Putting some A/N first since this is a super long chapter thing- ok, welcome to the very first episode/chapter of Running is a Victory, my Doctor Who fanfic. You probably came here from tumblr. As you might be able to guess, the Doctor here is either number thirteen or fourteen, but that's not super important. What's important is that I'll try to update this fic with a new episode on alternate Saturdays, and it was basically inspired by me thinking about how the diversity of characters has gone down... basically since Moffat took charge of the show. Also for the record, it's the person that I dislike, not so much the writing.
Enjoy!
The boy opened the door to his flat. "Mom? I'm back!"
"That's great, Alex..." echoed a voice from the kitchen. "You want to come in here and mix the cake batter?"
"All right, here I come!" Alex called, dumping his backpack onto a chair. He wasn't quite tall enough to reach the bowl of cake batter, so he picked it up and sat on the floor to stir. "We got our essays graded today," he said. His mother's attention was diverted, focused on salt and eggs and flour. "That's nice, honey."
"I got an A."
"Oh, that's nice." she said, her hands still dancing between the cabinets. Suddenly, Alex whimpered and held his hands to his head. "Mom, I don't feel too good- can I go upstairs?"
"Sure, just be sure and get the rest of your homework done."
Holding his head, Alex Timeus sprinted through the dining room into the bathroom. It was happening again- his vision blurred and interlocking circles swirled across his vision. When he looked up through the haze, his pupils were burning silver.
THE STAR DRAGONS
(written by Gakorogirl)
The Doctor needed something to eat, and soon. Why did regenerating always make her hungry? She'd checked her reflection a few minutes before- still not ginger. But a girl, and that was new too. And curly dark hair that was almost as nice as River's had been, and all the right fingers and toes and two eyes and skin a little lighter than her hair. "I can't keep wearing the suit- it's far too big." she muttered, flapping the loose sleeves as she headed for the vast TARDIS wardrobe. What sort of clothes did she have in here, anyway? It had been years since she'd really looked into the wardrobe. Fez?
"No way."
Plain white button-down shirt. Bomber jacket. Not jeans, something else. And did the jeans even have pockets? Cargo pants, maybe? Boots. High boots that laced up. Good. She reached into the pockets of the old suit jacket and started swapping them into her new pockets. As she picked it up, the psychic paper fell open- and something began to appear. Letters of Gallifreyan, swirling across the page. Doctor. Doctor.
Dragons in the stars. And- spacetime coordinates. Perfect ones.
Food would have to wait. The Doctor ran back into the control room, rapidly flicking switches and dialing in numbers.
Natalie Timeus opened the door to some very persistent knocking. She'd been just about to frost Alex's cake- he'd had enough trouble this week, getting sick so often. And to top it off they hadn't had enough money to go to his favorite restaurant for his birthday. "Yes?" she said, trying to keep the edge out of her voice. There was a small, cheerful-looking, and rather sloppily dressed woman probably a few years younger than she was standing on the doorstep holding- a glowing metal thing. "Are you selling something?" Natalie asked, just as the other woman, beaming, announced, "Hello there! I'm the Doctor."
"I didn't ask for a doctor."
"Do you have a child?" the other woman said cheerfully.
"Yes, Alex, but he's- he's perfectly all right," Natalie said as she stepped in front of the doctor woman to keep her from walking right into the house. "And you can't come in, I don't even know what your name is!"
"I told you already- it's the Doctor."
"...and?"
"Just that. The Doctor." That wasn't the most suspicious thing Natalie had ever heard, but it didn't sound like a name at all. "Natalie Timeus," she said cautiously. Behind her, Alex screamed.
Whipping around, Natalie ran into Alex's room. She was vaguely aware of the Doctor right on her heels, but ignored her. Alex was sitting up in bed with his fingers laced tightly over his eyes as he rocked back and forth, slowly whimpering words.
"Doctor. Doctor."
"You need medicine?" Natalie asked anxiously.
"NO. Doctor. Dragons. He-e-elp!" "Do something!" Natalie shouted, turning on the Doctor. The Doctor ruffled her hair and sat down on the corner of the bed. "Alex? Alex, can you hear me?" Alex, still whimpering, slowly unknitted his fingers and lowered his hands to reveal wild, silver eyes. "Dragons in the stars. Help."
"Okay then, not Alex. The thing inside Alex, the thing that's starting to come through. This is the Doctor, what do you want? And, Alex, if you can hear me try and relax." "You are not the Doctor," a harsh voice whispered. "Yes I am. What're you going to do, request a new one?"
"I am the spirit of one of the star dragons. Our pod has been besieged and we needed to find help quickly. I volunteered to give up my body and travel to find the Doctor. Many on this world hold the memory of you. I brushed the mind of one woman whose memories were locked away."
"Is she all right?" the Doctor asked, narrowing her eyes.
"Yes. I did not disturb the memories. You must help us, Doctor. I can use the body of the child to give you the spacetime coordinates for our pod."
"You said you were under attack, what's attacking you? What could have a chance against a pod of star dragons?"
"We carry in our chests our power source, the star core." "Yes, I know that. The power of a miniature, living star, inside the heart of a dragon. Very poetic."
"And you also know that if enough cores were... extracted, and fused together, it would produce a controlled explosion strong enough to destroy a planet?"
"That... I was not aware of. So, what's trying to get the cores, and how could it?"
"The Daleks, Doctor. The Daleks are coming for the star cores. We have our defenses, but they have nearly been breached. I do not know what you could do to help, but if the Daleks gather the cores of my whole pod then they will have the power to destroy many planets, or if they have already destroyed other pods, to summon the power of a controlled black hole."
