Hi guys! Just a quick note before leaving you to the new chapter.
Currently, the main pairing is Ten x Violet, but as you can see the relationship with Nine will be strictly platonic. Soon I'll decide whether to pair him with another OC or canon character, for now, these are the two possible futures for Nine. If you have any suggestions, feel free to let me know.
-.-
On the day of their departure, the Doctor tried to find a proper destination for the girls' first trip. Much to his displeasure, Violet failed to mention the absolute lack of books on sorcery and even the TARDIS with her usually a vast range of topics had nothing to show.
The sorceress had explained it was useless for them to write down instructions or descriptions on how to use their innate magic because every single individual came up with their kind of enchantments.
"So for example, you can do virtually anything as long as you have an idea of how to make it work," Rose said standing beside the Doctor as they watched with enthusiastic eyes Violet messing with something invisible in her hands.
"Not really. To come up with a new enchantment I need hours of meditation and careful consideration of my power level, not to mention the chance of immediate danger for myself or those around me. It could generate violent radiations of raw power, potentially dangerous for humans like a bomb waiting to explode as soon as the control slips" Violet said.
"It's more complicate than I thought" the Doctor commented pensively, "Can I scan your brain now?"
The sorceress giggled at his eagerness as he jumped up from his spot near the console and took out his sonic screwdriver, brandishing it in the air as he came closer to Violet. She stared at him as the blue light scanned her thoroughly, taking the chance to do an examination herself.
Around the Doctor, the blue strings tied to him were fairly new despite him looking on his forties and were tightly knotted together just under his ear. Violet had never seen a main bundle of strings in such a strange place, usually, they gathered above the heart and clung to the host's skin, but the Doctor had also a strangely high number of smaller knots all around the body. Glancing at Rose quickly, Violet compared them and watched with interest the more complex structure of the Doctor's existence.
Based on the number of strings, it was as if more than one currently resided in his body but for some reason, the man in front of her had taken over the control. She had seen something similar on possessed individuals where the victim has been so chocked in the parasite's strings that two different colors mingled and were tied together.
In the Doctor's case, only one color was visible.
"I was wrong. This body has some use after all" she heard him comment distractedly.
"What do you mean?" Violet asked not knowing if she had to feel offended at the confused frown he was showing off.
"Do you eat? Sleep? Feel pain? Are you even capable of reproduction? I thought your body was only a shell with no biological function, but my sonic detected hormones and normal human development"
"And where did you think she comes from?" Rose snickered, "She has two brothers, obviously a mother and father. Not hard to guess how she was born"
"Maybe aliens have a different way to procreate" Violet smirked, embarrassing, even more, the Doctor as the two females winked amusedly at each other.
"I assure you my kind is one of the few in the universe that has anatomy similar to yours... but why are we talking about this?!"
The sorceress was now laughing without shame and her stomach hurt for the hilarious red face the Doctor was sporting.
"This will be even funnier than I had thought" Rose chuckled.
The only male on the ship groaned at the camaraderie that was forming between his two companions but he was grateful to have so much noise around him after years of loneliness and silence in the TARDIS. Violet and Rose were talking about a demonstration of basic enchantment the former had promised, so it surprised him when the surroundings lit up with small green dots dancing in the air.
"These are pieces of magic that my body exudes regularly. Normally it's invisible, but I like green so much lately that I couldn't resist" Violet smiled as Rose poked one of them and shivered when the cold light touched her thumbs. The dots trembled as they tried to avoid the hands of the Doctor and the human.
"It's normal. Magic has no interest for you if nothing in your body attracts these little ones" she continued, "But they have short life once outside my body. In a couple of minutes, there won't be anything"
"And what happens if you die? Do you even die?" the Doctor asked.
"Physically I'm not much more durable of a human. I think it will come out all at once and then disappear with me"
For some reason, the Doctor felt a bit disappointed. There were so many kinds of people in the universe and unfortunately for him, the Time Lord still had to find someone he could spend more than a couple of decades with. It wasn't necessarily love he was seeking and certainly, he would never do the mistake of getting too much attached to his new companions, but loneliness wasn't easy to bear.
The only bonds he had forged disappeared after the destruction of his home, his family wiped out and whatever future the Doctor had managed to secure with his marriage died all in the same day.
Shaking himself from the pit of despair he was falling into, the Time Lord smiled at the girls as the TARDIS landed.
He had been the one to choose the year of their first trip after Rose asked to see the future and he had a fairly good idea of what to show them.
It was possibly the worst idea he had ever had as soon as he explained what was happening in front of them as soon as they arrived.
"Where are we? It seems like a hall or something" Violet asked as Rose came close to the windows.
