And here we have chapter one! Ngl, I really love writing for the Tinkerer.


The Tinkerer sat up with a groan. They were never doing that again.

They needed a drink, something fizzy with a curly straw, that sounded really good right about now.

"Are you alright?" A woman's, at least the Tinkerer assumed it was a woman, voice asked.

They twisted their upper body around to find three people staring at them, two men and the woman who spoke.

One of the men was wearing a pinstripe suit and there was something familiar about him- something the Tinkerer couldn't put their finger on.

"I'm perfectly fine, in tip top shape actually, besides the fact that I could go for a fizzy drink right about now. Oh! And some crisps." They stood up, brushing themselves off with their hands. "Mm, crisps sound really good right about now."

Something flashed in the pinstriped man's eyes, almost like disbelief. The Tinkerer didn't see it, however, because they were looking at their hands.

They wiggled their fingers. "Ooh, fingies!" they exclaimed as golden regeneration energy came off of their hands.

The pinstriped man's eyes widened. "...Tink?"

"Who's Tink?" they asked, looking up at the man. "Is that me? Do I go by Tink now? That's exciting!" They spun around in a circle.

"You know this woman, Doc?" the other man asked.

Tink stopped spinning, glaring at him, and opened their mouth to speak, only for the pinstriped man to speak before them.

"Tink uses they/them pronouns," he explained, his voice full of shock and disbelief.

"Indeed I do!" they said, giving a little wave, only for a thought to occur to them. "Where am I? Last I remember I was working on a TARDIS."

"Well…" the pinstriped man said. "It's the end of the universe."

"Ooh! That's exciting!" A puff of regeneration energy escaped from their mouth as they spoke.

"What is going on?" the woman from earlier asked.

"Oh, I had forgotten about you," Tink said.

"Martha, Jack… meet the Tinkerer."

"At your service!" Tink bowed.

"The Tinkerer? Like… the Doctor?"

"Possibly?" they said, their nose scrunching up. "I've never met him, personally."

An awkward silence fell between the four of them.

"Then how does the Doctor know you?" the woman asked.

"The Doctor knows me? Since when?"

"Tink… I'm the Doctor," the pinstriped man said.

Tink paused. "Really?" they asked, looking him up and down. "Hm… I don't see it."

"But wait," the woman said. "You said you were the last of your kind."

Wait what?

"What does she mean by that?"

The Doctor looked away. "Spoilers."

"Spoilers? What's spoilers?"

"Tink… have you realized what is going on?"

"No? Is there something going on?" they asked, before gasping. "Is it a party? I love parties!"

"Tink… think about what happened on the TARDIS you were working on."

Tink paused at that, scrunching up their face as they concentrated.

Oh yeah, they had absorbed the heart of a TARDIS.

1/10 would not be recommended.

Tink started playing with their hands, which the Doctor noticed.

He sighed and rummaged around in his pockets, pulling out a mixed up Rubik's cube and handing it to them.

"...What do I do with this?" they asked. It didn't look like food, much to their chagrin.

"Solve it while you think," the Doctor explained.

Tink was confused, but did as he said.

"If I absorbed the heart of a TARDIS," they said, starting to put two and two together as their hands worked. "That means I also absorbed the time vortex, which either means I'm now a god or I'm jumping around through the vortex and ending up at random places in a timeline. I hope it's the first one, that sounds exciting!"

The Doctor sighed. "No, Tink, it's the second one."

"As fascinating as this conversation is," the woman said, "Shouldn't we keep going?"

"Right you are, person whose name I already forgot! Let's go!" Tink started walking, only for the Doctor to grab the strap of their overalls to spin them around to face the right direction

~0~0~0~

They didn't know how long they had been walking, but it had felt like ages.

The others were talking about something, but Tink couldn't care less.

They had more important things to worry about.

For example, they were in the process of regenerating. Which necessarily wasn't a bad thing, but they were rather attached to this body, it being their first and all.

They weren't supposed to hold in their regeneration, but Tink did whatever they wanted.

They were jolted out of their thoughts when an arm was put out in front of them, stopping them in their tracks.

"Tink," the Doctor said. "Look down."

Tink did as he said, eyes widening as they saw what looked like a conglomeration below them.

"Ooh, that's pretty!" Tink exclaimed. "I wanna lick it."

The two people that weren't the Doctor looked at them, bewildered.

The Doctor just sighed. "No."

"Why not?" they pouted, before noticing something in the distance. "Is that person being hunted? That sounds fun, me next!"

Tink started to run towards the man, the others following behind them.

"Oh, I've missed this," the man who wasn't the Doctor said.

The four of them caught up with the man, well the Doctor and his group did. Tink kept running towards the hunters, shouting as they did. "Me next!"

"Tink! No!" the Doctor yelled, running towards them, grabbing them by the arm and dragging them away from the hunters.

Tink pouted. "Party pooper."

The Doctor rolled his eyes at Tink, as if he was used to their antics.

