Chapt one
The air was hot as the busy cosmopolitan street bustled with life. The unforgiving, white-hot sun blazed down as the people of the city went about their daily lives, be it as a high up official or one of the many street sweepers who did what they could to make a living. The heat was almost overwhelming but there were plenty of corner cafes where people sat and watched the world go by.
The city was called Evanglia, and it was on the planet of Corsika, a beautiful place at the edge of one of the many universes that stretched across the blackness of space and into infinity. People from every planet walked Evanglia's main avenues and got hopelessly lost in its maze of winding back streets. Corsika had originally belonged to the Corkasians, a race of magical beings who rode about on huge dragons, but now anyone was able to settle down. It had become a major tourist sight and number one place for action and excitement, even if you were only looking for a job.
The sun continued to burn down on the heads of the people who traipsed along, looking for anywhere in the shade. The tall Destryians with their tigers bodies, flaming eyes and human torsos were stalking along, gazing suspiciously about, as past them pushed Kilopans, clumsy beasts covered in thick, black fur. They were practically burning up in the street, their fur dripping with what everyone could only presume was sweat. Hundreds of other aliens were going about their daily business.
Charcoal watched everything from the shade of a café parasol. She leant back in her plastic chair and sipped placidly at her ice-cold lemonade. She was young, slimly built, with pale skin and charcoal black hair- her namesake. Her eyes were green and sharp. How old she was could be anyone's guess, the different people of the city aged at different rates, but by human standards she was about twenty. But she wasn't human. Far from it. She was a time lord, one of the last surviving time lords in the whole universe, all the universes in fact. Other races hadn't minded the time lords, some had quite liked them, but Charcoal was permanently on the run from any unfriendly creatures that wanted to finish her off for good. Charcoal was safe though, she was able to pass herself off as a Umber Lady, a race of magical creatures who looked just the same as time lords, except they had no organs as their bodies were fuelled with magic, but as long as she didn't go near a X-ray machine she was fine. She nodded to the waiter at the café who promptly bought her another lemonade, this time with Malibu in it. Charcoal had perfected the art of telekinesis ages ago- well you had to if you were going to impersonate one of the Umber successfully. She carelessly stirred the drink as another wave of intergalactic tourists passed by, grunting in their deep language. Charcoal could understand all languages due to her strong telekinesis powers and a small, red post box that stood just across the street.
Sighing, she stood up and tossed a few coins onto the table. She had already spent a week in Evanglia. She didn't want to stay put for too long or the beings that was chasing her would catch up. She used to love travelling, soaring through the time vortexes, riding the intergalactic waves, but now the fun had worn off and all she wanted to do was curl up and die somewhere, but life kept relentlessly dragging her on. She carefully weaved her way across the road and leant casually against the side of her post box. After looking around casually to check that no one was glancing in her direction she closed her eyes and willed herself into the SIDRAT. When she reopened her eyes she was standing inside a large room that was painted a violent shade of magenta. The railings and control panel of her space ship were decked in fairy lights and there were blankets, pillows, rugs and clothes strewn everywhere. There were bottles of nail varnish leaking over important looking buttons, hair bands over everything and hairgrips and pins strewn about like dust. The whole place looked like a shopping mall after a sale. Charcoal picked her way over to the kitchen area, a raised platform at the edge of the main room. She opened the blender and picked out the stray hair bands that had somehow ended up in there, then she opened the fridge (a recent edition to the ship as Charcoal had discovered an addiction to strawberries) and pulled out a small dish of strawberries. She tipped them all into the blender, then looked around for something else to add. After a few moments later the blender contained not only strawberries but also some cream, a bar of chocolate, a pomegranate, some toffee ice cream and a tube of lip gloss that Charcoal tended to lick off rather than wear. She shoved on the lid and flicked on the switch. The blender roared into life as Charcoal jumped down from the platform and walked over to the central computer, scattering clothes as she went.
She sat down and kicked the panel underneath hard with her foot. The screen flickered onto life and a large word appeared on the screen.
OUCH. Charcoal rolled her eyes. Out of all the TARDISes she could have picked she had chosen an eccentric one that insisted on spelling it's name backwards and answered back. She ignored it and logged on to the British governments database, skipping easily past the blocks and passwords that flashed up in front of her.
WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO TIDY UP? Complained the SIDRAT. Charcoal continued to ignore it and scrolled through the files. That was interesting, there had been numerous disappearances that had been covered up…
YOU KNOW YOU CAN'T STAY HERE. THEY'LL CATCH UP WITH US. Charcoal could not ignore the flashing box that kept flicking up all over the page.
"Will you stop that!" She growled as the SIDRAT started to play Elvis Presley music very loudly. "And what if they already have caught up with us? What if it's them behind the disappearances?"
YOU ARE OBSESSED. SERIOUSLY, GET A LIFE, I'M SURE YOU'RE BEING PARANOID.
"I'm being obsessed?! It's always you going 'they're gonna catch up, quick we gotta get out of here…" The computer screen flickered in an offended manner. "And," she added, "I can't believe that I'm arguing about this with a computer…"
I'M NOT A COMPUTER! The screen said.
"Yeah," said Charcoal leaning back, "You keep telling yourself that." She closed her eyes. She knew that the things chasing her were there with her on Corsika, she could sense them closing in. And she brought them there, so she'd have to get rid of them. Anyway, she thought as she got off the computer chair and laid down on the old sofa, she was tired of running away. She stretched out, ready for a catnap.
AND WILL YOU GET YOUR KNICKERS OFF THE DASHBOARD.
Chapt two
"So you have absolutely no idea where we are?" Rose stared at the Doctor in disbelief as he pushed past her to check on some instrument or other. He was calm as ever but Rose could sense that something was up.
"Well," he replied after he'd flicked a switch, "We're definitely somewhere. Coffee?" Rose shook her head. The Doctor obviously was just as in the dark as she was.
She looked around the TARDIS, her home for the past few months. She had been trying to bug the Doctor into painting it, maybe a nice shade of blue or yellow, but just as he'd give in and agree something would come up and they'd forget all about it, like a fleet of killer metal bugs, or a warped black hole. She turned round to see the Doctor frowning intently at a screen of wiggly lines. He ran his hand through his already messy dark hair as he gazed at the screen.
"Anything interesting?" she asked, hoping that it wasn't bad news. He shook his head.
"I can't make head or tails of this."
"What is it supposed to be?" she asked.
"I'm setting the video." He replied. Rose sighed, men never read the instruction booklet. She ran her eyes down the page and had it set up in a few minutes. The doctor grinned at her gratefully and walked over to the TARDIS door. She followed.
"So…" he said, standing in front of the door without opening it, "So, so, so…"
"So what?" Rose asked, pushing past him and flinging open the door. She found herself out in a little back street. The heat was burning down and the air was heavy and humid. She looked around, very confused. "I thought we were in outer space, not Asia."