Outside in the space, a bit different from the old movies she had seen as a child but still breath-taking, the Sun was a blazing light right in front of their eyes and their planet stood proudly beside it.
"Humans spend all their time thinking about dying. Like you're going to get killed by eggs or beef or global warming or asteroids. But you never take time to imagine the impossible. Maybe you survive. This is the year 5.5/apple/26. Five billion years in your future. This is the day the sun expands. Welcome to the end of the world" he explained sombrely as the blond girl lost her smile.
They had arrived on Platform One and Violet had already the feeling it would be a very depressing trip. Rose mutely agreed with her as the Doctor led them to a hall where a tall man with blue skin and silver clothes greeted the trio with rude words and a frown at their presence at the ceremony.
"Did you ever meet an alien before?" Rose asked quietly to Violet.
"Never. Once my brother Steven saw a small group in Australia, but he never described how they looked like" she whispered back.
"Here you'll see the epitome of the high class in the universe. Just don't stare at them with those faces and you'll do good" the Doctor wrapped an arm around Rose and the other grabbed Violet as she attempted to wander off.
"What face?"
"That one. Like a dead fish" he smirked.
The two girls scoffed at him but relented when he excitably led them in a panoramic room where the majority of the guests were gathering.
The Doctor thought it was maybe the first time a sorcerer and a human joined an important audience for the most terrifying show ever seen. Personally, the excitement he had felt at the beginning was rapidly disappearing as the images of another planet on fire took the Earth's place.
Sometimes he still could hear the roar as it exploded and the despair as he realized he was alone.
Violet saw the strings around his body flickering briefly in a different color but disappeared too quickly to recognize it properly. It was interesting to see how different he was from common humans and sorcerers, maybe it was something aliens developed and she would have the chance to gather some more information about him. The steward had a fairly simple structure of strings, not even close to the Doctor's, but it didn't mean anything if her theory was right.
Violet guessed it was an imbalance of emotions but she wanted to study aliens some more before sharing her theory with him and see if she was right. Not that he would be able to help her, since the strings weren't visible for the Doctor.
He seemed to notice her focus on him and the calculating stare as they waited for the delegations to stop with their chatter.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
"Just thinking. Your biology doesn't make any sense" she commented.
"I could say the same for yours"
The pair smirked at each other before joining Rose as she greeted the first group of aliens coming their way.
-.-
After a long parade of guests and a vast exchange of gifts that resulted in a sprout, spit in one of Rose's eyes much to their amusement and her disgust, and a strange silver ball they saw a huge jar being wheeled through the doors and being introduced as the sponsor of the event.
The Doctor barely paid attention to the big head that floated in the jar but Violet was deeply interested in it, wondering how the complete body of the being in front of her had been. The strings weren't visible much to her disappointment and the sorceress ignored the nagging suspicion it was intentional as she felt his eyes staring at her with amusement.
"Please, welcome the Face of Boe" the steward exclaimed and the guests politely clapped.
But it wasn't the end of things being wheeled in the room because the sliding doors opened once again as what resembled a pink sheet with eyes and red-tinted mouth greeted them with enthusiasm.
"Please, tell me I'm not dreaming" the blond girl poked the Doctor insistently, "Is that an alien too?"
The Time Lord was about to reply but the steward was faster and introduced the Last Human, who seemed to blush under the stares of the guests... even if Violet had the temptation of laughing at the similarity of the woman to a trampoline as Rose had noticed.
The only thing Violet wanted to know was how she was able to survive in that form, but the curiosity wasn't enough to get closer.
Cassandra O'Brien Dot Delta Seventeen was the name and the sorceress could see how funny it was for the Doctor, who barely had the decency to hide behind the short girl. Useless, because she barely reached his chin and the big grin stretched on his lips was painfully obvious.
"Thin and dainty! I don't look a day over two thousand. Moisturize me, moisturize me" she demanded as her own attendant ran around to spray onto the skin.
Rose stared at her with disgust as Cassandra introduced herself as the Last Human once again and proceeded to tell every one of her childhood on the Earth but she could feel there was no real attachment or love for the planet. It was a big show for the sake of strangers and nothing irritated her more than that.
Instead Violet felt only pity and a greatly confused at how small humanity Cassandra displayed at that moment. Being not properly human, she didn't have the same attachment Rose was displaying for the Earth, mainly because the Doctor had been very clear on what happened before this day.
There was no reason to feel sad if the planet had been abandoned for ages by every form of life, but maybe it was only her way to cope with things.
The Doctor nudged her gently as Rose left the room without them.
