, including the truth about the Doctor's life being a fantasy story on the television. Then a burst of blinding white light flashed across my vision. As soon as it dissipated, I saw the spiraling colors of the vortex surrounding me and flying past me.
Susan suddenly pulled away and we stumbled apart from each other. I pressed one hand against my forehead and used the other to brace myself against the console. My skull felt like it was simultaneously on fire and recovering from a hit from a hammer. Memories that I had couldn't remember flooded through my brain and I gasped haltingly.
I was in the vortex again, trapped in an endless current of time and space as I tumbled through the universe. I was still seventeen, newly introduced to the Doctor's universe after being ripped form my home. I was screaming and crying as gold light surrounded my body like regeneration energy. My body jolted painfully as the vortex ripped my body apart and placed it back together with its very essence in my blood. The pain wouldn't stop. It lasted for years that stretched on like eternity.
My eyes flew open to see Susan leaning over me, her eyes gazing worriedly at me. During my alarmingly realistic flashback, I had apparently collapsed on the floor of the console room. She pulled me to a sitting position and smiled comfortingly at me. I looked past her to see the Doctor staring at me in shock. The lights overhead had dimmed significantly and flickered every few seconds.
"What happened?" I asked.
"The TARDIS," the Doctor said in English. "Apparently my ship has taken a liking to you. She turned off the translation circuit so we would realize you were telling the truth. Or at least partially."
I sighed and rubbed my eyes under my glasses. "So… you're still speaking Gallifreyan, but the TARDIS is just translating it in my brain?" I clarified.
The Doctor nodded and turned to look up at the scanner, which still had Gallifreyan writing on it. While he looked over the writing, Susan helped me stand up and steady myself. I leaned heavily against the console as the ache in my head began to subside.
"I'm sorry for hurting you," she said softly. "I accidentally unlocked some memories that you had repressed from your time in the vortex. From before you met Grandfather."
"Did you see them too?"
Susan nodded seriously. "Yes. I'm sorry."
I shook my head and smiled reassuringly at her. "No, it's fine. You didn't mean to."
"But it seems you are older than you think," she added after a moment.
"I am?"
"You know how you felt as if you were in pain for years and years?" I nodded silently as I recalled the terrible memory. "It wasn't just a feeling. You were stuck in the time vortex for close to fifty of your Earth years."
"What?"
The Doctor turned around to face Susan and I again. His hands were grasping at his coat lapels and he had a thoughtful expression on his face. He mumbled something under his breath and then stepped forward to approach us.
"The TARDIS has been analyzing your body since the first moment you stepped onboard, which is far in the future for myself," he began. "She has analyzed your DNA before and after each instance in which you make these 'time jumps'."
"Wait, how do you even know this?" I asked.
"She told us. When the ship turned off the translation circuit, she showed all the information on the scanner to show us that you were indeed telling the truth about your time traveling abilities."
"How did she prove I was telling the truth?"
The Doctor thought for a moment before he answered me. "While you are a human, your DNA has been entirely rewritten. It resembles human DNA, but is not the same anymore. Your DNA has been rewritten with chronon particles, which you saw in the memories Arkytior released in your mind."
"So, what are chronon particles?" I questioned.
"Not much is known about them, even on Gallifrey. They are very advanced parts of our universe, and very difficult to understand. What is known about them is that chronons are somehow released by time travel, but time travel also requires chronons to work." When the Doctor saw the confused and partially blank expression on my face, he sighed and rolled his eyes. "They are particles that are necessary for time travel to work and somehow, when you came to this universe, the vortex tore your body apart and rewrote your DNA with these time travel particles. That is why you can jump from time to time, space to space, without a ship or a time vortex manipulator. But that is also why you can't control it. The vortex controls these particles, not you."
"At first we thought there was something wrong with the ship," Susan interjected. "Or I did, at least. Because you didn't exist in this universe, the time vortex should have destroyed you."
"So why didn't it?" I asked.
"You see, chronon particles can be blocked or even bounced around, usually by a TARDIS or by a special-purpose device. By doing that, you could keep a person or object from being erased from existence even if their presence has been destroyed or never existed."