"It's not Asia," said the Doctor, following her out, "It's just hot. You humans are so daft sometimes…" shaking his head and muttering about the stupidity of humans he walked off down the street with Rose in tow. Soon they came to a main road and Rose had to use all her will power to stop herself crying out in surprise. All around her were aliens of every shape and size, from little bug like creatures that swarmed around her feet to the huge snake shaped creatures that seemed to roll around on wheels. The Doctor saw her surprise and grinned slyly.
"Asia huh?" he said, gazing down the crowded street. Rose just scowled at him, then something caught her eye. It was a big poster on a stall selling newspapers. It read:
DISSAPEARANCES IN CORSIKA
"Oh of course," said the Doctor, squinting at the poster, "We're in Corsika, now why didn't I guess that?" But Rose was more interested in the first word in the sentence. She walked over and picked up a paper.
"So what's that all about?" asked the Doctor, trying to read over her shoulder.
"Maybe it's why the TARDIS dragged us here." Said Rose scanning the article.
"No, the reason the TARDIS came here was because I thought that, well, oh never mind." He shook his head, looking slightly confused, "So, do we have another Slitheen case on our hands?"
"No," Rose replied without looking up, "These people weren't in very high places, they were just average, boring citizens. That's why it's gone on so long, people just didn't make the connection, but now there's over fifty gone and people are starting to wonder…" Rose trailed off as she read the rest of the article. The Doctor sighed. That was just what he needed; a planet full of rapidly disappearing people. He'd only come here because he had sensed something, very faint, but still there, almost as if…
"Hey!" said Rose, cutting through his thoughts, "The family of one of the missing people lives round here, we should go check it out." The doctor was still lost in his thoughts.
"Why?" he asked blankly, staring into the middle distance.
"Because," said Rose exasperatedly, "That is what we do, we are like the intergalactic police." The Doctor shook his head then followed Rose down the road.
It was hard to keep up with her. She had lived in a city all her life and was used to dodging in and out of crowds, but the Doctor was less experienced.
"Sorry, oh yeah, sorry… whoops, sorry…" By the time he caught up with Rose her was totally worn out. She just smiled teasingly at him and rang the doorbell.
"Hello?" the woman who came to the door was middle aged and slim. Her dark hair was tied up and she was wearing an apron. Rose couldn't help noticing that she also worn mostly black and she had large, dark circles under her eyes.
"Hi!" the Doctor said smiling, he held up a small slip of paper. It was psychic paper. The viewer saw whatever they expected to see on the paper, be it a passport or maths homework. The woman glanced warily at the paper, but then visibly relaxed.
"Ah, yes, do come in Detective Inspector." She said, ushering them both inside.
"And this is my assistant, PC Tyler." The Doctor explained for good measure.
The house was small and neat and reminded the Doctor of Jackie Tyler's flat back in London. The walls were all painted different colours, as if the decorator had seen too many episodes of Changing Rooms. The woman ushered them into the living room and then bustled off to make tea. The Doctor and Rose looked around in interest. There was a wall almost covered in family photos all featuring the same five people, one young girl, two identical twin boys, a cheerful looking man and the woman.
"Sugar?" The woman smiled at the Doctor and Rose. They both shook their heads and the woman settled down on the couch.
"Right," said the Doctor, "I'm going to ask you some seemingly obvious questions, but don't worry, that is only procedure." He pulled out a pencil and notebook from his jacket pocket and handed them to Rose with a meaningful glance. "So, firstly, what is your name?"
If the woman was surprised at the question she didn't show it. "Ella Peterson." She replied. Rose jotted it down.
"Occupation?" the doctor asked.
"I'm a hairdresser." She answered, "And I do a bit of sewing for extra cash now that," she sniffed, "Jamie's gone." Rose carefully noted that down as well.
"And Jamie was your husband?" Ella nodded sadly.
"When did he go missing?" The Doctor asked, his head cocked to one side. Rose suppressed a grin, the doctor was in his element, he loved interrogating people.
"On Friday 18th last week, he said he was going to the pub but he never came back." Ella's eyes were filled with tears.
"Did you have an argument?" Ella shook her head.
"How do you know that he hasn't just walked out on you?" said the doctor, feeling incredibly mean.
"Because," said Ella, "They found his phone and briefcase on the floor just outside the pub."
Chapt 3
Charcoal looked around the crowded alleyway. She stepped out of the doorway and walked along in the general direction of the SIDRAT. Following up on the disappearances had been easy. With her bit of psychic paper and a stolen police uniform she found it only to easy to get into victim's houses and question them. The more she found out, the more she was convinced that her pursuers were behind the disappearances. That gave her a reason to stay at least. She liked Evanglia and wasn't in any hurry to move on.
The street was, as always, more crowded than a public space shuttle, but Charcoal hardly noticed. Her mind was picking up something strange, something that couldn't really be true. She shook her head to clear it, and then looked up. High above the city was floating a huge space ship. This wasn't uncommon but it was pretty impressive sight all the same. Charcoal slipped on a pair of ordinary looking sunglasses and pressed a button on the frame. Suddenly the lenses on the inside transformed into screens. Data was flowing over them as Charcoal looked up at the ship. She sent a telepathic message to the glasses and the image on the screen altered. Now legible words were scrolling past her eyes, Unknown Ship, Possibly dangerous. Charcoal frowned. How could it be an unknown ship? It had to be registered to someone. Again she sent a message to the glasses, prompting them for more information. Ship is around twenty years old. Built on the planet Kinnara/83. Charcoal gaped. It was them, they'd managed to catch up, but how? She stepped away from the shadow of the ship in horror. Oh, now it made sense all right, why the people were disappearing, why the SIDRAT was so on edge. She turned and ran.
WHERE WERE YOU? The SIDRAT was the only place Charcoal could think of to run to. She scanned round the messy room. I really should tidy up, she thought, then she scolded herself, if she didn't get away soon they she wouldn't have enough limbs left to tidy anything. YO! ARE YOU BLIND? READ THE BLINKING MESSAGE! The writing on the screen was indeed flashing angrily, Charcoal smiled weakly.
"You were right," she said as she picked up a pair of jeans that she hadn't worn for about sixty years, "They've found us."
WHO?
"The gas men." Retorted Charcoal, "Who do you think?" The SIDRAT made an odd clunking noise, which Charcoal knew to be its way of huffing and puffing. She paced up and down the kitchen platform, racking her brain for al options. She could run away, escape like she always did, but this time they were actually damaging the planet, and may not leave. She could stay and fight, and probably die. Or she could make herself a smoothie. She opted for number three.
SO WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO? Read the screen as Charcoal walked over with her chocolate, strawberry and shampoo smoothie.
"I have no idea. Can I phone a friend?" she joked, thinking of that weird game show back on earth.
YOU HAVE FRIENDS?! Wrote back the computer. It was meant to be funny but it cut Charcoal deep inside. No, she didn't have any friends, they were all dead. She sometimes felt that she could never get involved with anyone without something happening to them. First all her family back on Galifrey, then her friends from other planets, even random people she talked to in bars tended to end up dead about a week later. Her life had started spinning out of control years ago, before she'd even noticed it, and that was the only thing that was keeping her alive. I'M SORRY, I WAS ONLY MESSING ABOUT. Said the computer, sensing her sadness. Charcoal shook her head.