"I think she's more upset than I had expected" he pouted, "Humans are strange"
"Let's go after her. I'm not comfortable with Rose roaming around on this platform alone, especially since she doesn't know anyone else"
"You're strangely calm about it"
"I just want to end this couple of trips with you two peacefully and without accidents. As soon as we come back to our time, there will be enough troubles with Steven and Finn even without your involvement" the sorceress explained.
Neither of them noticed one of the Trees snapping a photo of both when they passed in front of her.
-.-
"Never leave me with him again, Rose" Violet scolded the blond girl as soon as they joined her, "They moved his TARDIS because it was in the way and he was about to bite the steward's head off. Boys are all the same"
"That ship is the only thing that allows you to go back home. Have some respect for her"
"Her? Doctor, don't tell me you really think your ship is a girl too"
"She's my girl. My loyal and fantastic girl" the Doctor smirked.
"You say humans are strange, but as time goes on, you are more like a man with middle-age crisis than you think"
"Oi!"
Rose felt a bit silly as they argued playfully and wondered why she couldn't be more like them. The Doctor was an exception because she could see he was used to mingling with aliens and humans naturally, but Violet was proving herself to be much more open-minded than her. Not even a second of hesitation or fear in her eyes, even if Rose remembered how she seemed to distrust humans. Paradoxically, the sorceress was more at ease with people like the guests in the hall than their colleagues, who at least had a human form.
Maybe it was the reason why sorcerers feared so much exposure. Just because someone looks like you, it doesn't mean they are a good person.
Rose had the intention soon or later to ask for more details about her family history and try to get Violet to open at least with them. There was a barrier between the two girls that the Doctor hadn't detected but it was still there, despite the amicable smiles and comments they had shared.
"I was wondering, how come they all speak English?" Rose asked.
"It's one of the TARDIS's gifts, a telepathic field. It translates every language I came across inside your brain" he shrugged.
"And what happens if we find a planet you never visited?"
"Unlikely, but in that case, the TARDIS will take some time to elaborate it in a scheme that later will be added to the..."
"Okay, okay. Your ship will do the hard work for us, I get it" Rose stopped him as the Doctor started to give too many details about machines for her taste.
The trio heard the countdown warning but paid no attention to it, none of them interested in joining the party once again when Cassandra the Trampoline was fluttering around like a sheet smudged with makeup.
The Doctor took advantage of the time tinkering with Rose's phone and was making fun of it, much to her displeasure. As he worked on the circuits and swapped the battery with another one he had fished out of his pocket, the whole ship shuddered and Violet lost her balance, falling over the steps beside him with a yelp.
"What was that? Turbulence like those you feel on a flight?"
"There isn't turbulence in the space. Not the kind you're referring to, Violet" he replied, "That's not supposed to happen"
The steward talked through a loudspeaker to the guests, inviting everyone to enjoy the buffet and consider the tremor slight turbulence, but the Doctor knew better. He could almost feel the thrill of danger running in his veins and after centuries of adventures, there was little chance he was wrong. Trouble seemed to follow him everywhere ever since he left his home to travel.
"I want to check the engine room. There is something wrong with the sound this Platform is doing"
"I don't hear anything" Violet frowned, "What sounds?"
"Like metal" one of the guests commented, sashaying forward until she was in front of the Doctor.
"You heard it too"
The woman, or rather the tree, smiled at him. Violet had already noticed the peculiar looks of her group but she was even more marvelous up-close. Jabe, that was the name of the alien in front of her, was too pretty to be a piece of bark in her opinion, but the merge of her features with nature was very interesting to observe.
"Whatever is doing this noise, it's out of your range. I assume human's ears are less sensitive than ours" she commented, "I saw the maintenance duct just behind our guest's suite, but no one of the staff is currently using it"
"This is bad service. My brother would be very cross with this level of organization" Violet smirked, imagining Steven's angry pout whenever his staff messed up.
"Let's go then. I can show you... and your wives"
"I'm not his wife" the girls exclaimed at once, almost laughing at the idea of the Doctor tied down to someone.
"I'm feeling a bit offended right now. You two are rude"
The Doctor really felt a bit offended, but he guessed it was alright. Nothing was more uncomfortable than companions crushing on him, especially after they were rejected. It would be easier for them to part once the interest and the excitement faded away.
"Don't worry, I'll find you a woman" Rose snickered, "You two go and solve this mystery with her, I'm going to catch up with the Tram... I, mean, Cassandra"
Violet nudged playfully the Doctor and pushed him out of the hall after Jabe.
"I can be your wing-woman if you want. She seems very interested in you"
"No thanks. I had a very unpleasant experience with her kind once. If you know what I mean, the physical kind of experience. You don't want to know the details" he whispered in her ear discretely as they followed Jabe inside the corridor.
