Seaton Bay, Earth, 1979
"It's so weird, I'll tell you that." Nardole said before popping a chip into his mouth.
"Is it? Sounds like a normal day to me." The Doctor said, holding a chip in one hand, inspecting the chip closely.
"How?"
"Earth gets invaded everyday. It's just that nobody really notice it happening."
"And you said it like you don't care Earth gets invaded." Nardole said while twirling a chip in his hand.
"I do. It's just that the threats are less threatening these days. Even the rich people from the government has more threat than some aliens that kidnap people by calling their phones."
"Oi! I feel offended by that! How would you feel if my species decides to invade Earth?"
"You lot seem like the good type of alien I rarely see. It would be a good start."
Nardole sighed to himself. He shrugged it off, taking the Doctor's statement like it was a fact. He looked at his chips and popped another one into his mouth before turning back towards the Doctor.
"Are we still heading off somewhere?"
The Doctor looked towards his bald companion. He thought for a bit before giving his answer.
"Of course. Probably. What's wrong with going somewhere?"
Nardole shrugged. The Doctor raised his eyebrows towards him. Nardole pointed a finger towards him.
"I mean, you look like you have important stuff to take care of."
The Doctor solemnly nodded, agreeing with Nardole's statement. He popped another chip into his mouth before continuing to talk.
"I do, as a matter of fact. I do have something to take care of. But now's not the time for it. Yet."
Nardole didn't have any issue at first, but the addition of the word, 'Yet', made him look towards the Doctor with a confused look on his face.
"What do you mean by that?"
"We still have invasions going on. The universe still needs savings."
"See, this is a problem. You've saved the universe too many times. Earth, especially. Why not take a break?"
"Invaders don't wait to invade. The moment they see one small weakness within this place we call universe, they will strike. Not once in my life I will stop saving it."
"Still not good enough for an excuse. You have to do something else, at least. You know, do stuff like-"
"Travelling?"
Nardole looked back and forth between the Doctor and the glorious sea that waved around before them, doing a double take.
"... Aren't we travelling now?"
The Doctor thought about it. Nardole had a point. They were at Seaton Bay in the 70's. That could be considered travelling, right?
"...We are. Which is a good thing, in a way. The chips here are the best. They still are."
"Yeah. I agree with you. I mean, I can't even believe you like chips."
The Doctor stopped eating to look at Nardole. He couldn't deny it. He's an alien from another planet. Why would he eat human food?
Then again, the Doctor knew it himself he was always a kind-of-carefree type of alien who wouldn't mind anything about eating human food.
"Nardole, I'm a Time Lord who ran away from my own birthplace. Who's there to say I shouldn't be eating human food?"
"A lot of people, I assume."
"That's not wrong, in a sense."
"How'd you find this place anyway?"
"Hmm? Ah. I travel a lot-"
"Obviously."
"-back when I stole the TARDIS. In fact, I've traveled to places that have never been reached by mankind before. And then, I got here. I can't remember how or why, but I vaguely remember ordering their chips."
Nardole just nodded at him before doing a double take at his last few sentences.
"You? Ordering their chips?"
"Yeah. Unbelievably true. But there's a lot of other reasons why I come here every now and then. In fact, just a few months ago I popped back here with someone else."
"Someone else?"
"A rock star from the Twist, to be exact. Hattie was her name. She was a part of one of the biggest bands in the universe."
"A band from the Twist?"
"Yeah, the Twist. You okay? You seemed to know something about them."
"Nah, I don't, actually. Back on Dellora, I heard on the news that a member of a band was dating a mysterious someone who just seemed to appear out of nowhere. An old man, to be exact."
Nardole turned towards the Doctor, sniggering ever so slightly to himself.
"Can't believe it was you."
The Doctor gave a small smile. Nardole smiled as well. The Dellora native turned back towards his cone to see if there were still chips inside. He internally whimpered when his cone was empty of any chip. Sighing, he looked back at the Doctor.
"Are we done here?"
"What do you mean?"
"I've finished my chips. What about yours?" Nardole then showed his empty cone towards the Doctor, who was already at his last piece of chip. The Doctor reached in his cone to get more but found none. Finding none, he sighed.
"I've... also finished my chips."
The Doctor then took Nardole's cone and crumpled it alongside his before throwing it into a nearby trash bin. The Doctor and Nardole sat there for a few more while, staring at the sunset that was happening before their eyes. The Doctor then suddenly stood up.
"Time to go back to the TARDIS, then." The Doctor then started walking away, but Nardole then cut him off amidst his walking.
"And then what?" Hearing Nardole's words, the Doctor turned his head towards him.
"I'm sorry?"
"We go back to the TARDIS, and then what?"
The Doctor looked baffled with Nardole's reaction.
"What's wrong with going back to the TARDIS?"
Nardole then stood up as well, walking towards the Doctor.
"What's wrong is that you need a break. A break from all of this traveling nonsense. You'll wear yourself out before you know it."