"Nah don't worry about it." She said. Still holding her empty smoothie glass in one hand, she typed on the keyboard. On the screen appeared a picture of the giant spaceship, hovering over Evanglia. She breathed in. She'd have to fight them. Now it was getting personal. They were stealing human bodies to create an army, making them all into clones. They'd done it before, but this time the Daleks weren't going to get away with it.
Chapt four
The Doctor and Rose sat at a table at a street café, watching the world (or rather worlds) go by. Rose was sipping at a Diet coke with lemon. She had been surprised to find out the Coca Cola company had spread out over the universe like a puddle of oil that no one had bothered to clean up. She loved the busy city and hope that they could stay for a while, but she could sense the Doctor getting more and more restless. He seemed to be permanently on edge.
"Hey!" she said brightly. The Doctor jerked his eyes away from a red post box on the other side of the road and looked at her. "Um, I was just going to ask, well, what are you planning to do next?" He shrugged. He hadn't liked the look of the giant spaceship floating above Evanglia. It was almost like a repeat of the Christmas Invasion, only this was on a different planet, at a different time, in a different set of clothes ("Pyjamas? What was I thinking?!"). And besides, it was a very different ship. This one was larger, better built and also was a more recent design.
"Well, I guess we should stick around, you know, save the screaming people, take the credit at the end…" He tried to sound carefree but his heart wasn't in it. He felt that he had lost something, and it was very nearby, but he couldn't work out what it was. He returned his gaze back to the post box. He didn't know what was so special about it, it was just an average post box, but something was strange about it.
"Hang on!" he cried jumping up. Rose looked startled and a few people turned around. "Why is there a post box over there? There isn't even a post service on this planet- everything is done by email!" He ran over, pushing people out the way as he went. Rose followed, apologising for the Doctor's rudeness. When she got to the other side of the street she found the Doctor already crouching down beside the post-box, using his sonic screwdriver to scan it. Rose looked around. She was aware that some of the creatures were giving the Doctor strange looks, not surprising really as he had started muttering to himself quite loudly.
"But it can't be… I mean, where could it have come from?" He turned to face Rose, a strange expression on his face. "It's emitting a very high rate of radiation and energy waves."
"And that means…" prompted Rose.
"Well, I know that it's totally mad but, well, I think that it's a TARDIS. I mean, its got the right frequency waves, it has a gravitational aerodynamically righted system," Rose could have sworn he'd made that one up, "And it's chameleon circuit's gone. Like mine, it must have been one of the same faulty batch. Which means that it was leaving Galifrey at about the same time as mine, which means…" He trailed off as the impact of what he was saying hit him.
"Which means," finished Rose, "There's another Time Lord." They both stared at each other in silence.
"But," said the Doctor, "We're not certain how it got here, it could have been here for years. Or it might have been bought by some human or something and it doesn't belong to a Time Lord at all." He ran his fingers through his hair, causing it to stick up at weird angles, "Hell, we don't even know that it's a TARDIS. It could just be a post box with an odd amount of radiation coming from it…"
"Yeah," said Rose sarcastically, "Maybe someone posted an atomic bomb. But didn't you say that there wasn't a postal service on his planet?" The Doctor shrugged helplessly.
"We really need to bring my TARDIS here so that it can communicate with this one."
"Ah, a family get together?" said Rose.
"In a way," replied the Doctor, "But people would notice a huge blue box appearing out of nowhere. This one must have been here for at least a couple of days as no one notices it." Rose suddenly felt a prickling at the back of her neck, they were being watched. She glanced casually around, trying to locate who it was, but she couldn't see anyone who was taking any interest in them.
"C'mon," She said, "Lets go get some food." They walked away from the mysterious post box, but Rose still had the feeling of being watched.
Chapt five
"Crap." That was all Charcoal had been able to say for the last five minutes, "Crapitty, crap, crap, crap."
YUP, WE GET IT NOW. IT'S CRAP. GREAT. Charcoal had watched on the computer screen as a man and a girl had looked all over her SIDRAT. The man even used an old sonic screwdriver to try and un-code the ship's data. And she'd listened to the conversation. The man was a Time Lord. One of her kind. And that was why Charcoal was stuck saying one word.
She was genuinely amazed about the whole thing. She'd always thought that she was the last, now she was only second, to last. She had no idea how she felt about that, her brain had gone numb.
YO! YOU ARE DOING A FANTASTIC IMPRESSION OF A STONE PILLAR. GIVE THAT GIRL AN OSCAR.
"Oh shut up." Charcoal said to the ship, finally finding her voice, "And what do I do?"
GO AND INTRODUCE YOURSELF.
"And what exactly am I supposed to say? Hi I'm a Time Lord too, we must have a lot in common!" She sighed a ran her fingers through her hair.
GO AND ASK FOR SOME SUGAR. OR SOME MILK. TELL THEM YOU'RE THEIR NEW NEIGHBOUR.
"You watch far too many human soaps." Sighed Charcoal. She walked to the kitchen platform, knocking over a pile of dirty clothes as she went, opened a cupboard and pulled out a bottle of red wine. She unscrewed the cork, threw her head back and drunk straight out of the bottle.
YOU SHOULDN'T DRINK ALL THAT. Said the computer as she downed two vodka's and a bottle of Pina Colada in the space of five minutes.
"What? Aren't I old enough?" She laughed hysterically, then her smile faded, "I just don't know what to do."
WELL DRINKING YOURSELF SILLY ISN'T GONNA HELP. SERIOUSLY THOUGH. GO AND SEE THEM. Charcoal shook her head. She wasn't ready to meet them yet. She'd been on her own for so long and she couldn't revert back so quickly.
"Anyway," she said, "I have the Daleks to worry about first. I already know they're building up a new army using human flesh, they've already done that once before." She delved under a pile of old clothes and blankets and pulled out a note book, and she found a biro in the fruit bowl. "Right," she said, making a brainstorm on the paper, "Well, they'll be making all the little gloopy Daleks up in their ship, and that is damned near impossible to get into anyway, so we'll try to avoid doing that…"
WE? WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE?! I WANT TO STAY HERE! YOU KNOW I'M SCARED OF SCARY THINGS WITH LASER BEAMS!
Charcoal ignored the flashing message. "But they won't be making the armour and guns on the ship, they'll have a factory somewhere, so that's where we'll have to strike."
NO WAY! NO FREAKING WAY AM I GOING INTO A FACTORY FULL OF ARMOUR AND GUNS AND DALEKS. Charcoal glared at the screen.
"You know, considering that you're an ancient post box with lasers of your own, the ability to dematerialise and more force fields than a Hurenian army, you are being a complete coward. How do you think I feel?"