"And this day just keeps getting better and better," the Doctor grumbled as Alex's body began to shake again. "What are the coordinates?"
Alex's small hand fumbled for a pen lying next to his bed, and a scrap of paper. As the Doctor watched intently, he scribbled a set of coordinates on the paper and dropped it, falling back onto the mattress. Natalie picked it up and handed it to the Doctor, who tucked it into a pocket of her jacket. "What- what happened to Alex? That wasn't his normal voice. Here, let me get you something to eat. Or some tea?"
"That would be great. You have any chocolate? Or something with loads of sugar in it, I need that. New face, and it makes everything work funny right after I change."
"What?"
"Nothing. There's something inside your son's mind- it's not aggressive, and it'll leave soon. But it's alien, and he'll be very shaken up after it leaves."
"What?" "Look, this is out of your range of experience, but Alex isn't going to be himself for a few days even after the star dragon moves on. Thank you, perfect." the Doctor added, taking a large bite out of the chocolate bar she was handed. "I've got the coordinates now, let me just get that dragon out of Alex's brain and I'll be out of your way."
Leaning forwards, the Doctor rested her forehead on the top of Alex's head. "Star dragon? I've got the coordinates, you're going to have to leave now."
"My energy will disperse and I will move on if I go. I wish to see if our pod is saved. I will stay at the back of the human's mind.
"No. You're going to hurt him if you stay in there any longer." Closing her eyes, she pushed on the essence of the star dragon. "I promise you that I will save your pod, but you have to leave his mind. It's not built for something as big as you."
"I will leave," the star dragon murmured softly. The presence of it that the Doctor could feel dissolved, and when Alex blinked again his eyes were green, not star-silver.
Natalie realized that the Doctor was standing up and getting ready to leave, fishing around for the coordinates. "You can't leave yet!"
"Why not?"
"Because- because you can't just go off without any explanation, something just took over my son!"
"I got it to leave, your son should be fine. I've got to run now, sorry-"
"I want to come," Alex said from the bed. "I saw you through its eyes. I talked to it for a little while. It said you were a leaf in the wind, that you can travel through time? And you help people. I want to come with you."
The Doctor hesitated, tugging on a coil of hair. It really was very soft, but it got in her eyes. She'd have to tie it back at some point. "I suppose you can come, but you'll have to be careful-"
"He can't just leave with you," Natalie snarled. "At the very least, I'm coming too."
Just perfect, that the two people getting involved in this were the kind of people who wouldn't just push something to the backs of their heads and be done with it. "All right," the Doctor said. "This way." She walked out of the flat, then doubled back to get the rest of her chocolate bar. "I should be eating something more healthy but I've got the rest of my life to do that- and that's a few hundred years at least."
"What?" They were almost down the stairs, and the Doctor made a sharp turn to the left and onto the street. "I'm not from Earth, I'm a time-travelling alien with two hearts. That answer your question?"
"That's brilliant!" Alex gasped. "What planet are you from? Can we go there? How many parsecs away is it?"
"Uh. Gallifrey. But- it's not there anymore."
"Oh. Sorry."
The TARDIS was right ahead. "Is that an old... phone booth?" Natalie asked.
"Sort of, yes." The Doctor always loved it when people first saw the interior, and she might have flung open the doors with a little too much flair- the TARDIS whirred disapprovingly as she entered.
"Sorry." she muttered up at the ceiling. Maybe I should've just snapped.
"This is brilliant!" Alex gasped. Natalie was too busy gaping at the control room. "How- how does it work?"
The Doctor was already at the console, programming in the coordinates. "Alex, come over here? Grab that lever- no, the one next to it- and slide it sideways?" Alex slid the lever. "All the way?"
"Just two steps."
"Got it!" The TARDIS rattled and hummed as they launched into the vortex. "Natalie, could you hold that button down? The green one."
Looking at it nervously, Natalie placed a finger on the button and held it down. The TARDIS stabilized rapidly. "And let go of it, there," the Doctor said. "We should be at the coordinates about now- I'm extending the oxygen bubble. Anyone want to look outside?"
"I will!" Alex said, running over to the doors. "So I can just open them?"
"Go ahead."
"Whoa."
The TARDIS was floating in a vast expanse of space, and Alex could see more stars than he ever had in his life. Probably every night put together wouldn't make this many stars. "It looks like liquid glitter," he said to the Doctor.
"Brilliant, right?" she answered. "See the star dragons?"
They were bigger than anything he'd ever imagined- bigger than the creature that had hatched from the moon, even. It took him a few minutes to process how huge they were, indigo and silver rivers creeping across the sky. One turned, slowly drifting towards them. Its chest glowed brilliant white-yellow, too bright to stare at. "Is it going to run over us?" Alex asked, suddenly worried.
"Nope. It can sense the energy in the TARDIS."
The star dragon's voice rumbled in all of their heads. Are you the Doctor?
The Doctor closed her eyes, her forehead wrinkling. "How should we talk to it?" Alex's mother asked. "I've already told it." replied the Doctor, opening her eyes.
Doctor, the star dragon said, the Daleks are coming- they broke through our energy shields. They will be here in around thirty minutes.
Aaand that's a wrap! If you've read this far I'm honestly proud of you. I know not too much happened in this chapter, the next one'll be lots more exciting. I should be able to publish it sooner, since it's the next bit of a two-part.
Suggestions for companions and episodes are totally welcome, as are reviews!