-.-
Arrived inside the engine room, the Doctor watched with interest the huge fans circulating in there.
"It seems a retro air conditioning system. A bit disappointing to find such old fashioned monstrosity on this Platform, it detracts on the beauty of the place"
Violet whistled in interest and wondered if she would ever have the chance to see the advanced system that pleased his tastes. The Doctor was highly a technological guy, but what she could surmise from all that experience was a giant culture shock.
At that moment, she understood the sadness Rose had felt from the beginning. On the Earth, there weren't many surprises left and everything was comfortably familiar, including the scent of magical air London exuded.
"What is that?" she heard him say as the control panel fell off and something shot out of it.
A silvery thing was rapidly escalating the wall, its sharp claws moving as fast as they could to get away from the Doctor, who was trying to take a precise aim with his screwdriver.
Jabe missed it narrowly, her liana knocking it slightly off balance but failed to grab it.
"Okay, let me try" Violet's hand shot up and the Doctor felt a shiver up his spine at the object falling on the ground with a thud.
"No life in it, Doctor. Just an elaborate piece of metal"
"You fried the circuits!" he exclaimed when he picked what looked like a spider and scanned it with his sonic.
"I trained with my alarm when I was a teenager" she shrugged.
"Let's put aside the memory lane and focus on this now" Jabe protested, "What is that thing, Doctor?"
"An attempt to sabotage the Platform. No, not an attempt... this thing did its work perfectly"
"What do you mean? Do you know what was its task?"
"No, Violet. But I have a bad feeling we'll find out soon. Let's go and find Rose first" the Time Lord said, "I don't want either of you alone and unsupervised"
When they left the engine room the trio was surprised to see smoke and the staff panic outside the steward's office.
"We have to go inside! The sun filter is acting up!" the Doctor heard someone exclaim as they attempted to call for the alien inside the office.
"I think this is the sabotage you were talking about" Violet gasped, "Do something about it, I'll go and search for Rose. Maybe she's still in the hall with the other guests"
"Good idea, but stay away from them. Wait for me in the TARDIS if you want" he replied, giving her the key.
Luckily for her, Rose was searching for them too and bumped in Violet just in time to hear the final announcement of the computer that warned of the last five minutes before the Earth's death.
"What's happening?! Everyone in there is complaining about the temperature of the room and the steward doesn't answer the calls"
"Someone is trying to fry us"
"And where is the Doctor?!"
"He's trying to fix the problem and ordered us to stay away from the windows and the guests. I find it demeaning" the sorceress commented, "So, I'll go in the hall to see who acts funny"
Needless to say, the Doctor wasn't particularly happy to see the girls doing the exact opposite of what he had suggested, but refrained from commenting at that moment.
They arrived just in time to hear Cassandra the Trampoline accuse the Face of Boe, who watched with absolute calm the Doctor tinkering with the fried spider in hand. It was as if he was waiting for him to talk.
"Normally, it would be easy to find the master of this little pet, but since someone butchered it..." he sent a playful glare to Violet, "I'll have to use another special trick. You see, this little guy has a circuit that receives information from a remote. It's not enough to give the orders, in case of problems there has to be a way to hide the traces or self-delete itself. This way, whoever has the remote soon will receive a little shock"
Violet didn't know what he did to the spider, but soon one of Cassandra's attendants squeaked.
"A little anticlimactic, Doctor. I expected someone more clever" Jabe commented, "This is not what I had imagined"
"You see, once I met the Adherents of the Repeated Meme. Adorable people, but with a particularity. They died of starvation almost a century ago" he smirked, "They were very religious and clingy to their faith, so when the community-run out of their sustenance, they simply withered away. Strange to find survivors here"
"I never heard of such tragedy" one of the guests commented.
"But of course! I wouldn't expect you to know every species that dies out there" he snapped, bitterly staring at Cassandra, "You simply used the name of someone else to bring your pets inside the Platform and put under the cloak a puppet"
The Doctor ripped off the arm of one of them and pointed his sonic to disable the connection, finally turning off the five impostors.
"I bet you were the school swot and never got kissed" Cassandra replied snootily, ignoring the thunderous glare the Time Lord was directing to her, "Oh, well. My spiders have control of the mainframe. Soon the safety systems will be destroyed and I'll teleport away just in time to see how your deaths will bring me enormous income thanks to your rival companies"
The Doctor didn't lose time with the guests panicking in the hall and instantly rushed out to go back to the engine room where the ventilation system was rapidly failing.
Jabe ran after him as Violet faced the Trampoline with a smirk.