I'D BE SURPRISED IT YOU FELT ANYTHING AFTER ALL THAT ALCOHOL YOU'VE DRUNK. Charcoal just turned away from the screen. She was scared. All the other times she'd fought the Daleks she'd won by pure luck, but now her luck was sure to run out, but she knew that, whatever happened, her old SIDRAT would do everything in it's power to save her. They were on longer machine and driver, they were best friends, and they trusted each other, even if the SIDRAT did make bad jokes. It had saved her life more that once, and she was pretty sure that it wasn't going to stop any time soon.
AND FOR THE LOVE OF BLINKING CHOCOLATE MILKSHAKES WILL YOU PLEASE REMOVE YOUR JEANS FROM THE RAILINGS? IT IS INCREDIBLY DISTRACTING. Charcoal was rooting around in the immense pile of clothes for her Green Day CD.
"Have you seen…" she began.
IT'S IN THE FRIDGE.
"What!?" shrieked Charcoal.YUP. AND IF YOU DON'T CLEAN THAT NAIL VARNISH OFF THE FLOOR NOW THEN NICKLEBACK WILL BE NEXT… THAT WEIRD SHAD OF PINK IS SO NOT MY COLOUR…
Chapt six
The Doctor and Rose were back inside their own TARDIS. The doctor was pacing around and continually messing up his hair.
"I knew it! I knew something was pulling me here! It was that TARDIS!" he grinned happily at her, "We should so go back and check it out in more depth."
"But what about the disappearances and that weird ship hovering over the city?" said Rose, "Are we just gonna forget about them?"
"I don't see how we can just forget them. I mean it's not like it's blocking out the sun or anything…"
"I meant metaphorically forget about it." Said Rose. She got up from the rail she'd been leaning on. The Doctor stopped pacing. He headed towards the door, beckoning for her to follow. They stepped out onto the street… and the most horrific sight met their eyes.
There were dead bodies everywhere, no one had been spared. The Doctor walked out slowly into the street, gazing around in horror. Rose followed, equally stunned. There was no blood, but each creature had a stunned expression on their face.
"Oh my…" Rose gasped as she looked down to see a young human child spread-eagled on the floor. She was no more than five or six, her face showed an expression of pure terror. Rose stepped away quickly, tears pricking at her eyes.
"Quick Rose! Get back to the TARDIS now!" The Doctor and Rose turned back and were confronted with something worse than the bodies. Daleks. They were surrounding the TADRIS, their metal armour gleaming in the sunlight. Rose stifled a scream as she and the doctor backed away slowly. The Daleks didn't move. Rose stopped and looked at them carefully.
"Are they alive?" she asked. Slowly she inched towards them. Still they did nothing. She reached out one hand…
"Stop human or you will be exterminated" Rose almost jumped out of her skin. She quickly backed of and dodged behind the Doctor. He had whipped out his sonic screwdriver and was pointing it at the nearest Dalek.
"Is that the best idea that you have?" muttered Rose over the Doctors shoulder.
"Nope." He said, "But it's the only one that would work." He raised his voice and spoke to the lead Dalek, "What do you want?"
"Take a guess…" hissed Rose.
"You will die now." The Dalek said.
"Oh what a cliché," the Doctor said, playing for time, "Come on, like I've never heard that one before."
"We will destroy your soul and scatter it to the far reaches of the universe."
"Ok…" frowned the Doctor, "That was oddly specific. Weird." He frowned at the Daleks confusedly, "so are you going kill us or what?" None of the Daleks moved. The Doctor frowned in confusion.
"Maybe it's their day off?" suggested Rose.
"Yeah, and maybe your mum won the lottery." Retorted the Doctor, "No, there's something up with them…"
"will you hurry up and run away." Said a voice behind them. A girl with long charcoal- black hair was glaring at them. Her face looked strained, as if she was carrying a huge weight. "It's pretty hard keeping all these Daleks frozen, I'd like to see you try it."
Chapt seven
"Move!" Charcoal cried, grabbing the Doctors sleeve and pulling him away from the Daleks, but at that second they started to move.
"Exterminate." They began to move forward towards, all chorusing with the same word.
"Bugger that!" Shrieked Charcoal, "I've lost them." Suddenly a blue beam of light shot out of one of the Dalek's lasers. It was aimed straight at Rose and would have hit her if Charcoal hadn't put out her hand and created a small force field barrier.
"How the heck did you do that…" said the Doctor as they ran as fast as they could into the street.
"Er," replied Charcoal. The Doctor didn't know what she was yet, and it was going to stay like that, for the time being anyway. "I took lessons back on Earth," she said, deciding that pretending to be a human would probably be an easier option. The Doctor raised one eyebrow but didn't say anything.
"Where are we going?" said Rose, panting hard. Charcoal glanced behind her. The Daleks were nowhere to be seen. They were back in the centre of town, where the Daleks hadn't attacked yet. The people here were milling about in confusion. They'd heard rumours but none of them truly what had happened in the back streets.
"We should try to blend in with the crowd." Said the Doctor.
"Since when did you learn to blend in?" asked Rose.
They made their way over to the corner café where Charcoal liked to sit. They all ordered drinks and pretend to look relaxed, but all five of their hearts were racing. Nervously Rose scanned the street with her eyes, looking for any glint of metal or flash of blue laser.
"Hey!" said the Doctor, making Rose jump about a foot in the air, "We never introduced ourselves, I'm the Doctor and this is Rose. So, what about you?" Charcoal breathed in as her quick mind started coming up with lie after lie.
"Well my name is Charcoal, er, Smith." The Doctor cocked his head to one side. When he needed a name he called himself John Smith, but then again, it was a common name. That was the point. It had to be a coincidence, he had no reason to suspect her of anything. "And," she continued, "I'm from the planet Earth."
"What year?" Said the Doctor.
"What country?" Said Rose at the same time. Charcoal looked at them not sure which question to answer first.
"Rose first." Said the Doctor, seeing her hesitation.
"Uh, America." She said, thinking of the first name that came into her head. Well at least she'd actually said the name of somewhere on the right planet.
"Ooh, classy!" said Rose, "Where in America?"
"Uh, Manhattan!" She said with triumph, who said reading human books was a bad idea? She'd have to thank the writer of All American girl at some point.
"So why haven't you got an accent?" Said the Doctor, staring intently at her with his liquid brown eyes.
"Er," she faltered, caught out. Why hadn't she said England? "I lost it…"
"Very careless!" said the Doctor, leaning back and laughing, "So, what year?" Charcoal sneaked a quick loo at Rose, trying to judge what time she was from.
"2010" she said, crossing her fingers for luck.
"Cool," said Rose, "I'm from 2006. We were, well are, alive at the same time on Earth!"
Charcoal relaxed. The date had been close enough, and the whole lack of accent thing had been forgotten, so maybe it wasn't going to be as hard as she first thought.
"So where did you get the anti-shatter reflector shield then?" asked the Doctor, looking at her with an unreadable expression on his face. Charcoal's hearts sank. Now what was she going to say? She looked away to clear her mind.
"They're coming!" Screamed Rose, jumping up.
The whole street was filled with screaming people all running away in one direction. Soon Charcoal could see why. The Daleks that they had seen were earlier were hovering down the street, herding the crowd, shooting anyone who couldn't keep up. The people were terrified, screaming and yelling. Even the biggest of the aliens didn't dare mess with the Daleks- everyone knew what had happened to the last species who had stood up to them.