My head reeled from all the information the two Time Lords were giving me, but I was somehow able to comprehend it. "So, that would mean something or someone would've had to direct these chronon particles to keep me from being destroyed once I came to this universe, right?"
Susan and the Doctor nodded. "We don't know who would do that or why, but that seems to be the only reason you're alive," Susan told me.
"Okay," I said slowly, "I think I understand that. But… What does any of that have to do with what Susan said about me being in the vortex for fifty years?"
"Something was protecting while you were in the vortex," the Doctor told me. "The same something that directed the chronon particles to keep you from being destroyed and had your DNA rewritten."
I shook my head in confusion. "So? How does that mean that I was in the vortex for so long?"
"It's possible that whatever was protecting you kept you in the vortex for those fifty years to assure that your DNA was properly rewritten. If you had only been in the vortex for a short amount of time, the process might have gone wrong somehow. But with the extended exposure to the vortex and the chronons rewritten into your DNA, it seems that you are protected any time you are exposed to the vortex."
"And," Susan added, "the more exposure you have to the time vortex, the more protection you seem to have."
I looked down at my hands, which were in my lap, and shook my head. "But that doesn't make sense. If I was in the vortex for fifty years, then I'd look older, right? I mean, that makes me…" I paused to count the numbers up in my head. "Sixty-eight. Holy shit, I'm almost as old as my grandma!"
"The vortex seems to be keeping you from aging," the Doctor observed.
" 'Seems to be'?" I repeated worriedly.
He shook his head. "We can only guess at this point. You are the first being in this universe to have such an experience. There is no way to know if what is happening to you is even normal."
My thoughts suddenly drifted to little Hope and my other children. What would the chronons in my DNA do to them? Would they be harmed in any way because of it?
I looked up at the Doctor, panic written across my face. "My children," I blurted. "Will this hurt my children?"
"You have children?" he asked in surprise.
"In my future, yes. But will these chronon particles hurt them? Please, you have to tell me."
The Doctor glanced at Susan in shock. He sighed lightly and looked down at the floor. "I cannot say, my dear. Perhaps, perhaps not."
I jumped to my feet, the room spinning around me as I reached out for the console. "I have to… I have to go. My children…"
"You can't go anywhere!" Susan told me. "After what I did to you, you should rest."
"No," I answered with a firm shake of my head. "I have to know if my children are okay."
"Diana, at least rest first," the young Time Lady suggested. "We can take you to your children after you recover from our mental connection."
"No," I repeated. "No, you don't understand, I have to make sure my children are okay."
Susan rested a hand on my arm in an attempt to calm me. "You're panicking," she told me. "It's understandable. But you should stay here and rest before you go off to search for your children."
"But-"
"Stay," she repeated. "Rest. Please. Grandfather won't mind."
"Actually, child," he began hesitantly, "I don't know if-"
"She should stay, Grandfather," Susan said in a firm tone, surprising both myself and the Doctor. "You know she needs to. And besides, she's our friend."
"We don't even know her," the older Time Lord protested.
"But she knows us. And she cares about us, so we should do the same."
The Doctor held his breath and looked stubbornly at his granddaughter as if their roles were reversed. Then he sighed and nodded. "Very well, Arkytior. She may stay and recover."
Susan smiled and embraced her grandfather happily. Then she turned back to me and led me out of the console room while the Doctor stayed back and watched us leave. I was still trying to fully comprehend everything the two Gallifreyans had told me about myself, which left me a little out of it as a result. Susan guided me to her bedroom and was surprised to find that a new door, that opened to my room, had appeared nearby hers.
She helped me into my room, where I collapsed on the bed with a sigh. My head was starting to ache again, so I closed my eyes and promptly fell asleep before Susan had even left the room.
A/N: The whole chapter is a little messier than I would like, but once I got into I didn't want to stop until I finished. I've been looking forward to this chapter for months now, so I'm thrilled to finally write it.
By the way, all my information on chronon particles came from the tardiswiki page about them.
Anywho, don't forget to review! I did lots of research on technobabble for this chapter. :)