The Doctor yelled something to the others, but Tink didn't bother to listen because they were mad at him for stopping them from being hunted.

Suddenly a gun went off, startling Tink and making them jump.

"What the hell are they?" the woman who Tink couldn't bother to remember the name of asked.

"There's more of them," the huntee said. "We've got to keep going."

"I've got a ship nearby," the Doctor said. "It's safe. It's not far, it's over there."

"You've got a TARDIS?!" Tink asked excitedly. They loved working on a TARDIS, maybe they could ask the Doctor if they could work on it a bit.

"Yes, I do, and you're not allowed to touch it."

"Says who?" Tink asked.

He ignored them.

Tink stuck their tongue out at him, tuning out the rest of the conversation.

Tink sighed, looking down at their hand glowing gold.

Well, no point holding it in any longer.

"Doctor?" they asked.

"What, Tink?"

"I'm going to regenerate now," they explained calmly, as if they were commenting on the weather.

"What!?" he exclaimed, whipping his head towards them.

But it was too late.

Tink tilted their head back. Golden energy flowed from their hands and face.

They felt their body get taller, as well as their body change shape.

They collapsed to the ground as the change finished, much to the shock of the others.

"Ah, that was unpleasant."

The others were staring at them.

"What, you've never seen a regeneration before?" Tink asked.

"Tink, look down."

Tink looked down at their chest, only to see a faint golden glow still there.

"Ooh, pretty!" they said in awe.

And with a blink of an eye, Tink was gone.

~0~0~0~

Tink was confused. One second they were at the end of the universe, the next they were in a TARDIS.

A TARDIS that was happy to see them, given by the excited humming it was doing.

Tink touched the console gently. "Hello little one."

The TARDIS hummed sweetly.

"Hello, Tink."

Tink turned around to see a dark-skinned man wearing a purple suit watching them.

"Hello!" Tink greeted with a wave. "I'm going into a healing coma now."

And with that, Tink passed out.

~0~0~0~

Tink opened their eyes, taking in their surroundings as they did.

This room was strange. It had pieces of machinery laying about, as well as various projects in different stages of completion.

Tink stood up slowly, and walked to the door, opening it.

They needed to find a kitchen.

~0~0~0~

They had found a kitchen, and had taken to ransacking it.

They were starving!

But they couldn't decide what to eat.

They spotted a bag of sour cream and onion crisps, along with a bottle of chocolate sauce.

That would do.

~0~0~0~

After their stop in the kitchen, they set out to search for the wardrobe.

They needed something other than the overalls.

They passed a mirror and stopped to inspect their new appearance.

They had shaggy black hair now, along with green eyes. Their face was more of a man's now, instead of the female appearing one they had last time.

They sort of looked like that one character from that one book/movie series, the one about the wizard boy.

That was a good series, maybe they should watch the movies again.

They were getting sidetracked, they needed to find the wardrobe.

~0~0~0~

After finding an outfit, a patchwork suit jacket along with green slacks and a top hat, they walked back to the console room.

TARDISes were calming for them, they had always made the madness less extreme, especially since the Untempered Schism.

Upon walking into the console room, Tink spotted a bunch of things that needed fixing.

They rolled up the sleeves of their jacket.

Time to get to work.

~0~0~0~

"I'd thought I'd find you here."

Tink looked up from what they were fixing on the top of the console. It was the man from earlier, the one with the purple suit.

"Hello… whatever your name is."

The man chuckled. "I see it's very early for you."

Tink nodded. "I absorbed the heart of the TARDIS less than a day ago, I think." They tilted their head. "Or maybe it was more than a day ago? My sense of time is still a bit weird."

The stranger nodded. "It seems introductions need to be made. You may call me the Master."

Tink nodded. "The Tinkerer."

"I know," the Master said with a laugh that sounded a bit more manic than a normal person's laugh should be.

Tink rather liked it.

"So I jump around your timeline, then?" Tink asked, going back to their work on the console.

"Yes, you do, much to my displeasure." His words said one thing, but the look on his face said another when they lifted their head back up.

Ugh, mixed signals. They hated those.

They scrunched their nose at that thought, before turning their focus back on the TARDIS.

They were probably a bit too accepting of the situation, but they had never been a worrier. They preferred to face things head on.

C'est la vie, they believed the Earth saying was… or was it no use crying over spilled milk? They were always mixing those two up.

They felt a weird sensation in their chest. They looked down to see their chest glowing gold like it did after they regenerated.

"Looks like our time is up, Tink," the Master said, as they looked up to see his face briefly flashing with something that looked like… was that sadness? They never were good with telling other people's emotions, let alone their own. It seems like that trait stuck with them in this new body of theirs.

"It was nice meeting you," Tink said, a smile on their face, which the Master returned.

And with those parting words, they disappeared in a flash of light.


Notes on reviews:

PowerHero432: I'm glad you like the concept!