"Run!" yelled Charcoal, practically dragging Rose and the Doctor along with her.
She pulled them into the heart of the crowd, making them a hard target for the Daleks. As they ran the crowd began to get smaller. Creatures began to fall back with exhaustion and then they were shot down by the perusing Daleks. Charcoal knew that the Doctor and herself could keep going for ages, but she could see out of the corner of her eye that Rose was beginning to trip and stumble. She suddenly understood the Daleks plan. They would force then to run until they were the only ones left, then they'd have them, exhausted and unable to fight. But all the while, with every person brought down, they'd be able to create a few more Daleks. Charcoal still carried on running, but her mind drifted away. She remembered the first time she had run from the Daleks.
She'd been young and frightened. The streets of Gallifrey had been filled with Time Lords running for their lives. It was everyone for themselves, no one had stopped to help anyone else, they all had to save their own lives. Charcoal had been running with her little sister, Star, when they found themselves alone, running along the quay towards a departing spaceship. It was just about to take off and they both had to run with all their energy to reach it. Star had screamed and Charcoal had looked around. There were three Daleks following them, all with their lasers ready to shoot. As if in slow motion Star tripped and fell. She hit the floor and rolled over, looking at the Daleks closing in on her. Charcoal didn't stop running, she put her life first, she had to reach that ship. She swung her self on board and looked over her shoulder. Star was on the floor, her face alight with fear, hurt and disbelief as the Dalek laser beam hit her. That was the last time Charcoal had ever seen Star, but she still lived with her sisters face in her mind. She could have saved her, but fear had driven her on. That was what the Dalek's preyed on, acts of fear and desperation.
Chapt eight
Charcoal felt Rose trip beside her. She turned and saw Rose falling to the floor, just as her sister had done all those years ago. The Daleks were closing in. Charcoal turned and saw the Doctor's face. It was a mask of conflicting emotions, he was in the same position as Charcoal had been, but she wouldn't make that mistake again.
She spun around and, pushing the other aliens out of the way ran back to Rose. She made sure not to look at the Daleks as she knelt down next to Rose.
"You ok?" She asked, keeping her voice low and calm.
"My ankle." Muttered Rose, "Just go." But Charcoal didn't leave. She put Rose's arm round her shoulder and dragged her upright.
"Nope, I'm not doing that again." Charcoal looked up. The Daleks were still, about a meter in front of them, just waiting.
"Oh bugger off." Muttered Charcoal, trying to help Rose limp away. The Daleks followed slowly, their lasers still out. Rose frowned, what was going on here? The Doctor was standing at the edge of the street, waiting for them. He was also confused, as the Daleks followed like three docile puppy dogs. He glanced at Charcoal and saw the strained look back on her face. When the girls reached him he gently picked up Rose and then looked at Charcoal.
"There is no way that you're human." He said to her, "I don't know how you're controlling those Daleks, but we've to get to somewhere safe and I'm trusting you on this one."
Charcoal started to walk away backwards, her eyes firmly fixed on the pursuing Daleks. She might as well let her secret out. She gestured for the Doctor to follow her and he did. As they turned the corner she ripped her eyes away from the Daleks and yelled, "Run! I've let them go, they'll try and follow." She and the Doctor, who was still carrying Rose ran as fast as they could towards the street where the SIDRAT was parked.
All the streets were eerily empty as they ran, their footsteps echoing off the stone walls. The Daleks had cleared up the dead bodies and taken them to be processed into new Daleks. Rose felt sick, she remembered this, the Daleks were using the same idea twice. Soon they were running back they way they had come. Charcoal was praying that they wouldn't run into any stray Daleks, but so far their luck was holding.
Soon they found the street that they café was in. It looked as if nothing had ever happened. Charcoal ran up to the red post box and got out a set of car keys. She pressed a button and the post box went blip blip and a little light flashed. She grinned at the Doctor, "Bit of new technology, I nicked it off some human guy's Ferrari." He just gaped at her. "Right," she continued, "Close your eyes and I'll teleport you in." Both the Doctor and Rose closed their eyes obediently, and Charcoal got to work.
Chapt nine
Charcoal had never before realised how much of a tip her SIDRAT actually was, but as the Doctor and Rose opened their eyes and gazed around in amazement she found herself surreptitiously hiding pairs of knickers and bras under piles of, well, knickers and bras.
OH MY GOD! SO SHE DOES HAVE FRIENDS. NOW WILL YOU TIDY UP? AND BY THE WAY, THERE'S NO USE TRING TO HIDE YOUR KNICKERS BEHIND THE FRIDGE, WE CAN STILL SEE THEM.
Charcoal blushed and glared at the screen.
"Awesome!" said Rose, walking over to it, "It kind of talks!"
WELL WHAT DID YOU EXPECT? I HAVE A LIFE. Charcoal snorted loudly.
MORE OF A LIFE THAN SHE DOES ANYWAY. COFFEE ANYONE?
"No," said Charcoal.
"So you have a TARDIS?" The Doctor said, still trying to take it in.
YO! I'M A SIDRAT YOU MORON. AND SHE'S THE LAST TIME LORD. HOW COOL IS THAT? AND WE FIGHT STUFF TOGETHER.
"Actually," Charcoal said, to no one in particular, "I'm last but one Time Lord." The Doctor and Rose continued to stare at her.
"But, but that's impossible…" He stammered, "I thought I was the last…"
YEAH, I KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN, LAST BUT ONE JUST DOESN'T HAVE THE SAME RING TO IT…
The Doctor gazed round the SIDRAT, a smile starting to spread over his face. "I guess you don't really have many people in here?" He looked away pointedly from a pair of knickers on the stairs.
ONLY ALL HER BOYFRIENDS. JEEZ, IF YOU'D ONLY SEEN ALL THE THINGS I HAVE…
"Oh shut up." Charcoal said, bashing the dashboard, "Sorry, he likes to natter." She began to clear away some clothes, shoving them all in one corner. Rose started to help and soon the SIDRAT started to look more respectable.
HEY! OVER HERE! BIG FLOOR TO CEILING SCREEN, PLEASR READ IT! JUST TO WARN YOU, THERE ARE A LOAD OF DALEKS CROWDED ROUND ME AND AS YOU KNOW I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY DON'T LIKE DALEKS MUCH AND I WAS WONDERING IF WE COULD GO SOMEWHERE… LIKE DISNEY LAND.
"I don't really want to burst your happy little bubble but I'm pretty sure that they'll notice a post box magically appearing in Disney land." She said, dashing around like the Doctor did, flicking switches and altering settings, "And," She carried on, "We brought them here so we've got to get rid of them…" she busied herself with the controls.
OH LOVELY. WE GET TO STAY HERE AND BE BLASTED TO BITS BY DALEKS. JUST WHAT I WANTED. CHARCOAL, I'M SCARED. I DON'T WANT TO BLASTED TO BITS BY DALEKS.
