Dearly beloved readers,

Hello! I've gone back and deleted a bunch of the old author's notes from over the years because the things I mentioned in there are no longer current or relevant. Just wanted to say that this story isn't going to be updated anymore. I've tried to rewrite and reimagine it like 3 or 4 times now and have finally settled on a proper working.

The new version of Once Upon Another Time is... Wish Upon Another Time! I already have 17 chapters posted, over 100,000 words, and the rest of the first book is already planned out. Diana Scott is now Di Summers, she's 25 years old, she got thrown in to the Doctor's universe and she's trying to figure out her new life. Doctors 1-13 plus War and Fugitive will be featured, probably also 14 once his episodes start airing in the distant future. I'm really passionate about this new version of the story because my writing has improved, my plots have improved, and I'm aiming to take a more realistic approach to grief, violence, and sexuality. (Yes, once they're officially together, Di and the Doctor will have a sex life, but I will likely post the steamy chapters separately, we'll see).

I still get people following and favoriting this story and I'm so honored and pleased that you're all still enjoying it all these years later! If you want to see how Diana's story is reborn and continues on, please do check out Wish Upon Another Time. I would love to keep the story alive for you and hopefully you'll enjoy it as I post!

In fact, here's a little snippet from the latest chapter (as of August 27, 2022) to pique your interest, The Fires of Pompeii:

The Doctor was watching Evelina. He was thinking so hard that I could practically hear it. "Consuming the vapors, you say?"

"They give me strength," she insisted with all the pride and composure she could muster.

"It doesn't look like it to me."

Evelina almost seemed to smile. "Is that your opinion as a doctor?"

The Doctor inhaled sharply through his nose, but he didn't move a muscle. "I beg your pardon?"

"Doctor. That's your name." Evelina's weary, heavy-lidded eyes flitted to me. "As yours is that of the wild moon goddess."

The skin of my arms prickled and raised into goosebumps, and my heart thudded painfully in my chest. I'd been expecting her to soothsay the Doctor's pants off, but hadn't considered she would be able to do the same to me.

"How did you know that?"

She continued, considering Donna with the same empty eyes. "And you. You call yourself Noble."

Evelina's mother paled as she squeezed her daughter's shoulders. "Now then, Evelina. Don't be rude."

"No, no, no, no," the Doctor interjected. "Let her talk."

"You both come from so far away, you even more so." Evelina blinked at me as her eyes grew watery. But it wasn't just her eyes that were empty, it was the rest of her too. She swayed in her mother's arms like a sheet in the breeze. "Farther than even the gods can reach."

From behind us, Lucius chuckled. "The female soothsayer is inclined to invent all sorts of vagaries."

My hands curled into fists at my side without me even realizing. What I wouldn't give for that man to shut up and keep his misogyny to himself.

The Doctor, however, seemed as casual and calm as ever. He had his hands buried in his trouser pockets as he drifted from foot to foot. "Oh, not this time, Lucius. No, I reckon you've been out-soothsayed."

"Is that so, man from Gallifrey?"

And just like that, the calm was broken. The Doctor's head snapped to the side, the tails of his coat catching my legs as he moved. "What?"

"The strangest of images. Your home is lost in fire, is it not?" I wanted to smack the smirk little look off Lucius's face more than anything. How could anyone be so cruel as to ridicule a genocide? Lucius looked at me, quirked an eyebrow and smiled. "Like hers, lost in the folds of the universe."

Donna's voice was distant and echo-y. "Doctor, what are they doing?"

My knees buckled and I swayed into the Doctor's shoulder, breathless and sick to my stomach. I could just make out the Doctor's arms as they curled around me. Blood was rushing in my ears and my chest was aching and my eyes stung; everything hurt. The last thing I wanted to think about was my family, my universe, my home, the last thing I wanted to hear was the confirmation that those things were lost to me.

"This is the gift of Pompeii," Lucius boasted. "Every single oracle tells the truth."

"That's impossible."

Lucius's voice dropped and he sounded altogether wicked, as if there was the hint of a promise of violence in his words. "Doctor, she is returning."

"Who is?" His arms tightened painfully around me and I moaned, but didn't fight him. I couldn't find the strength. "Who's 'she'?"

"You wander the springtime and starlight," Lucius continued as he fixed his eyes on me, "waxing and waning with the moon. But the Summer approaches."

"Stop it," I hissed. The Doctor rubbed his thumb against my shoulder blade. "Don't you dare use my name like that."

"And you, daughter of London. There is something on your back."

I could hear Donna take a step back and the trembling breath she took. "What's that mean?" Her voice was shaking. "Doctor?"

"Even the word Doctor is false." This time, it was Evelina. She stepped forward, out of her mother's reach, with a burning fierceness in her eyes and her chin held high. "Your real name is hidden. It burns in the stars, in the Cascade of Medusa herself." The Doctor was trembling, too. I could feel him shaking against me. "You are a Lord, sir. A Lord of Time."

A wave of chills overwhelmed me, rattling every inch of my body with the realization of being laid bare before someone and seen in the deepest of ways. Evelina staggered forward another step and she reached for me with tears on her cheeks. She looked through me like I was nothing, curled her hand into a fist and seemed to pull me to her with the force of her mind. I pushed myself out of the Doctor's arms and followed the pull, terrified and awestruck all at once.

"The sepia skies await you, Summers girl. And... the Division."

I blinked and Evelina crumpled to the ground, nearly landing at my feet before I managed to catch her. My legs buckled under her sudden weight and I dropped to my knees with her still in my arms. Her mother rushed forward in distress, the Doctor was beside me, pushing my hair out of my eyes and cupping my cheek, they were speaking and crying and fussing over us, but I couldn't hear or make sense of any of it. I slumped back as Evelina was taken into her mother and father's waiting arms and stared unblinking at a spot on the Doctor's tie.

The Division. Evelina's voice kept echoing inside me. Division. Division. I thought of the Fugitive Doctor and the Thirteenth Doctor and her fob watch and Tecteun and the Master and the Time Lords sent to arrest me for a crime I didn't even know about, and burst into tears. Evelina hadn't been talking about the Doctor. She'd been talking about me. Division awaited me.

I hope to see you sweet, wonderful, lovely readers soon!

All my love,

Artemis Sherwood