"I always wear myself out. And it's not even my choice to be worn out."
"So take a break. Find a place so you can rest your mind and body."
The Doctor sighed. He knew Nardole was one-of-a-kind companion that rarely show up in his life, so listening to him might be the best choice.
"Fine." The Doctor said. Nardole gave a small smile.
"Thank you."
They then walked back towards the TARDIS without saying anymore words. When they got inside, the Doctor went to the console and pulled a lever.
"Let fate decides where we go next."
"What?"
"I activated the random-coordinate-switch thingy. Where will we end up? I don't know."
"Can't you just put in a coordinate of a place you know about?"
"Now that would spoil all the fun, right? Where's the spirit in going to places we already knew about?"
The Doctor then pulled the throttle, shifting the TARDIS into gears.
VWORP! VWORP! VWORP!
The TARDIS then de-materialized, disappearing away from everyone's view.
The Doctor went upstairs towards his bookshelf to find something to read, while Nardole went downstairs towards the workshop to see if he could do anything while waiting for the TARDIS to land.
Nardole looked around the workshop and couldn't find anything that seemed interesting. All he found a box of junks, sprays and a box of faulty equipment...
...wait, what?
Nardole went closer to an oddly-sized box that says 'fix these later' on its side in a very crude font. He opened the box and found all sorts of equipment that seemed to had not been used in a very long while. He picked up one of the equipment to take a closer look.
"A watch?"
Nardole looked at the seemingly normal watch in his hand. He didn't know why but the watch was the only thing that seemed to be from planet Earth, while the other things that were contained inside the box looked like they had been invented by the Doctor himself.
Curious, he strapped the watch on his wrist. At first, he thought it looked cool.
"Cool. A nice ol' watch."
He then went to graze a finger towards the rim of the watch. In the process, he accidentally twisted the rim and soon, he was no longer there.
Not in the way that he disappeared into other dimension, because that would be absurd and odd. He was no longer there in the sense that he became invisible.
Nardole didn't know what came over him when he turned himself invisible, but he started to freak out, pulling away at the harmless invisible wristwatch.
A few while later, he finally got the watch off, but he then realized something.
"That's weird, I was already visible before I even took it off."
"That must be why that watch isn't functioning properly, then."
The Doctor's sudden voice caused Nardole to shriek out loud, almost dropping the wristwatch in the process.
"Come on, Nardole. Give me the watch."
"Uh, wha-"
The Doctor then swiftly snatched the watch from Nardole's hand and put it on the workbench. He then took a few tools out and placed them at the watch's side, ready to work on it.
However, before he did so, he turned towards Nardole.
"Nardole, look after the console, will you? I fear we might a bit slow today."
Nardole didn't say anything. He just turned around and went back upstairs while the Doctor worked on the invis-watch.
He sat down on the chair, wondering what should he do while watching over the console.
Amidst his thought, he heard a small beeping sound coming from the monitor. He tried turned towards the screen without leaving the chair, but the screen was turned away from him at the moment.
He groaned before getting up and going to the screen to see whatever was causing the small beeping noise.
"What's wrong, you..."
Nardole then looked at the words that had appeared on the screen, blinking every few seconds. He squinted his eyes.
"Entering another universe? What?"
Confused, he went downstairs to get the Doctor. As he reached downstairs, he couldn't find the Doctor anywhere at the workbench.
"Doctor?"
"What is it?"
The Doctor then suddenly appeared back into existence. Nardole stumbled a steps backwards, surprised by his sudden reappearance. It seemed like he had been toying around with his watch.
"What is it, Nardole?"
"Ah, yes. Can the TARDIS enter another universe?"
"Another universe? Like a parallel universe, you mean? If that's the case, then yes it can."
"Huh."
VWORP! VWORP! VWORP!
"Oh! Good timing as well! Nardole, here." The Doctor threw the wristwatch towards Nardole, who managed to catch it before it hit the ground.
"Put it on. You'll be the escape plan."
"Escape plan?"
"In case someone recognizes or probably even knows about us, you will need to come back to the TARDIS and fetch me. Copy?"
"That's the plan, then?"
"Well, not really like that. Yet. We'll have a walk first, of course! If anything happens while we're taking a walk, that's when the escape plan; you, do the things I told you a few seconds earlier."
"Okay then. Got it." Nardole then strapped the wristwatch onto his wrist.
The Doctor the walked towards the door, putting his hand on the doorknob.
"Get ready, Nardole. It's time for you to see how a parallel universe is like."
He proceeded to open the door, leading the way into a new adventure.
I just swear you guys can see the TF2 reference that I didn't even try to hide!
Hey there, guys!
I told you I'm gonna work on this story in a better cycle since the story is now set up better than I expected.
About upcoming chapters, don't worry about it. I'll try to get one more chapter out in the span of the next two weeks.
See you later!
...
A/N: I don't have one yet. Not now.