"You won't have to worry about the Daleks in a minute because it'll be me murdering you if you don't shut up." said Charcoal, still messing about with leavers. "Doctor," she said, turning around to face him, "The SIDRAT and I were thinking that we should head for the plant where they make the Dalek's armour, that way we'll be able to attack them at their weakest."
WHAT DO MEAN THE SIDRAT AND I? I WANT NO PART IN THIS! BUT I DO WANT A BAGEL. AND SOME TOMATO KETCHUP. THAT WAY I CAN HAVE A SNACK AND ALSO PRETEND TO THE DALEKS THAT I'M DEAD, BY SQUIRTING A BIT OF KETCHUP ABOUT. SORTED.
Charcoal shook her head. "I'm sorry," she said to the Doctor and Rose, "He never shuts up, especially when he's freaked out."
FREAKED OUT? ME? I JUST WANT TO GO HOME.
"Join the club." Said the Doctor sadly.
Chapt ten
"Ok," breathed Charcoal, "I've set us to go to the co-ordinates of where the plant must be, no other factory could be putting out that much radiation."
AN ATOMIC BOMB FACTORY? A MICROWAVE FACTORY? A WHOOPEE CUSHION FACTORY? Everyone ignored the SIDRAT.
They all had their own tasks. Charcoal was in charge of driving, co-ordinates and basically getting there in one piece. The Doctor was head of what they were going to do when they actually got there, but he was sitting with his head in his hands, moaning about something or other to do with gravitational fields. Rose was surfing the net for other outbreaks of Daleks in the recent past, or near future.
"Well, there doesn't seem to be any record of Daleks anywhere on here." Rose said, frowning at the screen.
GOOD JOB TOO OR WE'D PROBABLY BE OFF TO FIGHT THEM.
"But it's weird…"
OF COURSE IT'S WEIRD, DALEKS ARE WEIRD THINGS. THIS WHOLE PLANET IS PRETTY WEIRD, ACTUALLY YOU'RE PRETTY WEIRD.
"How am I weird?" Rose growled at it, still scanning the web page.
COS YOU FANCY THAT DOCTOR GUY. HE'S A MINGER.
"Oi!" said the Doctor, looking over to see how Rose was getting on and seeing the huge screen, "I'll have you know that this isn't my true body, I'm a lot more handsome than this. You're right though, this body has weird teeth…"
"Look guys," cut in Charcoal, "Fascinating as this whole jolly conversation is, can you please have it after we've saved the world from the Daleks." She turned to the Doctor, "I see what you mean about the teeth, but at least you have nice eyes."
OH GOD. AM I THE ONLY ONE HERE WHO DOESN'T FANCY THIS GUY?
"I don't." said Charcoal, "And I'd be pretty worried if you did, considering that you're supposed to be a guy."
SUPPOSED TO BE A GUY? WHAT IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN? I SUPPOSE THAT YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE A GIRL.
Charcoal just shook her head and turned back to the dashboard."Ok, we're almost ready to land, be ready."
READY FOR WHAT EXACTLY? OK, NOW I'M REALLY SCARED. CAN WE GO BACK IN TIME AND PRETEND NONE OF THIS EVER HAPPENED? PLEASE. I'LL BE NICE TO YOU FOREVER.
Charcoal opened a hidden cupboard in the wall and pulled out three hand guns. She gave one to each to the Doctor and Rose, and put the remaining one in her belt. The doctor opened his mouth to say something but Charcoal cut across him.
"Yeah, I know these won't do much against the Daleks, but they'll kill the little squishy thing inside."
ONLY IF YOU CATCH IT WITHOUT ITS CLOTHES ON, IN THE SHOWER PERHAPS? THIS IS A REALLY BAD IDEA…
But none of them were reading the screen. They had their eyes closed and were being teleported out by Charcoal.
When the Doctor opened his eyes again he found himself standing in a large courtyard looking at a huge dilapidated warehouse. The windows were dirty and some were shattered. There was plants climbing the walls and they was rubble and disused machinery everywhere. It didn't look as if anyone had been there for at least fifty years. He looked at it, confused. Had they got the wrong place? He turned to look at Rose and Charcoal. They both looked as bewildered as he felt.
"Is this the right place?" whispered Rose. Without answering the Doctor walked quietly over to a window and peered in. He stayed there for a few seconds, just looking in, before he gestured for Charcoal and Rose to join him.
Charcoal squinted through the window, and breathed in sharply as the strange sight met her eyes. However disused the old place looked on the outside, the inside told a very different story. Charcoal was looking into a huge room filled with humming machines. The walls were all shiny sheets of metal, and so was the floor. As she looked around she was surprised to find that there wasn't a single Dalek to be seen, or any other life form for that matter. Even the machines seemed to be asleep.
Carefully she pulled herself through one of the broken windows, landing on the floor a few feet below like a cat. She stood up and gazed around, her trained eyes looking for any sign of movement. After a few minutes she was satisfied that the room really was empty and she beckoned for the Doctor and Rose to come in. They did this a little less elegantly than Charcoal herself had, the Doctor crashing to the floor with a pained yelp and Rose landing on top of him.
"Sorry." She giggled, pulling him up.
"Shhh." Whispered Charcoal, putting a finger to her lips.
They tiptoed through the room. By the time they'd got to the other side Rose was almost in hysterics. The Doctor's Converses had rubber soles and squeaked on the metal floor like mice, making him and Rose practically crack up laughing. Charcoal rolled her eyes. Oh why hadn't she come on her own? She pressed herself flat against the wall and peered around the corner. It was another empty metal corridor. She stalked silently along the edge, ahead of the Doctor and Rose who were sauntering along the centre of the corridor, both chatting quietly.
"So you came. Exterminate." They all jumped around to find that a Dalek had come up behind them.
"Run!" screamed Charcoal and they all raced down the corridor. The Doctor was waiting for the laser to hit his back, killing him instantly, but nothing came. He reached the door at the far end and flung it open he held it open for Rose and Charcoal. As Charcoal ran past he could see the strained look back on her face, and looking back down the corridor he saw the Dalek frozen to the spot, unable to move.
Chapt eleven
They were on a kind of metal balcony above a huge room with a door on each of the four walls. In the centre was a colossal machine that groaned and hissed. The room was filled with Daleks, hovering about, each doing a job to do with the machine. The two Time Lords and Rose knelt down on the platform, trying to look inconspicuous, knowing that if any of the Daleks saw them now that it would all be over. Not even Charcoal could stop that many of them.
Suddenly the door on the left wall opened and into the room came a stream of Daleks all pushing things that looked suspiciously like shopping trolleys. It would have been funny if it had happened at any other time, in any other place, with any other creatures. "Oh my god…" breathed Rose as she realised what was in the trolleys. They were filled to the top, and in some cases overflowing, with dead bodies. The dead bodies from the city of Evanglia. Each of the Daleks went up to the machine and tipped the bodies into an opening which the three on the platform couldn't see.
