Chapter 4

Sara was awakened by the sound of the TARDIS materializing outside. She lived in the apartment over the stables and could see down into the pasture and exercise arena. She walked to her bedroom window and found a foot of snow had fallen since she'd climbed into bed, which only made the blue telephone box with its red light on top stand out more. Sara dressed and hurried down to the TARDIS. The door opened and she walked into an empty control room.

"Tara, what are you doing here? There wasn't a postcard. What's happening?"

TARDIS appeared. The hologram was crying and twitched in and out, almost like she was trembling. She looked terrified, an expression that was uncommon for her. "I don't know! We went to London to help a friend of Clara's." Her crying increased with each word. "They were looking for a street that didn't exist and then I lost them. Both of them! And now I don't know what to do, and—"

"Okay, okay. First, Tara, stop talking and collect yourself. Then, you need to move. If someone sees you in the middle of the pasture that will cause more problems."

"I moved us to the Alps when you entered."

"Good. Now, explain to me what you mean by you lost them both."

"I can sense my doctor, Sara. I know where he is at all times, no matter where he is in time, I know. I can always find him. But not this time. This time he's disappeared. I cannot sense him anywhere in time or space. It is as if he's vanished or… Or he's died. But he cannot die. He regenerates. But I can sense him even when he's regenerating! I have… I've lost him, Sara. I've lost my Doctor!"

"Okay." Sara walked up to TARDIS and patted the air that was the hologram's shoulder. "We'll sort this out. We will. Can you find Clara?"

"That has become even stranger. After they disappeared, I found her obituary, and then—"

"Clara is dead?"

"She's supposed to be, but then I find reports and mentions of a Clara Oswald across time nearly two million years later. This doesn't make any sense, Sara. I think he has done something very terrible."

"Hasn't he done something terrible before? What about that time you told me—"

"I have never lost him and then only found information about his companion, especially dying and then showing up two million years later. And then there's Gallifrey."

"Galla… Who?"

"What. It's a what. It's the Doctor's home world."

"What of it?"

"It has suddenly appeared in time. Two million years later."

"S this Galla… Galla…"

"Gallifrey."

"It sounds like it's a planet."

"It is."

"And it was missing before?"

"It was hidden."

"And two million years from now it reappears?"

"Yes."

"How does a planet disappear or reappear?"

"You're talking about Time Lords, remember?" TARDIS snapped.

Sara nodded slowly. "I'm trying to follow along here, Tara. I know you're scared, but please don't take it out on me."

"I'm sorry."

"Okay. So this disappeared planet reappeared. What of it?"

"It's irrelevant right now. The relevant matter is that it reappears two millions years after the Doctor disappeared, at the same time Clara suddenly reappears. Sara, I know you don't like adventures or peril but I'm scared, Sara. Please go with me. Please help me find him. I have to find my Doctor!"

"Then we'd better get moving."

TARDIS smiled, starting to cry again. "You'll really help me? It might be dangerous or perilous. I don't know."

"I'll bend my rule this one time. Deal?"

"Thank you." The hologram hugged her, in a hologram sense.

"You're welcome. Now, let's start with the last place you last recalled having your Doctor."

TARDIS smiled and laughed a little. "Like a pair of glasses."

"In his case, sunglasses."

TARDIS nodded. "Here. This was the last place. I heard them say they found the hidden street." The door opened.

Sara looked at the door. "I do hate peril." She looked back at TARDIS. "You do understand how dear you are to me if I'm doing this, don't you?"

TARDIS laid a hologram hand against Sara's. "More than you know, Sara. Thank you so much."

Sara nodded and set out to find the answers TARDIS needed. Answers that led her to a perilous meeting with Ashildr, running away from The General on Gallifrey, a tense meeting with the Sisterhood of Karn, to an empty chair with the universe on the verge of collapse, and finally to…

#

Clara left a shiny new TARDIS to Sara outside. She waited next to the old blue TARDIS, one hand resting on the corner like she was trying to reassure the sentient being that was the TARDIS. Around them the Nevada desert stretched for miles. The dry hot land looked silent, but in reality there were bugs making noise, shrill birds singing, and the sound of a light breeze rustling dried plants and leaves. This land was as alive as any other place on Earth.

The sun seemed brighter here and Clara noticed that Sara's hair looked more red and her skin was paler with a denser splattering of freckles. She wasn't 'Sara, plain and tall,' as the eleventh incarnation of The Doctor lovingly referred to her. Here in the desert she was a beauty that the woods of New York and the low light inside the TARDIS hid. Or, perhaps, everything appeared more beautiful when a person was caught in the second between living and dying.

"Thank you for bringing her here," Clara said.

Sara nodded. "Tara is very scared and worried. She couldn't find him. Why did he suddenly appear? Why was she suddenly able to find him?"

"It's probably best you don't know. TARDIS, I need you stay here while I take Sara home. I'll be back in a flash with him and you two can leave."

The hologram of Clara appeared. "How fast is a flash?"

"Oh…" Clara hadn't seen the hologram for so long that she'd forgotten TARDIS wore her face. "TARDIS, you have to change your appearance. You can't look like me anymore. He doesn't remember me and he never can."

"What has happened? Why can't he remember you?" TARDIS asked.

"It's better if we leave it that. Change your appearance before he sees your graphic interface again."

"That's not ominous," Sara sarcastically shot.

"If you want I will explain it to you after we leave but TARDIS must now know anything. She cannot give him his memories back."

Sara looked from one to the other, trying to decide if she really wanted to know. TARDIS' sad expression was what finally helped her decide. "No. I don't want to have to lie to Tara. If I don't know, there will be no secrets between us."

TARIDS almost smiled.

Clara nodded. "Come on." Clara went back into the new TARDIS.

Sara turned to TARDIS. "Can you change your face now? So I'll know it when I see you again?"

The TARDIS appearance changed instantly. She was now raven haired, with black eyes. A strange tattoo ran down her neck and right arm, and she wore red leather.

"That is an interesting choice."

"Too much?"

"If you like it, then no."

"I think I do."

"Then it's settled. I shall see you sooner than later, aye?"

"Aye."

Sara went into the new TARDIS and it disappeared. The hologram of TARDIS stood for a while, staring across the desert. She looked lost. She was without her Doctor, a companion, or her best friend.