"If you think I'll let you go so easily, you're wrong. No one will leave this room until the Doctor returns"
"Let me tell you, dear, that you'll regret this stunt of yours. My boys will melt that pretty face out of your skull at my command"
"I don't think so" Rose snickered, as she knocked out one of the attendants with a punch and left the other to Violet's capable hands.
"If we burn, you'll come with us" she smiled as energy crackled around her fingers excitable.
Absently Rose glanced at the Face of Boe, who was smiling at them with sadness, and wondered if there was something she was missing. He had followed them with his intelligent eyes all the time and now he was the only one who wasn't reacting to Violet's actions.
The girl had just locked the doors and smirked at Cassandra when the teleporting failed.
"You have to ask permission before leaving the classroom, naughty girl"
Rose was astonished by her confidence in taking the lead in the situation. The Doctor was right when he said the sorcerers were pure power trapped in a mortal body, but still, it surprised the human girl how similar Violet and the Doctor were but at the same time different.
The young woman in front of her was like a feral beast waiting for you to stick the arm in its den and to bite, while the Time Lord seemed more friendly dealing with humans, but there was inherent dangerousness in his eyes that for a second appeared when he talked about Cassandra's tricks.
The temperature in the room increased dangerously as the filters struggled to work properly.
"Girl, you have to let us go!" Cassandra shrieked, feeling her skin pulling uncomfortably from the metal frame that held her up.
"Have some faith, everyone!" Rose exclaimed, "The Doctor will soon..."
"Heat levels, rising. Heat levels, rising" the computer warned them as the glass cracked.
"We're going to die!" a particularly fat and irritable blue alien exclaimed, his hands flapping around in panic.
Violet released her enchantment on the doors and fearfully ordered everyone to leave the hall, even if she knew it wouldn't make it better. The window was about to collapse and thin tendrils of scorching sun-rays melted whatever they found in their way.
"Come on, Doctor!" Rose begged, avoiding narrowly being burned on the spot while Violet closed the door of the hall.
But the door didn't do anything to block the sun-rays that pierced through the metal and caught the very same blue alien, making him scream in pain as his body burned.
"I'm not equipped for this!" Violet cried, "Not even an enchantment that can protect us from sunburns"
Rose, despite the tragic moment, let out a dry chuckle.
"Then if we come out safe and sound, do your research and invent one, will you?"
Just as the countdown was almost over they felt the ventilation begin to work once again as the force fields around the Platform switched on. The Earth had run out of time, but at least they were safe.
"Exoglass repair. Exoglass repair"
"He did it. He did it!" Violet exclaimed as her arms wrapped around Rose and hugged her tight.
"Let's go and find him!" the blond girl rushed away from the other guests.
The Doctor was leaving the maintenance corridor when they found him, a grim frown on his face and a dark cloud in his eyes as if he was ready to descend in the battle against a foe.
Violet had a fairly good idea of who he was going to face but allowed the Time Lord to do his thing. Whatever he was thinking at that moment, she had no wish to stand in his way and find out.
It's funny how an alien could make her shiver in anxiety when usually it was Violet to inspire fear in others.
"You are a murderer, Cassandra. People died for your dirty interests and usually I'm all for giving a second chance, but pity has to be earned"
"None of us feels particularly generous right now" one of the trees commented angrily as he noticed Jabe's absence, "Where is Miss Jabe?"
"I'm sorry. She was trying to help and the heat was too much for her. I couldn't save her life" the Doctor replied.
"Another of your victims then, Cassandra" Rose stated with a sneer.
"Take me to court then. You call them 'people', but I have a different idea and that is all I need to win. Watch me smile, cry, and flutter ..."
"And creak?" the Doctor added, a part of him guilty for the absence of sadness he felt as the skin shriveled up and dried.
"Moisturize me! Oh, God! Moisturize me, I beg you!"
"Everything has its time and everything dies. Something you can't understand apparently" the Doctor said and winced in disgust when Cassandra ripped in pieces, skin flung everywhere, "Let's go, girls. I had enough of this place"
-.-
The trio left the Platform, fully determined to never look back.
"You know, you never mentioned your planet. We know you're a Time Lord, but other than that..." Rose asked.
"I lost it. Everything and everyone died during a war, now there's nothing more than rocks and dust. We lost and I'm the only survivor. The Last Time lord in an endless universe"
"But now, you're not alone. There's me... and Violet" Rose said gently.
The Doctor didn't say anything but Violet figured he would open up more as time passed. There was no need to force him and upset the alien even more.
She bid them goodnight and retired in the bedroom he had shown her earlier. Maybe some meditation would help her to clear her thoughts a bit.