The machine started to make a crunching sound, and waves of heat began to roll off it, but still the Daleks continued to unload trolley after trolley into it. The Doctor could feel Charcoal shaking beside him. He put an arm around her shoulders.
After about five minutes the Daleks stopped unloading trolleys and all lined up around the machine, at the side nearest the balcony. Suddenly a door opened on the machine, displaying a burning furnace, and a conveyer belt was pushed underneath it. There was silence in the room apart from the hissing and spitting of the furnace. The Doctor watched in horror as out of the fire came a little, pink squishy blob. It fell onto the conveyer belt and was carried down to where another Dalek had pushed an empty suit of armour. The squishy little Dalek fell into the armour with a little splat and the lid was closed on it, locking it in.
The Doctor felt sick. He looked at Rose sitting beside him. She was gazing fixedly at the new Dalek, her face a strange shade of green. He turned to Charcoal, realising that his arm was still round her, and found her with her face buried in his shoulder. The shivering had stopped but she was sitting so still that the Doctor wondered if she had fainted. He shook her gently and when she looked up at him he nodded towards the door. Her eyes were red, her mascara was smudged and her face was pale. She got up unsteadily and looked over the balcony, down to where the whole nightmarish process had begun again. She would have fallen over the edge if the Doctor hadn't grabbed her round the waist and pulled her out of the door and back into the corridor. She hugged him, the fear coursing through her body and mind. He held her and looked over at Rose, who was staring in horror down the corridor. Daleks were filling the end of the corridor, all of them with their lasers trained on Rose.
"Don't make any sudden movements." Whispered the Doctor, fumbling behind him for the door handle. Charcoal was standing still in the middle of the corridor, her eyes not really taking in anything. Rose was backing away from the Daleks, not daring to look away from them for a second.
Carefully Rose backed through the door, followed by the Doctor who was dragging an unresisting Charcoal by her arm. Back on the balcony, the Doctor closed the door and turned around to the rest of the room… and looked at what Rose and Charcoal were already gazing at. All the Daleks in the room were staring up at them through their blue periscope like lenses.
"Ah Charcoal, so we finally managed to catch up with you." Charcoal couldn't have said which Dalek had spoken, it could have been all of them, "And the Doctor and Rose Tyler. Our Brothers have told us of you." The door on the balcony opened and all the Daleks from the corridor surrounded them. The two Time Lords and Rose all huddled together in the centre of the circle of Daleks.
"What do you want?" Said the Doctor, already knowing the answer.
"To exterminate you."
Chapt twelve
Charcoal looked at the Daleks, her soul raging with uncontrollable hate. They'd killed everyone she cared about and now they were going to get her to. She could see the Doctor out of the corner of her eye searching, in his pocket. He took out his sonic screwdriver and pointed it at the leading Dalek.
"Come any closer and I'll turn you into a tin can- the humans always did need help with their recycling." He added thoughtfully. The Daleks all stared at him, waiting for orders. Charcoal was staring her mind to put a force field around the Daleks, stopping any commands getting through. "Well, hurry up, we don't have forever," said the Doctor, "Well actually we do, but I promised Jackie that I'd bring Rose back for her aunt's birthday." Still the Daleks didn't shoot them.
"Commands…" Said the front Dalek.
"Doctor, we need to go, I…" Charcoal started, the force field becoming harder to hold by the second.
"Commands?" said the Doctor, not aware that Charcoal's force field was slipping rapidly, "Ok, how about… Go and make me a cup of tea. No? Ok, go and throw yourselves off a very high cliff? Still not good enough? How about…" At that point Charcoal managed to gasp the force field problem to Rose, who grabbed the Doctor and pulled him back through the door to the corridor, where the other Daleks were waiting. In a mad panic rose pulled them all back through the door to the big room. After that she decided that there was no point in stopping and kept dashing to and fro between rooms, until the Doctor, who had been watching her in amusement, grabbed the hood of her zipper top and pulled her to a stand still.
Charcoal watched Rose with a kind of detached interest. The force field was holding back commands to over a thousand Daleks. She could feel it slipping, like sand through an egg timer. The longer she held it, the more energy it used up. She was starting to feel dizzy, as if she'd been under water for a long time. The room full of Daleks was spinning, the commands battering the force field, battering her soul. Suddenly she felt a jolt and her mind shattered. It was broken.
The Doctor sprang forward and caught Charcoal as she fell to the ground. Rose looked out at all the Daleks. It sounded as if they were all screaming, a long, metallic sound. A white light was surrounding them, and as she watched, they were splintered into a million pieces. Rose looked away from the Daleks to where the Doctor was leaning over Charcoal. The same white light was surrounding Charcoal, making her look like a pale ghost. The Doctor slowly stood up and backed away until he was standing next to Rose, leaving Charcoal in her puddle of light on the floor. The Daleks were still screaming, but they were slowly fading into nothing. Soon there wasn't a single Dalek left in the room, only the big machine, that was now silent and disused. It was eerily quiet, and Rose would have loved to get out of there as soon as she could, but Charcoal was still glowing on the floor.
"Oh, by the way," Rose muttered to the Doctor, "she was using a force field to stop the Daleks, I think it may have got too much for her."
"Ah, that would explain everything." Said the Doctor, still watching Charcoal with interest. Suddenly the light around Charcoal glowed a blinding white, and the Doctor and Rose had to cover their eyes. When Rose removed her arm from her face Charcoal had gone. In her place was a very pretty girl, about nineteen by human standards. She had long, blonde, curly hair and vivid blue eyes. Suddenly she lent to the side and threw up all over the floor.
"Oh crap," she moaned, "I hate regenerating."
Chapt thirteen
"I'm gonna be sick again!" The new Charcoal threw up very neatly into a bush out side the factory. She was supported on either side by the Doctor and Rose as they made their way out.
"So where are the Daleks now?" asked the Doctor when Charcoal had stopped retching.
"Uh, I flung them into the Fourth Universe of West Yorkshire." Said Charcoal. Rose didn't ask. She'd heard weirder. "Y'know, the one that's about to go to get eaten by the Great Genip?" The Doctor nodded knowingly.
"But how did you fling them to Yorkshire?" asked Rose, not at all sure what the answer was going to be.
"Oh, well," Said Charcoal, pausing to rest on an old rock, "A force field is like a egg timer," the Doctor nodded wisely, "You stick to it and you get nice eggs, or basically, it does what you want it to. But, if you break it then you get ruined eggs, and a yelling at form whoever's egg timer it was… and everything gets thrown in the bin! That's where the Daleks have gone, in the bin!"
"Yorkshire?" asked Rose, confused.
"Not a bit like your Yorkshire," the Doctor reassured her, "This one is fifty feet underwater, built on top of a volcano and plagued by very fat mermen, oh, and now Daleks." Rose just shook her head.
The SIDRAT was parked right where they had left it. Charcoal unlocked the door, let them all in then went and collapsed onto a pile of clothes, blankets and assorted make up.
OH MY GOD! YOU'RE ACTUALLY ALIVE! Y'KNOW, I WOULD HAVE COME AND HELPED, BUT, I'M LIKE, TOTALLY SCARED OF DALEKS. HEY, WHERE'S CHARCOAL AND WHO'S… OH, RIGHT. TIME LORDS ARE SO WEIRD.
"Oh, thanks." Said the Doctor, leaping up onto the kitchen platform and putting the kettle on, "And we coped pretty well on our own actually."
UH HUH. SURE. THAT'S WHY CHARCOAL IS NO LONGER CHARCOAL, I'LL HAVE TO START CALLING HER BLONDA.
"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!"
MOUSE IN DA HOUSE!
Charcoal was standing in front of a mirror that had suddenly appeared out of the wall. She was screaming her head off.
"Oh my god. I'm blonde!" she cried, as if someone had just said that she was a man.
"It could have been worse," said the Doctor, putting an arm round her and staring at her reflection in the mirror, "You could have been ginger."
GINGER MINGER!
"Oh shut up you," said Charcoal, rounding on the SIDRAT, "That is totally unhelpful and dumb. In fact, you are totally unhelpful, I could have died in there and where were you? Out here, perfectly safe. You're a post box for heavens sake! A Dalek isn't going to hurt you."
FINE. WELL LETS SEE HOW YOU DO WITHOUT ME.
Suddenly all the lights went out and the power went offline.
"Hm," said the doctor through the darkness, "I think he's upset."
"Hey, I was joking!" said Charcoal turning on the emergency lighting.
DON'T CARE.
"Oh, come on!" Said Charcoal exasperatedly.
NO. YOU'VE CHANGED. YOU'RE MEAN.
"Of course I've changed, I'm a Time Lord. And I was just a bit stressed. Everyone seems to want to kill me."
I DON'T CARE. I DON'T LIKE YOU.
"Hey, look, I'm totally sorry…"
I'M NOT LISTENING. LA LA LA. Suddenly a huge message appeared on the screen:
SULKING IN PROGRESS. GO AWAY. Charcoal flicked switches and pushed levers, but nothing she did seemed to make any difference.
"I think he's ignoring you…" Ventured Rose, before getting an exhausted look from Charcoal.
"Yeah, weird that. I seem to spend most of my life in Coventry." she moaned.
"Great place that, great shops…" said the Doctor, dunking a digestive biscuit in his tea. He didn't notice the withering looks he got from Rose and Charcoal.
"Fabulous." said Charcoal, glaring at the screen, "I am stuck here until my spaceship is on talking terms with me again. Just super."
The image on the screen suddenly changed- the SIDRAT had a very short attention span.
OUT OF MY MIND. BACK IN FIVE MINS.
"Grrrr." Charcoal collapsed back onto her pile of stuff, "I need beauty sleep. Or at least some regenerative rest." She closed her eyes and was immediately sucked into a state of almost unconsciousness.
"We should get back to Jackie." Said the Doctor, getting up and walking over to the door.
"What?" exclaimed Rose, looking at Charcoal's limp form, "We can't just leave her here. What if some other alien tries to kill her? And she's the last Time Lord apart from you!"
"Who said anything about leaving her?" The Doctor pushed open the door to reveal the inside of the TARDIS.
Chapt fourteen
"Ok, let me get this straight, this Charcoal is like a female version of you and she's regenerating, like you did at Christmas?" Jackie Tyler was sitting on the sofa in her front room, next to her daughter Rose. The Doctor was slouched in the armchair, drinking a cup of tea.
"Yup." He replied, "I would have taken her to a hospital or somewhere, but I figured here was best."
"Yeah," agreed Rose, "And she can't go anywhere until her spaceship starts talking to her again." Jackie didn't ask anything else. She was used to the Doctor and Rose popping in and out with hardly any notice, so she always had the spare room made up, and as for having her home used as a hospital, well, it could be worse.
"Does she need anything?" ventured Jackie, "Like you needed a cup of tea."
"Oh!" exclaimed the Doctor, "Of course. But what? All time Lords are different. What if it's something really rare, like celery?"
"Celery's not rare!" Said Rose.
"It was on Gallifrey," Said the Doctor, "No-one liked it so we stopped growing it. I mean, the only things that eat it are rabbits and humans with severe dieting problems." The Doctor and Rose lapsed into silence as they tried to think of anything that Charcoal may have said she liked.
"How about I go and ask the SIDRAT?" Said Rose, "It might talk to me." The Doctor flicked her the keys and she went down the hall to where the SIDRAT was posing as the airing cupboard. The TARDIS was being Jackie's room, which had given her a shock about three times before she got the hang of having a spaceship (or even two) in the house.
"Hey," smiled Rose at the screen (DON'T MAKE ME MAKE YOU CRY. LOOSER.), "I don't suppose you know what food charcoal needs to come out of her regenerative coma do you?"
ROSES ARE RED, VIOLETS ARE BLUE, THIS POEM IS STUPID AND SO ARE YOU."Hey! There's no need to be rude." Said Rose, "It's just that we need to bring her round before the doctor gets bored of the scenery here. Honestly," she continued to herself, "Time Lords are a complete nightmare. And two of them is going to be double the fun, and what if they get together and…"
SORRY I WAS MEAN. I JUST GOT UPSET. I SHOULD HAVE HELPED YOU AT THE FACTORY, BUT I'M NATUARALLY TIMID. I NEED ONE OF THOSE EMOTION THINGIES THAT THE CYBERMEN HAVE.
"Oh, don't worry about it. I'm sure Charcoal won't mind. If anything she seems pretty resigned to it."
YEAH, SHE'S COOL. OH, TRY STRAWBERIES, SHE'S LIKE, TOTALLY ADDICTED TO THOSE.
After a quick trip to Tesco, Jackie was stocked up on enough strawberries to feed a small army. She shoved the lot in the blender and turned it on to full pelt.
"This'll cheer her up, hey Rose. She'll be feeling better soon. At least we don't have an alien spaceship hanging over our heads this time." She said, thinking back to when the Doctor had been the one occupying the spare room. She tipped out the smoothie and passed it to the Doctor who carried to the spare room where Charcoal was curled up. Her hair was spread over the pillow like a halo and her hands were clenched into fists. The Doctor gently turned her head towards him and waved the smoothie under her nose.
"There we are!" He grinned as Charcoal's electric blue eyes flickered open. He passed the glass to her and she downed the lot, sucking in her cheeks as the sharpness hit.
"Yummy," she said, licking her lips. Rose told her about the SIDRAT forgiving her.
"Excellent! Now I can get out of here!" she smiled, but it flickered when she saw the Doctor's expression.
"You can't just leave!" he exclaimed. Rose and Jackie swapped smug glances, "I mean, you'd be a great member of our team!" He said, shooting a I do not fancy her look at Rose, which she blanked, "Right Rose? Tell her she'd be cool! And you'd have someone to obsess about Jonny Depp with."
"Come with us, it'll break the Doctor's heart if you don't!" she grinned.
"Which one?" Smiled Charcoal, ignoring the Doctors denials, "Sure I'd love to come along. Where to?"
"Anywhere but Yorkshire!" Laughed Rose.